Portals: Beyond The Pail (Book 5 In The Portals Series)

Chapters

Chapter One: No Rest
Chapter Two: Forgiveness
Chapter Three: Peculiar Love
Chapter Four: Everypony Has A Breaking Point
Prologue
Chapter Five: Something Nopony Should Say

Chapter One: No Rest

Kevin ran out of Sugarcube Corner and put his hooves on his head. He could almost already feel the ground shaking beneath his four legs. It wasn’t shaking, though. His stomach felt as though it wasn’t there. It was, though. No matter what he did, this monster was going to make its entrance to this world through the gates of Tartarus or through means of tearing a hole into the delicate fabric of the ground everypony walked on. Either way, it seemed unlikely anypony could stop him from taking dominion over this land. Last time, not even Celestia could do it, not Luna, or Cadence. Not even Kevin had gotten rid of the beast. Last time, they were doomed.

But last time, they didn’t have Twilight. They had no complete trustful mare to guard all of Equestria.

Last time, Kevin was a surprising new addition to Equestria.

Last time, Bellus hadn’t spent an extra three months in Tartarus absorbing dark energy.

Now, looking on all of the advantages and disadvantages, They have: no ponies that Bellus doesn’t know about to stop him, no distractions, no Blizzard Blast to count as a noble warrior against him.

Bellus also had obviously gained experience from last trial and had learned what not to do this time around and had gained in magic powers by absorbing more of the hate from Tartarus.

Kevin’s thoughts rushed through his mind like an arrow successfully going through the front and back end of a ripe lemon.

Equestria was no more.

It was now time for Kevin to either plan for a defensive position and try to hold off the attack, or to go home and spend the short remainder of his free life with Fluttershy. He had a choice.

Blast looked back to see if the explosion resulting from his bomb had the potential to harm him, but found himself being burned as he looked. The flames erupted from the burning complex of rooms and singed his tail. Blast ran for the portal entrance, and tried casting his spell, getting it to return to the present day in Ponyville. The spell took energy, though. It took energy that he just didn’t have.

Seconds before the wave of flames hit the stallion’s sides, Blast stopped at the entrance, caught his breath a bit, cast the spell and jumped into the frame of the portal. His tail became more singed and, his flank was partially burnt from the sheer heat of the explosion. The flames licked him as he darted past the entrance.

Blast was too out of breath to check the portal for anything unusual. He gave himself another moment to continue catching his breath before looking back and seeing numerous tendrils of flames passing through the shimmering portal and the flame died down, each time leaving a small crack in the surface of the portal’s screen. The weird passage between dimensions cracked as if it were made of glass. The heat expanded the portal to the point that it deformed and cracked.

Blast looked back into the world he was now part of. Once again, he was home.

Kevin ran to outside. If Kevin stood a chance at fighting, he had to try. The chances were, if he were to fall in battle, he would never get the chance to embrace Fluttershy once more before falling into his eternal sleep. It mattered to him that he would see her, but if he didn’t, did Equestria stand the same chance against the beast?

But he’d have to go. Equestria depended on him. If it fell, he’d never see her again. He had to fight.

“Blast!” came the voice of Derpy, startling the blue unicorn as he looked at the cracking screen, “Hey, Bellus is coming back, I’ve been sent to warn everypony, you have to leave or fight.” Derpy paused for a moment before continuing. “Haven’t you been gone for a while?”

It had been a while, and Blast was left with one plan.

He backed into the portal.

“This ends now,” Blast said, “again.”

Kevin looked at the ground to find it shaking. His stomach grumbled as he saw past that simply shouldn’t have happened and an unavoidable future that was too much worse than that past.

And then it all stopped. It all moved in slow motion as he was quickly drawn into the air, hooves first, hanging upside-down. He could see Sugarcube Corner becoming mashed into the scenery. He could see all of Equestria becoming mashed into nothing more than a small piece of cratered land. There was nothing left of it and then it came back.

A beast drew himself out of the midst and walked along the rows of captured ponies, shaking the shingles off the houses as he did so, pressing his full weight into the earth.

Bellus, being what he is, has somehow influenced Kevin’s thoughts so that he saw only the most terrible things.

Kevin looked around to confirm everything was the way it was. The buildings all stood where they were supposed to. However everypony had been lifted off the ground and were suspended in air around each other. It was the perfect prison. Nopony can run away or fly away when there was absolutely nothing binding them to the earth.

“Kevin!” came a scream from behind Kevin. Pain made its way into the voice along with a longingness for help and comfort.

Kevin was scared of what he would receive as he replied “Fluttershy?!”

Bellus stormed over the ground. His face was full of hate, his feet hit the ground, leaving footprints the size of the sugarcube corner. Tartarus had made him stronger and much, much angrier.

“Where is Twilight?” Asked the behemoth, trying to sound slightly, as though hiding his anger obviously for a strong immediate cursing.

“I have her in the air somewhere, I can sense it, but she’s not showing herself. Now if anypony would please tell me where she was last seen so that I can find her, that would be… Amazing!”

Kevin ignored the words. He tried to swim like a fish over to Fluttershy. She was in her cottage when Bellus “raptured” her.

“Help, Kevin!” She screamed in her “assertive voice.” She sounded hurt. A shrill pitch mixed its way into her voice as if her words were shedding their own tears.

As Kevin moved towards her, he could make out the appearance of her squirming legs. Each one flailed in worry - except for one, which bendt to the side: one way a pony’s leg was never meant to bend.

Her face molded into an expression of grief and her lips trembled in pain. Her eyes filled with tears that needed no help falling freely to the ground.

“NOW!” shouted Bellus. “Bring her out, NOW!”

Author's Note

Alternate ending by PL4SMOD1UM

Chapter Two: Forgiveness

Kevin stared at the leg of the beautiful mare in front of him. It was very apparent that it was broken and he had no idea how he was going to live with himself knowing that this had happened, especially if Bellus were to end civilization in Equestria here and now.

Kevin’s eyes fill with tears as the mare shook with fear. How could he forgive himself? How could this get worse?

“Bellus!” came the voice of Twilight, “I’m right here!”

Twilight showed herself to the beast, though clearly distracted by something else. There almost appeared to be a smile on her face as she showed herself to the monstrous being.

Bellus turned his head and squinted at Twilight. “Why...?”

“Why am I smiling? Oh, simple. It’s because I know something you don’t. Turn around.” The mare shouted very sternly at the beast, “You won’t be needing me.”

Bellus knew it would be unwise to turn around. It was unlikely that it would be something good for him. Most possibly as soon as he turned around, there would be some big cannonball being fired right into his face where he has just barely turned in time to catch it before taking taking his head clean off his shoulders.

However, fate would hit him if he were to turn around or not, so why bother not knowing?

Bellus’ head finally turned back towards the large lane of ponies he had created. There were ponies hurt and ponies sick all along the path. There were tears and there was blood and before it all stood the only one he cared about.

Tears streamed from the golden coat below her blue eyes. Her mane rattled against her precious head as it entered the breeze. Her head sunk down to her elbows.

Blast stood at her side, staring up at the creature of destruction.

“Bellus?” rang the voice of Sunset Shimmer.

Master had returned.

“Shimmer?”

Sunset nodded.

“I-I...I spent years in Tartarus. They had nowhere else to put me…”

Sunset nodded.

“I spent YEARS in there! Because of you! You went rogue!”

“I know... I’m sorry.” Sunset continued crying, “I’m so sorry. I never knew…”

Bellus couldn’t stand those eyes. They were her eyes. They were the eyes of the mare that loved him and would never let him go.

He had let those pearly eyes down. He had disappointed the one and only he had ever loved on any friendly level. He had let go of his everything.

“It’s revenge on me that you want. I betrayed you,” said Sunset, calmly, “don’t take it out on them.”

“I’m… Sorry,” cried Bellus, “I’m so sorry,”

“I don’t blame you,” said Blast, “You were cast away for some time, but I SWEAR TO TARTARUS, IF YOU TAKE A CLIPPING OFF TWILIGHT’S WINGS, I’LL…”

“Right here!” Twilight called, waving a hoof.

“I’m in the middle of a monologue!” called Blast over to Twilight. He then continued after clearing his throat, “I will bury you alive in the Tartarus cage you hate so much!” His gaze hardened and the Blizzard State flickered in his eyes. His words tore through the stale brittle air. “Mark my words, demon. While I stand, no harm - got that NOT ONE FEATHER ON TWILIGHT WILL SUFFER YOUR PITIFUL -”

Sunset cheered up at the light “chewing-out.”

“So, how do I look normal again?” Kevin heard the words come from the large beast.

“That’s simple, I can doctor you. We’ll just use magic energy to cancel each others to the point that we both run out.”

A doctor. Fluttershy needed a doctor.

“Hang on, I’ll get help,” Kevin waved at Fluttershy.

Kevin moved his way slowly through the large audience of ponies trying to find somepony trained in the medical field. None came to be. He sooner reached the center of the great mob where ponies were bunched up against each other, staring at the scene of the three magical creatures: Blast, Bellus and Sunset.

“Hello?” cried Kevin, “Is there…?”

The crowd answered by starting away from the scene. Everypony around Kevin started moving back, as if trying to get away from him.

“Hello? Is anypony here a doctor?”

“So this will use up all of each of our magic?” asked the giant.

“Yes,” responded Blast, “and I being a unicorn will gain it back over time.”

“And I…?”

“Won’t,” Blast answered, “You’d be a dragon, Completely incapable of using magic unless you were to practice as you had before for so long.

Kevin looked around him to find that the large scene of ponies had backed several meters back, leaving him right next to the exposed “standoff” below.

Bellus was the one that started the fight. He sent a large ray of magic at both of the unicorns below. Both Blast and Sunset fired back, each ray of magic canceling the other’s out. Neither side tried to use more magic, instead just balancing the threads against each other. Streams of excess magic flew from the site where the large beams met, falling sideways and downward to the ground.

Kevin watched from several feet away, trying to back up a safe distance. The dark magic extruding from Bellus’ self was making its way towards him and he didn’t want to know what would happen if it were to finally reach him.

He waved his hooves vigorously in the air, flailing wildly, trying to get away, but then he started to be lowered. Bellus was running out of magic and was no longer able to hold everypony in air as high as he was, and judging by the expression on Bellus’ face, he was going to come down a lot faster very, very soon.

Bellus’ face turned bright red and his clawed fingers clenched. His whole body began to shrink. The rays he produced got smaller. Blast and Sunset adjusted their magical stream so as to not overpower him.

Kevin was being lowered. If he kept coming down from the sky at this pace, he’d be dropped directly into the mess of terrible magic powers below.

Bellus was getting ever smaller. Soon, he would be no bigger than Twilight’s own little assistant, Spike, but as Blast continued to shrink Bellus down to size, he found that one thing kept approaching the rays to a specific point. Blast looked at it for longer, trying to take his mind off of the great force of magic he was expelling at the behemoth several meters away. He recognised it as his own friend, Kevin, falling to his possible death.
Black flames erupted from the Bellus’ evil magic, liking Kevin as he gradually approached the torrents of hurt and pain below him.

Desperate to get him away from the flames, Blast directed himself sideways to move the fields of power away, but even with that, Kevin was still doomed to fall into his possible death. It was just too close. Kevin was doomed to die.

It was fast. Kevin looked down for just a second before the evil magic that Bellus was expelling hit him square in the forehead. He felt it burn into his skull. The dark energy just about consumed him and finally, Kevin passed out, his mind overwhelmed.

“Hello? Hello in there?” Kevin heard a deep voice echo in his head. Hooves kicked his head, softly, moving it side-to-side, shaking him awake.
Blast, now tired from the ordeal of going head-to-head (with help) with something having done nothing the last few years but absorb all of hell itself.

Kevin brought his hoof up to his forehead and rubbed where it burned.

“Get up!” Blast yelled, trying to sound playful, but failing and letting his voice sound more towards hurtful.

Kevin slowly arched himself to the side, his wings hurting more than anything else. He must have been laying on them wrong after he was violently dropped to the ground.

“Get up, goof, you’ll miss it,” Blast proclaimed.

“Miss what?” Kevin asked, confused if not anything else.

Reaching the standing position, Kevin understood what Blast meant. He needed no explanation.

Sunset, after missing her assistant for so long, and having waited to see him, having longed to have him in her arms for so long was now in an embrace with her.

Sunset placed her right hoof behind his head and held it in position on her shoulder. Her most faithful friend, and #1 assistant was her own now, and no Tartarus, no portal could keep her away. She was home.

Author's Note

Foreshadowing, guys. I couldn't find any other way to explain what happens two chapters from now than to say that Kevin gets those abilities from what happens in this chapter.

Chapter Three: Peculiar Love

Kevin looked at the moment the two were having. Sunset’s arms squeezed the scales of the red dragon, no longer a demon. He was free. He had one he loved.

“I have somepony I love!” thought Kevin, almost revealing it aloud. Kevin shot away from the intimate hug and ran for the edge of the crowd. Kevin pulled out his pocketwatch and stared at the emotions it read: fear, pain, loneliness… This couldn’t be true. He threw the watch back down and darted past ponies everywhere he saw them.

“Fluttershy?”

No response.

“Fluttershy?!”

“I’m right here,” examined the calm voice from right beside Kevin. His eyes bugged out at the startling immediate response.

“Fluttershy, you…” Kevin turned to see the mare standing high, completely unhurt.

“Why aren’t you…?” Kevin asked, thinking about her leg from before, clearly broken.

“Why aren’t I what?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head.

“It’s just… your leg before looked perfectly…” he squinted up at Fluttershy trying to understand, “...broken.”

“It’s. It’s fine,” said Fluttershy, wiggling it, “See?”

Kevin looked at the leg in awe. There’s no way it healed from that. It was so certainly broken… But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe just the matter of fact that it was somepony he loved so much made it seem like it was something much worse than it really was. Maybe she was truly okay, he was overly concerned. He was being clingy.

“Sorry,” he offered.

“It’s okay,” Fluttershy said, full of happiness.

Delightfully, she trotted away. “Come on!” she played.

Kevin came with Fluttershy. They had a walk scheduled for this time today, it was time to embrace it.

Kevin looked down at his watch on last time: fear, pain, rainbows.

“Rainbows?” thought Kevin, “Maybe she’s hiding pain and fear with her bubbly personality. “But she’s not bubbly” he questioned himself. “Exactly, she’s playing bubbly so that I will never see past her smiles. She’s not telling me something. She’s hiding her emotions from me, but I’ll help. I love her, I need to help.”

The word need echoed in his mind. He didn’t usually think to himself that way, what was he saying? Was he himself anymore? He shook himself into reality. This wasn’t him, but he’d have to snap out of it or it would become him.

Kevin took one more look at his watch before putting it back and walking next to Fluttershy. Whatever she felt needed to be solved. The only way to solve it was to help her know she was loved before any emotions are revealed.

Blast slowly put his arm around Twilight. The attempt was barely worth trying. Twilight noticed the hoof raised slightly over her shoulder opposite him. Picking it up in her magic, she moved it down onto her, helping Blast to embrace her. He smiled slightly, looking into the mare’s eyes until she nuzzled her head under his neck and watched Sunset in its embrace with the rough, rocky body before them.

Kevin cuddled up in bed, reaching into his pocket to find his watch: fear, sadness, rainbows.

Morning was sound. Fluttershy woke Kevin up on purpose so that they could talk - which was somewhat like her, but not this way.

“Kevin?” asked Fluttershy.

“Yes?”

Fluttershy hesitated and looked at her hooves momentarily, “Do you love me?”

Kevin leaned forward and hugged the mare, kissing her on the forehead before backing away to give the answer: “I do. I always will.”

Fluttershy smiled and looked at her hooves again, “I love you too.”

Kevin walked into the kitchen to fix breakfast for both him and Fluttershy. As the stove began cooking the eggs and hash browns, Fluttershy walked in and stared at him. It appeared she was admiring him in a stalker way. Her eyes fell upon the food on the stove and she gulped hard.

Kevin turned the stove off and brought the pan over to the table, giving Fluttershy a good amount of the contents before serving himself. Fluttershy stared at her food, barely touching it.

“Is something wrong?” Kevin asked.

“No,” replied the yellow mare, “I’m just… full already.” Kevin stared down at her plate full of untouched food. She hadn’t eaten a lick of her own breakfast. How could she be full? Something was odd about her emotions, maybe it was time they spoke.

“Fluttershy?” Kevin asked, “Is there something wrong?”

“No,” she shook her head before slowly getting down from the table and moving to take care of her animals.

That talk was over with too soon.

“You blew them up?” asked Twilight after hearing Blast’s story.

“Yes, they’re gone now. Each and every one of them are gone, now.”

“But, doesn’t the portal work off of emotions?” asked Twi.

“Not anymore,” responded Blast.

“What do you mean?”

“The sudden change in air pressure and heat caused the portal to shatter.”

“So our way there and back is gone?” asked Twilight.

“Yes, but that’s not a bad thing. We’ll never have to go back. We can stay here and no dimension will bother the other.”

Twilight looked at the floor, sadly. The chances were, she’d never see her earth friends again. Their world would never exist without hate, and Blast made it worse. Even if he were to fix the portal, that world would only hate ponies more for everything he’s done.

Fluttershy cared for her pets as well as she could, but to no avail. It seems Fluttershy has lost her touch on the animals. Each one seemed to have something wrong with it that Fluttershy couldn’t cure. She didn’t know how to help. Everything was odd. The world wasn’t there anymore.

Kevin went to Sweet Apple Acres to take care of his own job: bucking apples with Applejack. However, he wasn’t himself either. He was so perfectly lost in his own thoughts. “Her leg was so clearly broken!” he thought, “Why… Am I hallucinating? Did getting hit by the energy that Bellus fired make my memory of the scene seem worse?” Kevin’s thoughts turned. Nothing was right anymore. What was happening to himself? Kevin stared deeply into the trunk of a tree, thinking.

“Hey, what’s going on?” called a voice from behind Kevin. It was Applejack, “Is somethin’ on yer mind, sugarcube?”

“Yes, Applejack,” Kevin acknowledged.

“What is it?” Applejack started before bucking at a tree.

“Well… Fluttershy doesn’t seem quite herself recently and it might be my fault. I should have come home when I heard that Bellus was coming, but instead I stayed to fight and I could swear she seemed hurt, but…”

“Did you try talkin’ to ‘er?” Applejack interrupted.

“Yes, but… She just said nothing was wrong… And I know something was wrong.”

“So… maybe she feels unappreciated and wants to see if you’ll make it up to ‘er.” AppleJack advised, “has she tried to get you to say you love ‘er?”

Kevin recalled, “yes.”

“Then she’s probably trying to emphasize that you need to make it up to her by hiding it behind something nice.”

“Is that what you’d do?” Kevin asked.

“Shucks, I don’t know what I’d do if somepony made me feel unappreciated, but this isn’t about me, this is about Fluttershy. She probably wants you to make it up to ‘er. Just do that somehow.”

Kevin looked at the ground and thought it over. “Thanks!” he concluded.

“Don’t mention it!”

With that, Applejack started carrying the apples into the barn.

Fluttershy rested her tired head on the top of the couch. No woodland creature came to sit by her and comfort her. “I’m never going to make it. I’m going to end up abandoned, alone, hungry…” She thought aloud. Her eyes started closing. Her eyelashes covering her face all the way down to her cheeks. Her mouth shut as she tried to get some sleep.

The door opened and Kevin took a few steps in. “Hello?” he called, before waiting for an answer.

Silence.

Kevin got ready to call again to see if his marefriend was still here, but that question was quickly answered. She was lying on the couch. Her head rested firmly against the hoof-rest.

Kevin smiled at the adorable sight before continuing to the kitchen to proceed with his plans.

Fluttershy’s eyes opened slowly. The room around her was clean. All of the animals in the house had been moved to their beds. The floors had been cleaned of all fur and hair and the furniture was perfectly clean of any dust or dirt. A stallion stood in front of her wearing full, best dress. He reached out his hoof her her and guided her away from the couch.

“I’m not dressed to go out.” said Fluttershy to Kevin.

“We’re not going out,” the white stallion returned.

Kevin carefully guided the mare into the dining room, where the table was set up with two chairs, a large salad in the middle and two candles. Fluttershy took one look at meal and almost gagged, but held any of the signs of discomfort from Kevin. He’d tried hard on this meal.

Kevin sat Fluttershy down on her end of the table before sitting down himself on the opposite end. He passed Fluttershy the salad at the center of the table so that she could serve herself. She picked off a small amount of the salad and plopped it down onto her plate and then passed it to Kevin, who then served himself. Fluttershy took her fork in her hooves and poked it through a few leaves of lettuce, looking over at Kevin, slightly confused.

“Why?” Fluttershy asked.

“I love you.” Kevin said.

Fluttershy straight-up gagged, now. She had been way overfilled throughout the last few moments.

“Be right back,” Fluttershy said before running off the chair towards the bathroom.

Kevin looked down at his food, insulted, trying to help Fluttershy, but apparently only making it worse.

Fluttershy hugged the bowl of the toilet for several moments and returned to see Kevin looking sadly at his plate of food.

“Are you okay?” Kevin asked

“I’m…” Fluttershy’s face got hot at the question and she grabbed her stomach. “I’m perfectly…” the mare looked up at Kevin to see a worried, caring face just trying to help her. “I just…” Flutters continued.

“You can tell me,” Kevin said.

His words and expression made Fluttershy worse again and she looked away.

“You’re filling me too much, I’ve had enough, I can’t feed anymore!” Fluttershy panicked. Her stomach felt like it was going to explode both from guilt and from having way too much food.

“What?” Kevin looked confused.

“Just don’t look until I tell you,” Fluttershy said, trying to avoid getting fed.

Her skin flashed, revealing herself as a changeling.

Kevin looked.

Chapter Four: Everypony Has A Breaking Point

Kevin stared, empty-eyed at the mare in front of him, putting together what had happened over the last 24 hours. Her leg had broken, Fluttershy was in pain (somewhere else), The changeling had been overfilled with the love he felt for her and was guilted to confess. It all made sense now, he just needed a few more answers.

“Um… So what’s your name?” Kevin asked, calmly. There was no need to get upset, he needed her to tell him where Fluttershy really was and she had confessed, she wasn’t all that bad, just in need.

“My name is Preed,” said the mare, softly. Almost no difference in voice.

“Why did you come to me?” Kevin asked, warming her up for his most important question.

“As you needed somepony to love, I needed somepony to love me.” Again in a shy voice.

“I don’t need anypony to love,” corrected Kevin, pulling out his watch.

“But you do.” Preed insisted.

Kevin stopped caring that that was not the right answer and continued to his next question as he read the words on his pocketwatch.

The mare hesitated and stepped away taking a breath. “I didn’t do it, I swear!”

“Where? Did you see her get taken? Where is she?” Kevin shot the questions at her quickly, trying to understand what happened to Fluttershy.

After a pause, she finally stated to position, “Where not a single soul gets through,” Preed said, sadly.

Kevin stared at the words appearing on his watch:

Pain, Rainbows, Fear.

Kevin looked back up at the mare he was interrogating and smashed the watch on the ground. Tears shot to his eyes. It was his turn to run away from the dinner he made.

His back shivered as he felt a strong mix of hatred, fear, anger and sadness. Kevin put his face to his chest and wrapped his hooves around the back of his head. He may never see Fluttershy again.

“Are you okay, Kevin?” Preed asked, walking over to Kevin and placing a hoof on his shoulder.

Kevin turned around, his eyes black as tar with a smile wide as a river.

“Don’t call me Kevin.”

Fluttershy looked down at her injured leg. Her fur rose on end as she feared for her life. She was due for the picking soon. She was due tomorrow.

Hopeful, she looked down at her necklace, reading the clear writing:

Please stay calm, you know Kevin still loves you.

“I know, but he can’t get me now. it’s too late tomorrow,”

He’d stop it if he could. He can’t.

Fluttershy now hated the device. Kevin had given it to her to always comfort her, but its most recent words just hurt her.

Somepony else can, though.

The necklace attempted, trying to help her. Fluttershy didn’t read it, though. She was scared, hurt and way too stunned to think to look at it again.

“What’s that?!” screamed the guard, looking at the necklace. He grabbed it firmly from behind the cage and violently tugged past the bars, bringing Fluttershy with it, pulling around her neck. He checked it thoroughly before exclaiming:

“Communication device!” shouted the guard, releasing his grip and opening the door.

“Get out!”

The guard slammed the necklace on the captain’s desk.

“I caught her communicating with this!” he shouted, making it very clear that he hated the very definition of what he thought was happening.

“But it’s just…” Fluttershy stated before getting interrupted.

“Silence!” cried the captain, examining the device. The words placed themselves on the screen, very clearly not words you’d see on a traditional piece of jewelry, “Take off a day for this one. She’s at great risk of getting realized and will need to be taken care of immediately before somepony comes looking for her, understood?”

“Yes sir!” replied the guard, grabbing Fluttershy by the front hoof and dragging her towards the door.

“Wait! Wait, my leg’s… AH!” Fluttershy’s back hoof scraped along the floor, moving her broken leg, vibrating it until the already broken leg extended the other way at the point of fracture.

“OW!” Fluttershy screamed as loud as she could. Her eyes teared as much as they could and she started to cry. Kevin couldn’t save her, the necklace already said. Her leg that was causing her unimaginable pain would soon be the least of her worries. She was due for the machine: today and now.

The beast that refused to be called Kevin ran for the door as his wings began into fire and the rings of his eyes flowed with magic. His mane curled and formed into the color of fire. His tail disappeared and was replaced with purple flames.

His new wings flapped, bringing him skyward as he flew for Cloudsdale.

The city of Cloudsdale hung high in the air, placed far above an ocean view. The sunset beamed red crystal rays onto the waving, yellow beach. Golden flakes of sand reflected the sunlight onto the white bricks of the cloud castle. Palm trees stood high over the calm waves, shuddering under the gentle breeze and creating a gentle ruffling noise to match that of the waves. The sounds of the ocean could be heard faintly as the creature approached the cloudy city. Metal creaking noises would soon consume that noise, though. Cloudsdale was a pleasant place to look at right now. It was the most perfect abomination in all of Equestria. Only from the outside was it clean and beautiful, but on the inside, it was a mess of blood. A sham it was, a devilish, brutal sham.

The wind curled around the strange figure’s wings. The flames around his eyes bent according to the direction of the wind and it felt itself accelerating. He was making progress on the building. It was nearly a mile away now. A few seconds later, he would run headfirst into it. And it did. Running his crown directly into the side of the large castle-style building, the creature pounded through the wall, leaving the strange being just enough inertia to crawl inside without tumbling backwards into the ocean below. Pegasi guards from different corners of the factory charged him, attempting to get him out before each one burned up at coming close to it, and vaporized. Alarms blared, sending signals to all personnel in the factory to flee or to dismantle the intruder. The fumes of those stupid enough to get close to the raging ball of hatred and fire drifted into space, dispersing and drifting to the ceiling.

The strange beast continued to walk, trails of fire coming off both its tail and hooves as he did so.

Many pegasus guards stood back, choosing an archery kit and taking aim with it. Arrows flew. The long shaft of the wooden point fell through the skin of the beast that was once Kevin, going right out the other side, and letting the skin remold itself.

Fluttershy squeaked loudly. Pain arched itself into her voice, making a vein of sharp hurt as it did so. The syringes of the machine graded in on her, preparing to sink deep into her chest, pulling every ounce of her own blood out of her.

Fluttershy closed her eyes, just hoping that it wouldn’t hurt that bad. The necklace had said it itself: Kevin could never save her. It was cruelty that the pony had to be alive for the rainbow-making process. It was cruelty that their cages were kept in perfect view of the machine and all its victims.

The sharp syringes finally pressed into her chest, digging into her fur, stopping just short of breaking her skin. Fluttershy couldn’t help but open her eyes, noticing that the metal beakers had been melted off, in a void of red and orange heated iron. An arm hung over the very tip of the sharp utensils. The head broke off and fell to the ground. The head of a white stallion hovered away from Fluttershy’s own. The very sight of it horrified her even more than the experience she had only recently undergone.

Fluttershy squeaked again, turning her head away and closing her eyes tightly.

The white Pegasus clenched his hoof and pressed it hard against the restraints on Fluttershy’s wrist, burning it off. The new molten steel fragments moved aside of Fluttershy’s own hoof, slithering aside to prevent burning her. Regardless of the lack of damage dialed back onto her by the fire, Fluttershy could somewhat be heard whispering to herself: “What is happening? Please somepony help.”

As the brief whisper left the mare’s lips, the stallion held the mare in one hoof and dashed back out the same way that it entered. The factory lay in ruins.

The beast was not Kevin. The beast was the remains of a monster from the depths of Tartarus that was captured in Kevin from now and forever. And Kevin would never know of the Bellus inside of him. Dark magic doesn’t just disappear. Somehow, some way it finds a way to burn.

Prologue

Blast looked up to see twelve disturbing-looking men. All of them glared at him with distasteful looks.

Another man in crutches finally made his way into the room. Blast recognized him as the man he had fought about a month ago. The man’s eye twitched as he arrived.

“Why didn’t you kill him already?” came the man.

Silence was his response until one man gained the nerve to step forward and speak.

“We thought you would like to do the honors. You were the man he injured. You also hired all of us to get him. He’s yours to kill.”

The man smiled weakly as if to acknowledge that it was a true observation.

He drew a gun and pointed it at the stallion’s head.

“Last words?” he offered.

“If you would please allow, I would like my last words to be an answered question.”

The man rolled his eyes.

“Fine.”

Blast responded, “Of the assassins you hired, which ones are here?” His voice came out shaky and worried.

“What?” asked the man as he stared blankly in search of a reason for asking something so off-subject from a regular last few words.

“Of the assassins you hired, which ones are here?” he came, even shakier.

The man turned around and counted each of the men that surrounded him.

He finished counting and glared at the unicorn. “It’s not an unreasonable question.” He thought to himself.

“All of them,” was the final response of the angry human.

It was music to Blast’s ears.

He glared up at the cripple: more smug than blaming.

“All of them?” he spoke, his mouth curling over mostly the right side as he was finally going to finish off the conflict with one swift movement.

Blast’s lips curled into a crooked smile, before he attacked with his signature move. He placed the Blizzard ability of his bomb underneath the chair he was sitting on, gave Bellus a wink and teleported out of the building and down the block some ways. Looking back on the scene, he heard the sound of the bullet Bellus was shooting go right through the back of the chair that he had just gotten out of. With the struggle of having so many enemies all “going swiftly into that good night,” He trotted down the street as the small, cluttered room became no more than a shattered mess of humans and rubble.

“All of them,” Blast said to himself, as he stepped into the portal archway, “all of them are gone.”

Chapter Five: Something Nopony Should Say

Fluttershy’s hoof was in a cast, lying on a hospital bed, in the Ponyville General Hospital. Or at least, it was partially in a cast in the Ponyville General Hospital. The doctors were still putting it in. The bone, fractured, stuck out, putting a lump in the fabric of the young mare’s yellow coat. The white stallion, with a fiery mane, and distressed, hot eyes was gone.

A vase of flowers sat on her bedside table. A stallion stood at the side of Fluttershy’s bed. Not the one that previously visited her, but a different one. He held his hoof by hers as the doctor prepared to move the leg back into place.

“Are you too set up?” The doctor asked, his hoof barely touching Fluttershy’s leg.

Fluttershy nodded.

With that, the doctor grabbed Fluttershy’s leg, lifting it so that the fractured leg connected with her own. Fluttershy grabbed ahold of Kevin’s arm as he did so. Jolts of pain shot through her leg, hitting her head with pain. Fluttershy was so hurt by the moving that she didn’t even hear her own cries of pain.

The doctor finally finished putting the leg into a cast and the tears finally cleared from Fluttershy’s eyes just in time for everypony in the room to notice the great arrival of a welcome nopony wanted to hear.

“Hey!” yelled the angry male voice, “Where’s my daughter?!”

Kevin’s eyes widened at the sight of a pegasus guard with very angry eyes glaring into his own. There was no way to tell the guard off though - he was Fluttershy’s father. He had a right to be there.

Fluttershy cringed at the sight of her father. She hadn’t seen him since before flight camp and was more than glad with that. No matter what she did, it was never good enough for him. He wanted a colt. Now, Fluttershy was off healing animals and ending up in the emergency room for getting her leg broken. He was disappointed and angry.

“Who are you?!” he yelled directly at Kevin.

“Kev-”

“What are you to my daughter?!” the stallion interrupted.

“I’m just her friend,” Kevin said, shyly.

“Yeah?! Ya sure ya are? You’re kind of a little close to her bed and a little too close to a comforter to be a friend!”

Kevin nodded.

“Aw! I see! My weak child is of course partnered with this wimp. Brilliant! Two wimps one courtship! Kindred spirits!”

“She’s not weak,” managed Kevin, swallowing his fear.

“Oh, and I suppose you’re not, either then huh? Well prove it! Show us that neither you nor her are the cowardice backstabbing children that ignored me for a decade. Only now can I see her again. How ‘bout you show me your guts. Give me reason to believe you’re both strong. You hit her! Hit her, right here!”

Kevin’s face lost all of its color. There was nothing he could do to cure the embarrassment. His eyes met Fluttershy’s. Her own eyes swelled up as her own dad insulted both her and her closest friend. And then Kevin lay still. He ignored to hit Fluttershy and ignored to make any response to the angry father. Kevin was being attacked now. Fluttershy’s father lashed out at Kevin out of anger. So many years had he not seen his daughter all because that one stallion had not brought her back after flight camp. Every year he kept bottled up was let out now and Fluttershy’s father finally sent a swing at Kevin, hitting him directly in the face. Kevin’s cheek turned red as the pegasus guard turned to leave with a scoff.

“Kevin?” Fluttershy asked.

“It’s okay,” Kevin acknowledged, trying not to rub his burning face.

“When will she be out?” Kevin asked the doctor.

“Sir, you did just get hit in the-”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well then… she’ll be out in a couple more days,” responded the hopeful doctor.

Fluttershy walked on her crutches down the dirt road to her house. The gravel planted itself in the dirt below her crutches. The white of her cast caught her eye every step that she took and the sidewalk seemed to go on forever. After walking for what seemed like forever, Fluttershy still found that she wasn’t even half-way to her house. Frustrated, she looked sideways at Kevin with a begging face.

“Will you please help me?” asked Fluttershy.

“Sure.”

Kevin flew over Fluttershy and reached his arms over her forehooves to lift her off of the ground and carry her to her cottage. Fluttershy’s hooves came inches off of the ground and she spread her wings out as she was dragged through the air at a much faster speed than she was walking. Kevin’s wings ached as he attempted to carry her home. It was almost painful for both of them, Kevin as physically exerting himself and Fluttershy was being held in an uncomfortable way, but as the two of them started picking up speed and each of them looked into each others eyes, feeling the others gentle touch for the first time since they were separated, they were both flying. Each of them had wings.

Twilight laid on her side in bed and stared at the alarm clock. Nothing could bring back her friend in the other world. The portal had shattered. It was a completely invisible cluster of a bunch of shards of glass. That’s how Blast described it at least. And now her other friends will never see her again, thought the mare, intensely.

“But the portal used to run on emotions didn’t it? It used to run on thoughts of Friendship and love. Ponies would only travel through the portal if they thought of their friends on the other end, but what happens now that the portal has been exposed to such hate?” the mare thought about her way back to her other home and suddenly it hit her, but not before the shard pierced her back and Twilight was gone.

Acknowledgments:
The Rainbow factory: Song by: WoodenToaster. Fanfiction by Aurora Dawn
The Blizzard Chronicles: by: PL4SMOD1UM.
5th book in the Portals series, By: The Derpy Doctor.

Author's Note

Cliffhanger. If you don't understand the story, see prequels