Ultimate Three

Chapters

Chapter 2 - An Exchange of Ideals
Chapter 3 - Calming the Storm
Chapter 4 - An Advancement of Knowledge
Chapter 5 - Differences in Opinion
Chapter 6 - Another Side
Chapter 7 - The Grass is Always Greener
Chapter 8 - No Pinkie, You Can't Name the Chapter.
Chapter 9 - The Fruits of Life
Chapter 10 - Ascend to New Heights
Chapter 11 - Incorporating New Skills
Chapter 12 - Meating the Family
Chapter 13 - Heavens to Betsy
Chapter 15 - The Darker Half
Final Chapter: Closure
Chapter 1 - Ascend From Darkness
Chapter 14 - He's Called Player Because he's Good With the Ladies
Chapter 16 - Player's Thoughts 1

Chapter 2 - An Exchange of Ideals

"What WAS that thing, Fluttershy?" Lyra shouted.

Lyra had been watching the monster by peeking through one of the windows. She had made absolutely sure not to make a sound until the monster was gone. Now, however, there was nothing to stop the two from talking.

"I... um... I don't know." Fluttershy whispered back.

"It was like almost as big as your house!" Lyra shouted in panic

"I saw. But, um--"

"I mean, did you see it? It's face was horrible!" Lyra interjected.

"Lyra--"

"And his eyes! They looked dead!"

"But, Lyra--"

"But the absolute worst thing about it had to be--"

"LYRA!" Fluttershy shouted.

The green unicorn turned her head in surprise at Fluttershy's sudden boldness. Realizing what she'd done, Fluttershy lowered her head a bit.

"Um, sorry. But it didn't do anything to you, did it?" Fluttershy asked , her face half-hidden behind her mane.

"Well...no. But you saw it, right? It's like it had the top half of a monkey, but the bottom half of a pony!" Lyra exclaimed.

"Yes... I saw. But Lyra, how long were you with it before I opened the door?" Fluttershy continued, "I mean, I heard you scream, but it was only a few seconds after you left, and you look alright to me."

"Well," Lyra paused for a moment to think, "It was only a couple of seconds at best. Now that I think about it, all it really did was stand there."

"Lyra, remember when you were convinced a dog outside of your house was trying to eat you?" Fluttershy asked.

"It ran towards me every time it saw me!" Lyra reasoned.

"He just wanted you to pet him! You did feed him some treats, after all."

"Okay, okay. What's your point?" Lyra said exasperatedly.

"What if he's just misunderstood? The poor thing might be suffering..." Fluttershy looked saddened at this possibility.

"Fluttershy, it's a monster. There's no way that thing is just 'misunderstood'. " Lyra said, making air quotes with her hooves at the word 'misunderstood'.

"But remember how I told you about the time my friends and I were attacked by a manticore? The whole time it was only angry because it had a thorn stuck in its paw."

Lyra paused to considered this, and then huffed. "Fine. I'll give this monster a chance." she said. "But just one!"

Fluttershy smiled softly at this. "Thank you. Did you see which way it went?"

Lyra looked down and held her hoof over her mouth in thought. "I think it went..." Lyra paused for a moment to think, before looking back to Fluttershy in a mix of realization and horror.

"Fluttershy, it went towards Ponyville!" Lyra shouted.

"Oh no..." Fluttershy's face began to show hints of doubt. "I hope i'm right about this."

Lyra rushed over to the door, now unlocked and no longer blocked by furniture, and held it open. "Come on! There's no time to lose! We've got to try and stop it! Even if you're right, I don't think anyone's gonna take too kindly to him."

"I guess you're right." Fluttershy said with some nervousness. "Let's go."

Together they galloped out of the cottage to hopefully intercept the monster before it could cause a panic.

Chapter 3 - Calming the Storm

Picking myself up off of the ground with a small inhuman groan, I took a good look at the figure that had decided to block my path away from the forest. It was blue, and it seemed to be a small horse, just like the others I had seen. Although this one didn't have a horn, it seemed to be sporting a pair of wings. It was crouched down in an offensive stance, and It's wings were raised out to the side, looking ready to take to the air at a moment's notice. Amusingly enough, it's mane was colored in a rainbow pattern.

Regardless of how the new horse looked, I had no intentions of letting it stop me from my goal. I could already feel my head starting to clear up, and the teasing clarity only served to further drive me on towards my goal. Almost as if sensing my intentions, the rainbow-maned horse began to talk.

"You're not going anywhere near Ponyville without going through ME first!"

She (I assumed it was a she from the voice) began to dig her hooves into the earth , almost like a bull. At the same time I found myself swaying my upper half side to side, reminiscent of a snake. I shook my head and forced myself to stop. I had no intentions of fighting anyone here. If I was going to start over, I didn't want to get on anyone's bad side.

On the spot, I came up with a plan. I would get further away from the forest until my mind was clear enough to think of a way to communicate with the horse. If she attacked me while I was making my way away from the forest, I wouldn't retaliate. I figured this body could take the hits.

I juked left, and the cyan horse fell for it. She sped forward in a rainbow colored blur, missing me entirely. A loud crashing noise rang out from behind me. I found myself slightly amazed at the rainbow trail the pegasus had left, but I didn't waste any time in running full speed away from the battle.

I couple of seconds later, I felt something land hard on my centipede-like back. The pressure on my unusual lower half felt completely alien to me. I turned my head around to find the rainbow pegasus from before riding on top of me. She raised her hooves and started stomping into my back. I could barely feel it, and I was slightly surprised she could keep her balance enough to do that while I was moving. I turned back around and tried to ignore her.

I felt the pressure on my back lift. I turned around again to find the rainbow pegasus gone.

Where did she go?

*BOOM*

I looked up in the sky to find an amazing sight. A rainbow in the sky expanded outwards in a circle, with a solid streak of rainbow racing towards the ground. While it was a breath-taking view, I only figured out the danger of it when the solid rainbow turned 90 degrees and began racing towards me at unbelievable speeds.

Mierda!

I turned around and braced myself as much as I could. I raised my arms up over my face and lowered my center of gravity. She was getting closer.

Maybe I should jump out of the way at the last second?

That wouldn't do. She had turned ninety degrees before. What was stopping her from doing it again? Closing my eyes, I prepared myself for the worst.

I flinched when I heard a noise to my side. To my surprise, the pain I was expecting never came. In confusion, I opened my eyes.

The pegasus had stopped and was now hovering in mid-air. She was looking at something out of my line of sight. Following her gaze, I found myself looking at the two horses I had met before. From this distance, I could see the yellow one, Fluttershy, was actually a pegasus as well.

"What? Why?" The blue pegasus shouted out.

"Because, Rainbow, he's not going to hurt anyone." Fluttershy replied.

I could hug that horse right now. I guess that noise I flinched from was her telling "Rainbow" to stop attacking me.

"But Fluttershy, look at him!" She pointed a hoof at me.

The green one decided to speak up. "Yeah, I know Dash. I thought the same way , too, until Fluttershy convinced me otherwise."

"We saw the whole thing, but we couldn't catch up until now." Fluttershy admitted.

Wow. I guess it's a good thing i'm so slow.

Fluttershy continued speaking. "Rainbow, while you two were fighting, did he ever once hit you back?"

"Well...no. I guess I kind of attacked him because of how he looked." Rainbow slumped over in mid-air out of shame.

"That's okay." Fluttershy walked over to me. "Mr. Monster here will forgive you, right?" She gave me the cutest looking puppy eyes I have ever seen.

Argh! I was going to forgive her anyways, you didn't have to bring out the big guns!

I nodded my head and gave an affirmative grunt.

She stopped with the puppy eyes, and smiled. "See, Rainbow? Nothing to worry about. Now then Mr. Monster, how about we get you back home?"

I hurriedly shook my head.

"What? Why not?"

I took a second to think of a response before I pointed towards the forest with my clawed hand, and then held my head and groaned in what I hope sounded like pain.

They seemed to get the message. "The forest hurts your head?" Fluttershy asked.

I nodded my head in affirmation.

"How strange. None of the other animals from the forest complained about any headaches." Fluttershy contemplated.

But i'm not actually from the forest. But how do I tell them?

I looked towards the ground in contemplation before realization hit me like a ton of bricks.

Of course! I can draw in the ground!

I hurriedly grunted and waved my hand to draw their attention. When I had their full attention, I lowered my upper half down near the ground like a snake. Using the claws on my hand, I drew a crude house. Beside that, I drew a few trees tightly grouped together. I pointed at the trees, and then point at the house and shook my head.

It took them a couple of seconds, but they finally figured it out. "The forest isn't your home?" Fluttershy asked.

I raised my upper half back up and shook my head again.

"Wait, if you're not from the forest, then where ARE you from?" The green one asked, walking up alongside Fluttershy.

I contemplated that for a bit. Where exactly was I? Was I still on earth? Was I even in the same dimension? The thoughts made me wonder about my whole situation. Waking up with sapience I wasn't suppose to have, meeting talking unicorns and pegasi which aren't supposed to exist in the first place, and finding forest that wants me to go back to being the beast I once was.

The entire thing made me question my sanity. The possibility of insanity was quickly discarded, however, when I remembered you needed to be sapient to be considered insane in the first place.

"Helloooo, Anyone home?" I looked up to see the blue pegasus shouting at me from beside Fluttershy.

"It's okay, Rainbow. Maybe he doesn't want to tell us." Fluttershy reasoned.

I waved my hand and shook my head before bending down like before. I cleared away my previous drawings before drawing two circles beside each other. I drew a third circle between above the two, and drew some lines around it to show it was a sun. I drew some crude land masses on the other two circles to show they were planets. Then, I drew two figures, with one figure above each planet. Above the one on the right was a stick figure pony, with a rectangle for a head and a smiley face. Above the one on the left, I drew a stick figure of myself, kind of like the pony figure, but where the pony figure would have a neck, I drew a straight line up, added two arms, gave myself a circle for a head, and added two eyes and my long tongue. I drew an arrow from the pony to the planet on the right, and then drew an arrow from me to the planet on the left. I added some stars and then raised up to let them admire my handiwork.

"Oh my..." Fluttershy whispered.

"Woah. That's a long way from home, dude..." Rainbow looked mystified at me. Probably comes with being from another planet.

The green one, strangely, didn't say anything. Instead, she just looked at me in excitement, any feelings of caution or trepidation from before gone. She looked like she had something she REALLY wanted to say, but currently couldn't.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't help you there," Fluttershy said regretfully before perking up, "But I know a friend who might."

I looked at her hopefully and nodded. I had no intentions of going back, but I wasn't about to turn down the chance to meet someone who could help me figure out how I got here, not to mention help me understand why I wasn't a raging monster any more.

Plus, it'll help me get further away from the forest. The fog in my mind is almost non-existent now. If i can just get a little further away, i'll be free of the forest's influence!

"Wait a second, we can't just bring him into town. He'll cause a panic!" Rainbow pointed out.

The green one smiled. "Actually, Rainbow, I might have a plan."

Chapter 4 - An Advancement of Knowledge

"I can't believe this is working." Rainbow Dash muttered.

A few feet behind them in a large cage with a blanket over it was U-3. The cage was normally used to separate manticores that were under Fluttershy's care from the other animals. Fluttershy herself had no problems with the manticore being out and about, but it made the other animals very nervous, for obvious reasons. The cage had a new addition of four large wooden wheels on the side, and was attached to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash by a rope tied around the cage on the outside of the blanket. While the rope was used to pull the cage, it also served to make sure the blanket wasn't moved out of place by the wind.

"Well, you have to admit it was very clever of Lyra to think of all of this." Fluttershy said in her usual hushed tone.

"Yeah, I just can't believe SHE gets to ride in there while WE get to do all of the work." Rainbow Dash said.

A small giggle erupted from the inside of the cage-turned-carriage. Lyra had elected to stay inside of the cage and make sure U-3 didn't blow their cover. While Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were quick to accept her offer (a choice Rainbow Dash was already regretting), Lyra also had ulterior motives for being inside of the cage. For the past hour or so, Lyra had lit a candle inside of the cart and studied U-3's figure. She took special interest in his hand, even going so far as to ask to play around with it, which U-3 of course allowed.

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. Next time YOU'RE pulling the cart, and I'M riding inside of it." Rainbow muttered.

"Hey guys. What'chya got there?" A creamy white earth pony asked while trotting up to Fluttershy, causing both her and Rainbow Dash to stop in their tracks.

"Oh. Hello Bon-bon. We're just..um...--"

"We're taking Fluttershy's cousin to Twilight! Yeah, he's real sensitive to sunlight, so we're taking him to Twilight to see if she has anything that could help him!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, proud of having come up with an excuse on the spot.

"Why don't you just take him to the hospital to see if they have any medical strength sun-screen?" Bon-bon asked with a suspicious expression.

"Oh. Well, uh. We hadn't thought of that." Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof sheepishly.

"Uh-huh. Look, Fluttershy, have you seen Lyra anywhere?" Bon-bon asked, changing the subject.

"Oh yes, she came by my house earlier!" Fluttershy said, glad to be away from the subject of what was inside the cage.

"You didn't REALLY accept her offer to adopt a monkey, did you?" Bon-bon asked exasperatedly.

"Oh, no. While I don't mean any offense to Lyra," Fluttershy stopped for a second to make sure Lyra got the message from inside of the cage, " she's not the most responsible pony in the world. I don't think she would be able to handle something as exotic as a monkey."

Bon-bon breathed a sigh of relief. "Phew. that's good to know. I can handle Lyra by herself, but a monkey, too? That's too much. Hey , speaking of Lyra, if you see her can you remind her that it's HER turn to pick up the groceries?"

"Sure. I'll tell her if I see her." Fluttershy smiled reassuringly.

"Thanks girls!" Bon-bon said before trotting off.

Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief. So far they had been lucky enough to avoid attracting much attention thanks to it being the early hours of the morning. However, coming so close to being discovered had made them realize they needed to pick up the pace.

"Come on, Fluttershy. We need to get this thing to Twilight's before anypony else starts asking questions."

A few minutes later, a hard knocking sound resonated throughout Twilight's library.

"I'll get it!" A purple unicorn called out. Opening the door, she was surprised to see Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash tied with a rope around themselves leading back to a large contraption covered with a blanket that had the rope tied around it.

"Twilight! We need your help with something!" Rainbow Dash declared.

"What do you need my help with?" Twilight asked with a curious face.

"Oh nothing much..." Rainbow Dash nonchalantly pretended to rub some dirt off of her shoulder, "Just...an ALIEN!"

"What? Rainbow Dash, are you sure you aren't just imagining things?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

"Um, actually, Twilight, she's not making it up. We really do have an alien that's stuck away from its planet." Fluttershy whispered.

Twilight trotted over to the cage and lifted up the blanket. "Oh please, Fluttershy. Everyone knows there's no such thing as-- AAAHHH!"

Inside of the cage was Lyra and U-3 waving at her.

Twilight slowly put the blanket down, before turning around and fainting.

"I think she's waking up."

Twilight slowly fluttered her eyelids open. The first thing she noticed was a yellow and pink blob, which slowly reshaped itself into the form of Fluttershy. The second thing she noticed was that she was no longer outside. Instead, she was now inside of her bedroom.

"Fluttershy, please tell me you really didn't bring an alien to my house, and I'm actually just imagining it all." Twilight pleaded.

"Um, sorry Twilight, but we actually did. I mean, if that's okay with you."

"Ugh. Don't worry about it. It's fine. You haven't shown him to anypony else, have you?"

"Oh, no. We came straight to you after we found him. He's completely harmless. He wouldn't even hurt a fly." Fluttershy reassured.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing you brought him to me before anypony else could find him. Who knows what kind of panic he could cause? Speaking of which, where is he now?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, well...he's,um..." Fluttershy stammered.

"Yeees?" Twilight goaded on suspiciously.

"He's um... downstairs." Fluttershy lowered her head in admittance.

"Wait, you mean he's already downstairs? How did you even get him in through the door?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"Oh, we thought it was going to be hard at first, but we were surprised when we saw U-3 crawl through the door. He's in your living room right now. It's the only place he can stand up without hitting the ceiling." Fluttershy explained.

"Great." Twilight said sarcastically. Suddenly, she realized something. "Wait a second, you said 'U-3'. Is that the name of the alien?"

"Oh, yes. We asked it some things while you were asleep. I hope you don't mind, but we let U-3 use your chalk board. He can't talk."

"Interesting. Do you think he's affected by the language spell casted on Equestria, or do you think he actually knows Equestrian?" Twilight asked, any hesitation replaced by curiosity.

"Oh, I don't know. We didn't ask him about that. If you want to ask him yourself, though, I'm sure he'd be glad to tell you." Fluttershy said.

"Hm. How long was I out?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, you were out for quite a while. In fact, it's almost about noon."

"NOON? I can't believe I slept this late!"

"Well, maybe it would help if you stopped staying up all night? I-I mean, if that's alright with you." Fluttershy said sheepishly.

"Well, honestly I don't think it matters now. I'll have to re-schedule everything for today. This could be Equestria's first contact with visitors from other worlds!" Twilight said with a shine in her eye.

"Come on, Fluttershy! Let's go!" Twilight said, trotting towards the door.

U-3 flicked his tongue idly. While it was great to finally have a way to communicate with the 'horses' (which he had learned were actually ponies), and his head was clear as a whistle (Something he was VERY thankful for), eventually the group had fallen into a slump, and was now just lazying about. Lyra was laying down on the couch, while Rainbow Dash was reading a comic book called 'Daring Doo'. There wasn't enough space for U-3 to lay down, so instead he just stood there.

Thinking back to the purple unicorn, he had found it rather amusing when she had fainted. Lyra had actually been the one to come up with the plan to wave at Twilight when she peeked in the cage. Hilarious as that was, the humor had worn off only a couple of minutes later.

Getting out of the cage and into the house had been a problem until he remembered how easily he could walk with his upper half lowered. Getting from the cage and into the house without anyone seeing him had been a cinch, with Lyra simply holding the blanket with her magic over U-3 as he came out of the cage.

Magic. There's something he never thought he'd bring up in a serious conversation. Sure enough, he found out magic was plentiful in this world. Using his scientist mind and some chalk, he found out from Rainbow Dash that pegasi flew using a combination of hollow bones to make them lighter, and passive pegasus magic. He imagined Rainbow Dash's so-called 'Sonic Rainboom' was more of the later than the former, but upon asking her about it, he found out that even she didn't know how it worked. He had the heart to explain to her that the 'BOOM' sound was the result of her breaking the sound barrier. While she was confused at first about what the sound barrier was, after I explained to her that she was basically literally going faster than the speed of sound, the joyous expression that had found its way to her face had almost given him diabetes.

Heh. He was rather proud of that joke. He hoped no one else had come up with something like that yet.

"Ahem."

His thoughts were interrupted by a sound from the bedroom. Looking towards it, he found a slightly nervous looking Twilight beside an even more nervous Fluttershy. Twilight flinched at the sight of his face, but quickly recomposed herself.

"Hello there. I assume you're U-3?" Twilight asked with a straight face.

I nodded my head, and wrote down something on the chalkboard, which I now carried around like a notebook. I held the board itself on my tentacle arm while I wrote with my somewhat normal hand. After I had finished, I turned it around for everyone to see and noticed that Lyra and Rainbow Dash had dropped out of their slouch and were now paying attention to us.

"Yep. That's me."

"Interesting. May I ask what language you're speaking?"

I was slightly confused at this, but I wrote my answer down anyway. "English. But I can also speak Spanish if you'd like."

All of the higher-ups in the Los Illuminados were taught how to speak English fluently. While the grunts and servents were completely under the control of their masters, they would still gossip and ramble as if they were never infected with the Las Plagas to begin with. Talking in another language served to make sure none of their plans were ever revealed before they were put into motion.

"Uh-huh. I bet you're wondering why you can understand us, right?" Twilight asked in a know-it-all tone of voice.

"Actually, yes. I've been wondering that myself for a while, although I didn't know how to approach the subject."

"Well, It might surprise you to know that, while you're speaking English, we are actually speaking Equestrian. You see, long ago after the banishment of Princess Luna, Equestria's trade and immigration was slowly increasing. With all of the mixed races coming in, there was quite an uproar about what to do about all of the different languages. The races coming in didn't want to give up their language, and by extent part of their culture, while the ponies already there were becoming increasingly frustrated from not being able to understand the newcomers from other lands. So, to solve this problem, Princess Celestia cast a spell across all of Equestria. The spell was a sort of 'universal translator' spell. It changed everything everypony else said and wrote into your natural language. This works both ways, though. For example, while you're hearing us talk an write in English, WE are hearing you write and talk in Equestrian. Understand?"

I nodded my head, taking in this new information. I had had Lyra give me the basic background of Equestria, but I guess she had only given me the very basics. Suddenly, I had a thought.

Wait a second, if this spell changes it to where everyone is speaking my language, what happens if I change languages?

"¿Se puede entender esto?" (Can you understand this?) I wrote down on the chalk board.

"Sí." (Yes.) Twilight responded in a natural spanish accent.

"Interesting." I wrote down on the chalkboard.

"Yeah, magic sure is fascinating. I don't know if they have it where you come from, but it really is amazing. Speaking of where you come from, you said you were from another planet. Where do you come from on your planet?" Twilight asked.

Back to English now, I guess. "Well, I was born in the village of el Pueblo, which is on the continent of Europe. Although I was born there, I was actually raised in America, which is on the continent of North America. I was sent a letter from my home town asking to come back and help with some research, but you can see how that worked out." As she finished reading, I gestured to my body.

"So, wait, this isn't your natural form?" Twilight asked curiously.

After shaking my head, I erased what I had wrote and started writing again. "Nope, it's not. My current body is the result of a horrible experiment to combine the qualities of certain animals into one controllable organic being."

"Wait a second, How would they be able to control you after doing those kind of things to you? There would be nothing stopping you from just breaking out." Twilight was in full-on scientist mode.

My shoulders sagged slightly. I had hoped I wouldn't have had to tell them this. Mentally sighing, I began to explain to them about the small cult of the Los Illuminados, and how they had uncovered a parasite hidden deep under an old family castle called the 'Las Plagas'. I explained how it would take over a persons mind while leaving their personalities intact, and how they could be controlled by someone using a 'control plaga' or a 'master plaga'. I explained how the infected the entire village with the Las Plaga, and then had them kill any who were not born in el Pueblo. I told them how they would invite people who had traveled away from el Pueblo to further their interest back to their hometown to help them with 'research', when in actuality they would just infect them with the Las Plagas and force them to work. I explained that I knew all of this, because I was one of the people that was tricked into coming back.

"That's horrible." Twilight's face was stricken with sympathy. "Being forced to do all that, but also being consciously aware of what's going on at the same time. I'm truly sorry for what happened to you."

I looked around. The others all had tears in their eyes.

"Do you... I mean, is the plaga still..." Twilight couldn't finish the sentence.

I nodded. "Although I can feel its presence at the edge of my mind, it's acting strangely subdued. I don't think it has any power over me anymore."

"Do...do you think we could take it out somehow?" Twilight asked hopefully.

I shook my head solemnly. "I don't think that would be a good idea. I think the plaga is the only thing that's keeping this body alive. Remember how I told you about the plaga's natural ability to communicate with other plagas, no matter the host? I think it's basically that, but instead of communicating between separate hosts, it's allowing one host to communicate between separate body parts they aren't meant to have."

Twilight looked down at the floor for a second, before suddenly looking back up at me with new found vigor. "Wait a second! You said that the experiment was to bring the qualities of certain animals together into one being, right?"

I nodded my head curiously.

Twilight jumped over to one of her bookshelves. "Well," she continued, taking one of the books out with the magic and flipping it to a certain page. "check THIS out!"

Twilight held the book up to my face, and after pushing it away a little farther, I could make out what it said. It mentioned the mythical chimera, a beast made up out of different kinds of animals. A picture beside the paragraph showed an animal that had three tails made out of snakes, the body of a lion, and had two heads where only one should be: one of a goat, and one of a lion.

Pushing the book away, I scribbled down a few sentences on my chalk board. "A chimera. Yep, that definitely describes me. Although, I don't see how that helps our current situation."

"Well, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna banned the creation of chimeras after they took control of Equestria. They claimed that nopony should ever play around with the creation of life, no matter what. I was only going to tell the princess about you later during my scheduled check-in, since I didn't want to borrow them with their royal duties, but I think this is as good a reason as any to interrupt their schedule. SPIIIKE!"

After a couple of seconds of silence, Twilight called out again. "SPIKE! Are you still asleep?" She said, walking back into her bedroom.

After a couple of seconds, a bipedal lizard walked sleepily out of the room, his eyes half-closed. He stopped and turned towards me, then continued walking. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and he jerked his head towards me.

I waved at him.

"Wow, Twilight wasn't kidding! There really is an alien here!" The purple lizard exclaimed in surprise.

"I can't believe you honestly thought I was making something like that up to try and get you out of bed." Twilight said, now walking out of the bedroom.

"You look really cool, Mr. Alien. I'm glad you're on our side!" He then leaned over to Twilight and whispered "He IS on our side, right?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "No, Spike. We let a dangerous alien bent on destroying us all into the house."

I shook my head and attempted to chuckle before taking up the chalkboard again. From the look on spike's face, I don't think the chuckle came out quite right.

"What's up, dude? My name's U-3."

I paused at that. While I had told everyone my name was U-3, in honesty I actually couldn't remember my real name. I'm pretty sure it started with a 'P'.

Regardless of my name's viability, after Spike got done reading, I offered my closed hand out for a fist-bump. Spike flinched from the sudden movement, but he blushed a little at his reaction when he realized what I was doing. Something caught spike's eye as he fist-bumped me, and his face lit up in amazement.

"Wow, mister! You have claws, too!" Spike continued in excitement. "Do you know anything about dragons?"

I was about to nod my head when Twilight interrupted. "Spike, focus! You can ask him all the questions you want later, but for now we've got to get a letter to the princess!"

He looked a little down at not being able to get an answer to my question yet, before I tapped him on the shoulder, and nodded at him. He seemed to realize I was answering his question, and his face lit back up.

Then, out of seemingly nowhere, Spike produced a quill and paper.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Dear Princess Celestia, I apologize for not sending my letter in the allotted time slot, but I think you should know that I have come into possession of a Chimera-like being that claims he is from another planet. Taped to the bottom of this scroll will be a picture of the alien. I'm afraid I must request your presence at the soonest opportunity. Sincerely, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

"Aaannnd... done!" Spike exclaimed, putting emphasis on placing the last period.

I was about to ask how we were going to get the picture when there was a bright flash. I leaned back slightly and covered my eyes with my human arm in a reflexive response, but it was, of course, already too late. I noticed my tongue had raised itself a lot further into the air, and I could only assume it was out of reflex.

The light faded to reveal Twilight Sparkle levitating a pictograph in front of her. A picture came out of the back, which Twilight then flapped in the air for a couple of seconds. To my surprise, the picture came out in full color, and showed me in a relaxed state (which was still pretty terrifying). My shoulders were slouched back, and my tongue held itself in front of me in it's normal position. My lower half hadn't changed much, considering it was still having to stand up and hold my weight.

Twilight levitated the picture over to Spike, who seemed to have somehow found a roll of tape while I wasn't looking. Taking the picture from Twilight's magic, he tape the four corners of the picture to the scroll, before rolling it up and breathing fire on it. I was about to voice my complaint when I noticed the ashes of the scroll roll up into a line and float out of the window.

Oh right. Magic.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. I started scribbling down on my chalkboard again before showing it to Twilight.

"I think you forgot to include the part where i'm not hostile."

"Oh, i'm sure the princess will be able to peice it together." Her face then showed a hint of doubt for a second. "I hope."

I erased what I had put so far, and wrote down another sentence.

"If not, you think my charming good looks will win her over?"

Twilight actually giggled at my joke. Yes! I can still be funny even if I look like a monster!

A line of ashes suddenly came in through the window, and materialized as a scroll in front of Twilight. Twilight caught the scroll with her magic and opened it up before reading it out loud.

"My faithful student, I will be right there. Put the scroll down on the floor and step away from it. I shall be using it as a guide for my long-range teleportation spell."

Twilight immediately ran over to a big, empty spot on the floor and put the scroll down. Afterwards, she ran over to the side of me and faced the scroll with the most official expression I had ever seen a pony have.

There was a bright flash of light , and when it faded, there stood a normal-sized white horse sporting both a horn and a pair of wings. Her mane was rainbow-colored, like Rainbow Dash's. However, unlike Dash's mane, her's was a lot brighter in color, and seemed to perpetually flow in a non-existent wind. She wore a hard expression.

"Twilight, get away from him!" The white horse ordered.

Twilight, in a mix of confusion and surprise, actually trotted away from my side and over to, who I now assumed to be, Princess Celestia.

This is looking really bad. I HAVE to defuse this situation somehow...writing, maybe? No, that's too slow... WAIT! I've got it!

Slowly, ever so slowly, I raised my hand... and waved.

Chapter 5 - Differences in Opinion

Celestia's expression showed signs of confusion, but before I could get a good look at it, she quickly changed it back to the 'official' expression from before. She quickly turned her head towards Twilight.

"Twilight Sparkle, why have you brought this creature here from the Everfree Forest?" Celestia asked in a voice that echoed authority.

Oh wow. First and last name. She must be in it really deep.

I looked over to Twilight to see her sweating bullets. "I..uhm...I..." Twilight stammered.

Wow, she's really not taking this well. Hey, hang on a second... how did Celestia know I was from the Everfree Forest?

I tapped on the chalkboard and cleared my throat (although it came out as more of a gurgling noise) to grab their attention. It worked pretty good, if Celestia switching her apprehensive look from Twilight to me was considered "good". Twilight looked up at me in relief when she saw Celestia divert her gaze away from her.

I quickly wrote down what I needed and turned it around slowly. "How did you know I was from the Everfree Forest?"

Celestia's expression finally broke. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped.

"You can write?" she asked.

I nodded and scribbled down another note. "Yep. I used to be able to talk, but speech is pretty much impossible with the mouth I have now."

Celestia looked shocked.

Wow. I'm surprised at how good I am at reading ponies' expressions, considering I'm not one of them. Although I think Celestia might actually be more of a horse rather than a pony. Maybe that language spell extends over to facial expressions?

"I am truly sorry. I did not know that you were intelligent when I attacked you in the forest. Is there any way you can forgive me?" Celestia asked.

Attacked?

I looked myself over for scars.

Nothing. Although, it's not like I could tell, what with the whole "unfamiliar body" thing.

I went ahead and nodded at Celestia. Heck, for all I know, she might have been the one to drive me out of the forest.

Relief washed over Celestia's face. "That is good to know. A huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders."

I quickly wrote down another few sentences. "One thing, though. As you can see, I'm kind of having a bit of trouble talking thanks to my, ahem, "special" physiology. I don't suppose you could help me out there, could you?"

Yeah, I'm milking this for all it's worth.

Celestia's face seemed to brighten up. "While I'm afraid I can't actually alter your physiology, I think I do know something that might work."

Celestia walked over to me with her horn glowing. It was only then she seemed to realize how tall I actually was.

"Lean down, if you would."

I obliged, and she put her horn at my throat. I quickly leaned back up.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I need to make physical contact for this to work." She reassured me.

Seems fishy. That thing looks really sharp and stab capable. But considering what's happened, I don't think she would actually do that. I hope.

Hesitantly leaning back down, I flinched slightly when the horn touched my throat.

For a horn, it's surprisingly warm. Almost hot, actually.

Before I could muse about it any further, a sensation crept into my throat from where Celestia's horn was. It traveled up past my mouth, through the back of my nose, to behind my eyballs before covering to spread all around my head and ears. My mind went blank before scrabbling back to its senses. I seemed to be feeling refreshed, to boot.

Celestia's horn left my throat. The warm sensation seemed to stay with me before slowly fading back to my normal temperature. I rubbed the spot where Celestia's horn made contact.

Huh. So that's what magic feels like.

"Try speaking." Celestia said with the slightest enthusiasm.

"Is your horn always that hot?"

Shock, suprise, and embarassment all around. some of them even had blushes. It was especially apparent on Twilight, whose cheeks had turned a crazy shade of red. Celestia's face had hardly changed, but even she had a slight blush. I guess it's really hard to hide something like that when you're pure white in color.

"Erm...no. While unicorn's horns are naturally warm because of all the magic running through them, that was an especially difficult spell. I wouldn't be surprised if it was abnormally hot. How is your voice?" She asked, quickly changing the subject.

I mentally smacked myself.

I DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO CHECK MY OWN VOICE.

"I don't know, let me check." I said.

Let's see... smooth, not crackly, and, surprisingly, not mine. While it was still definitely masculine, It just wasn't mine. It sounded more...Monotone. Kind of like a robot. One problem though...

"I still have this huge tongue blocking my mouth, and I have no lips. How is this working?"

She started to say something before I interrupted her.

"And don't say 'magic'."

She closed her mouth before speaking again. "Well, if you want the gist of it, then It is interpreting what you want to say based on the movement of your vocal cords mixed with the nerve signals sent from your brain to your now nonexistant lips and making the sounds for you."

"Wow, that DOES sound complicated. And you did all that by yourself?"

She nodded. "Being over two-thousand years old does have its benefits. But listen," Her voice changed to a serious tone. "While I was poking around, I found something that you might want to know about."

"What is it?" My voice becoming serious as well.

"There is another mind inside of you." Celestia said.

I relaxed. "Well crap, you should have said that earlier. I already know about that. That's called the 'Las Plagas'."

"Care to explain?"

I explained to her everything that had happened. My life story, the Las Plagas, the Los Illuminados, and even how I came to be in Ponyville.

"Interesting. So you do not remember a thing between from when you were operated on until the time when you arrived outside of the forest?" Celestia asked with curiosity.

"Nope. Quite frankly I'm surprised that I'm sapient at all right now."

Celestia bit her lip. "I think I might know why that is. Tell me: what is your world like?"

"Well, it's kind of like your world, except that, for one, there's no magic--"

"I know what it is." Celestia immediately replied, cutting me off.

"Really? Well don't just stand there, tell me." I asked impatiently.

"Very well, but first, know this: Equestria is absolutely saturated in magic, and as a side-effect of this, every animal has at least some form of sapience."

I mulled that over. That could present a problem if I turned out to be a carnivore. Still, though, I don't see how that is connected to anything.

"That's interesting, but I don't see how that's important."

"It's important because it's the reason why you aren't rampaging through the town." Celestia revealed.

Oh. I feel stupid now.

"Alright, but that doesn't explain why I can't go near the Everfree Forest without feeling like I'm going to go back to being the mindless beast I once was." I said.

"Well, this one's kind of complicated." She continued. " The Everfree Forest has always been resistant to magic of any kind. It's part of the reason we once made our home there, since it provided a natural protection against any magical assault."

I nodded, signaling for her to go on.

"While the Everfree Forest is resistant to magic of any kind, it does have a breaking point. It definitely cannot hold up to an entire atmosphere of magic surrounding,and so the magic that saturates the air penetrates the forest, but at a severly reduced rate. I'm afraid this reduction of magic in the air is why the Everfree Forest reverts you to a primal state. It normally just severly reduces the intelligence of the animals effected by the magic in the air instead of making them completely primal, but I'm afraid it might have been a bit too much for you." Celestia finally finished.

I sat there absorbing that information for a few seconds.

Of course, it's magic. What else could it be?

"I don't suppose you know a spell to keep the forest from affecting me, do you?" I asked hopefully.

Celestia shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we haven't really done any research in that department; there was never a reason to. I can try to have my scientists come up with a way to protect you, though."

I nodded my head. "Okay, that sounds good."

We sat there for a few more seconds until I remembered something that had been bothering me.

"Oh, hey. You wouldn't happen to have any idea of how I got to this world, would you?" I asked offhandedly.

Celestia went back to her poker face. "I do, but before I tell you, I must make sure that you are truly of a righteous heart, and that this isn't simply a facade."

Well, this is a surprise. A test? Bring it on.

"Alright, what do I have to do?" I asked confidently.

"Lean down." Celestia simply replied.

"Well, alright." I said leaning down. "Honestly, I was expecting something harder--"

Celestia's horn lit up and touched my forehead. I black out almost immediately.

I woke up in a black void. I could only see black wherever I looked. However, even though there was literally nothing as far as the eye could see, It felt strangely comfortable. Kind of familiar, too.

"Right... this place again." I said, remembering the void I had visited before waking up on the ground outside of the forest.

"Where is this place, anyway?" I asked to no one in particular.

To my surprise, a voice actually answered me.

"We are inside of your mind." Rang out a feminine voice.

Turning towards the source of the voice, I witnessed Celestia gliding down towards me. She landed on a seemingly invisible floor beside me before tucking her wings to her side.

I started to get up before noticing two things:

I was already standing up somehow.
I wasn't a monster anymore.

"Holy crap! I'm "me" again!" I said happily, patting myself all over to make sure it was real.

Celestia tapped her hooves on the ground to draw my attention. The floor sounded like it was made out of tile. "Unfortunately, what you're seeing is just how you picture yourself. It's not actually real. Sorry."

I sighed and let my arms fall to my side. "I guess I should have known better. But hold on, if I'm inside of my mind, how are YOU here?"

"Well, in order to look at your memories and judge your character, I've directly linked my mind to yours. Unfortunately, I had to knock you out so I could have a direct line to your memories without your conciousness in the way."

Yeah, and so I can't dig around in your memories while you dig around in mine.

"I heard that." Celestia said.

I facepalmed.

Right, our minds are connected. Of course you can hear my thoughts. You've been doing this for a while, too, seeing as how you're so good at covering up YOUR thoughts.

Celestia simply remained silent.

"Anyway..." I continued, brushing myself off. Dust actually flew off into the air from my brown coat. "If you're looking into my memories, then you probably know what I was called before I become U-3."

"Indeed I have, James Shepard. Might I say that your world is very... interesting." She said.

I began to get suspicious. "Wait, how many memories have you seen already?"

"All of them."

"ALL of them? But I've only been awake for a few seconds!"

Celestia grimaced "Actually, I've been looking at your memories while you weren't "awake". The only reason you're "awake" now is because I need your help in seeing your memories between the surgery and arriving in Equestria."

"How in the world could I help?"

"Just try and remember, and I'll do the rest."

I thought this over. "Alright, but only on one condition: I get to pick the first memories."

"Very well. Which one did you have in mind?"

"How about right before I came here? You should know a rough estimate of how long I've been here, seeing as how you attacked me, so let's go back to right before I showed up."

"Very well." Celestia said.

Celestia's horn started to glow , and the world around them faded into color. I seemed to be back in my chimera-like body, although my actions were not my own. I was facing towards the ground so I couldn't see anything, but that wasn't an entirely accurate statement. I could feel another presence in my mind, and it felt exactly like the Las Plagas. This other presence let me connect to it and "see" from its perspective. Lo and behold, it WAS the Las Plagas. It seemed to be bursting from my back, and though I myself could barely feel anything, it seemed to be controling the lower half of my body perfectly well.

In front of me, though, was a face I recognized from my flashes of memories in front of the Everfree Forest.

What's he doing here?

It was only then I noticed the Smith & Wesson revolver in his hands.

The Las Plagas leaned down to roar at its enemy.

The man aimed his revolver.

No!

The man pulled the trigger. In that second, there was the most blinding flash of pain like no other. If I could have, there was no doubt in my mind that I would fall to my knees from the pain. The world started to swirl together, before fading to black. Everything seemed to tumble away.

Then, in a second, it all stopped. The pain vanished, leaving confusion in its wake. I looked up to see Celestia grimacing.

I guess she was affected by it, too.

"Yes, I was." She continued, placing a hoof on her head. "I must admit, I have felt pain from others' memories, but in none of them did I have to relive their deaths."

"Yeah, dying's kind of painful." I remarked.

Hey wait a second, that body is built like a tank. There's no way just one bullet would take it down. Unless...

"Jesus Christ, I must have been full of holes by that time. But if I felt the pain from that last bullet, why didn't I feel the pain that any of the other bullets he shot me with would have cause?"

Wait a minute. I could barely feel my body, like it was numb, and the plaga was controlling my body instead of me. Did the plaga take over when the pain became too much for me? Huh, I guess it must have taken the pain for me as well.

"Hold on." Celestia's voice rang out. "When we accessed that last memory, I felt a psychic link open up."

"Psychic link?" I said, pickin myself up of the floor I was laying down on again for some reason. "Psychicness was a lot more plausible in my world than magic, but even if it did exist, we didn't have the resources or technology to prove it."

I paused in thought before speaking again. "Hey, can you see who it's connected to?"

Celestia replied in a focused tone. "No, It is too small of a link for that. I'm going to try to force open the link. Steady yourself."

I sarcastically looked around for something to hang on to. Coming up with nothing, I just crossed my arms with an amused look instead.

"I meant mentally." She rolled her eyes. "Regardless, I'm starting. I'm very curious about this myself." Celestia said while her horn started to glow.

Soon enough, I started to feel another presence in my mind. Kind of like the Las Plagas, but it felt...different. It wasn't coming from inside of my body, but from somewhere else...somewhere...different.

I tried poking my metaphorical head through the metaphorical hole. It took some concentration, but I could finally start to see glimpses of another area.

Green.

Some kind of cacoon.

With green liquid in it.

And... A hand?

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Blinding light overwhelmed me.

The light faded to reveal I was back in Twilight's house, but all was not well. To my left, there was Celestia. Her bright fur had dimmed to a more white-ish grey color, and her hair's invisible wind seemed to blowing alot slower than usual. All of the ponies were surrounding her and looking to something to my right. Turning my head, I saw what drew their attention.

A freaking manticore had bursts through the wall.

That's right, a manticore. The thing that's supposed to shoot poisonous spikes and swallow its prey whole. And it was looking right at celestia with its sickly green eyes.

DO SOMETHING!

I got up and charged right at it. I think I took it by surprise, because it took quite a tumble. ended up a whole ten yards away from me. I turned around and looked at the ponies behind me.

"Stay back and protect Celestia!" I ordered.

I turned my attention back to the manticore. It seemed to have recovered from the hit.It stood on its four legs and roared at me. I flashed back to my own memory that Celestia showed me.

Wrong move, buddy.

I extended my tentacle arm to wrap around his neck and drag him towards me. I don't think he expected that, because of the surprised look and the way he freaked out. His neck was resilient as all hell, though, and resisted every attempt I made to bend it the entirely wrong way.

I got him about halfway to me before he finally remember he had claws. He swiped at my tentacle arm, and JESUS did those things hurt! I unwrapped my tentacle arm and retracted it before he could do any more damage.

I hope that poison doesn't carry over to the claws.

The manticore charged at me. Determined to meet it halfway, I charged as well. It lifted its front paw up for a swipe, but I caught it with my hand. It lifted its other arm up, and I caught that one with my tentacle arm. We were locked head-to-head. However, I had an advantage the manticore didn't.

I moved my upper body back, before slamming my head foreward into the mythical beast's head.

OH GOD, THAT WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA, JESUS CHRIST!

I cradled my head in my hand whie checking on the manticore. It seemed to have taken the hit alot harder than me, and was holding his head in his paw while on the ground with stars literally circling around his head.

Good, at least now I can stew in this pain for a little bit longer.

But no, the universe would not let me. Through th haze of my pain, the psychic link in my head suddenly burst wide open, replaying memories that were not mine.

"That was amazing, Lieutenant. The way you took out that perp on the run?" A voice that was not mine called out.

I seemed to be in a locker room of some kind. Grey painted the walls while a poster of a woman was put up on one side of the lockers.

A gruff man with a white handlebar moustache in the corner looked over to me."Naw, it was nothing. Just an old wrestling move from my younger years."

"I really mean it when I say it was amazing. Can you teach me how to do it?"

The Lieutenant seemed to consider this for a moment before speaking again. "Alright. You're gonna go places. Who knows? You might need it one of these days. But I want you to look me in the eyes and tell you will ABSOLUTELY not use this unless you HAVE to. It puts great pressure on the neck, and more often than not has a great risk of instantly killing someone by snapping their neck. I was probably wrong in busting it out tonight in the first place."

"I promise, sir. You have my word." My hand reached up and touched my forehead.

The man looked amused by this action. "Alright. First of all, you need to get behind 'em...."

I faded back into reality. I shook my head and looked towards the manticore. He was still down on the ground, but he was slowly coming to.

Good. He's still down. I know what to do.

I rushed over to the manticore, and the Lieutenant's voice rang out once more.

"If you can take out their legs, or just plain get them off balance, do it."

Already taken care of. He's on the ground.

I leaned down and grabbed around his sides. He seemed confused about why there were suddenly two things wrapped around him.

"After you get your arms around him , lift him up as hard as you can."

This is a one-time thing. If I mess up here, there's not gonna be an opportunity like this again. I HAVE to go all out.

I secured him in my grip, before lifting as hard as I could. The manticore came off of the ground and started to head upwards.

"The taller you are, the more of an impact it's gonna make. The way it works is that the taller you are, the longer they fall."

Taller. I can do taller.

I could feel the adrenaline flowing. I put that adrenaline to good use. Aided by the manticore's momentum, I pulled the manticore upward, and rose the front part of my lower body into the air. I was now only standing on my two back legs.

"After you get them up, all that's left is to get them over."

Over.

I threw myself backwards , slamming the manticore into the ground. A pained yelp could be heard from the manticore as its head met dirt.

"And that's how you do a German Suplex."

Letting go of the manticore, I rolled over and stood upright again, ready in case the manticore still wanted to fight. I noticed my upper body was swaying left and right again.

Surprisingly, the manticore actually got up. Slowly, but definitely surely. It turned towards me and I crouched down to lower my center of gravity in case he decided to charge again.

He rubbed his head with his paw, and slowly turned towards me before his eyes shot wide open. To my surprise, his eyes were not a sickly shade of green anymore, but instead, regular old white. He yelped before running off back in the direction of the forest.

It was only now I noticed the crowd of ponies watching me. I was still too far in the depths of my adrenaline rush to notice or care about their expression. My only thought was making sure the others were safe.

Turning back to the house, I noticed Celestia weakly walking towards me, still as dull as before. She was followed by the rest of the ponies. I breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down. Unfortunately, the ponies in the crowd were now bowing, and I could not see their expressions with their heads lowered.

I decided to ask some hard questions.

"What the HELL just happened?" I asked, still regaining my breathe from the battle.

"I think I may have some answers." Celestia replied.

Chapter 6 - Another Side

I took my place beside the president.

"As a reward for all of your hard work, and for going above and beyond the call of duty, I'm promoting you to my personal body guard!"

The sounds of clapping fill the stadium.

"Thank you, Mister President!"

"Please, call me John."

"Of course, John."

"Now, before we get started, there's one more thing I need you to do."

"What is it?"

"Wake up."

"wha--"

My eyes flicked open. To my horror, I realized I was underwater. But it wasn't water. No, water is blue, this was green. I let out a yelp of surprise which was muffled from the liquid. Thankfully I was able to close my mouth before any was able to get in. The bad part about it, though, was that little yelp had cost me most of my oxygen. I knew from experience that I needed all I could get, and panicking was only going to make it worse.

I forced myself to calm down. My training kicked in, reminding me to observe the situation around me. It turned out that I wasn't actually in any kind of weird ocean or lake, but rather some kind of container of liquid. It seemed to be oval, standing on its side, and had one black bar on each "Side" of the oval. Inbetween each of bars seemed to be some kind of rough-looking, slightly transparent material that made up most of the container. I reached out to touch it, and it felt like leather. It bent slightly at my touch.

This thing doesn't seem too tough.

I reached to retrieve my knife from its tactical sheath strapped to my chest only to find it wasn't there.

I went for my gun, but it wasn't there either!

What? How am I supposed to get out of this now?

The rear of your right boot. You keep a swiss army knife in there, remember?

I was ready to question why there was a voice in my head, but the burning in my lungs decided to remind me of why I needed to stop asking questions for the moment.

I'm not done with you yet.

Duly noted.

I bent down and retrieved a swiss army knife my the rear of my right boot, just like the voice said. I had completely forgotten all about it, but I do keep one in there. It's not useful in a fight, but it's handy for situations like this.

I flipped open the knife from its "resting" position and flipped it around in my hand. I raised my hand above my head and thrusted it into the material. Just as I had hoped, it cut right through it. I tore the knife straight down through the material and cut a line through it. The liquid started pouring out of the cut as soon as I made it. I brought my left hand to the outside of the leathery material and pulled myself towards the cut I had made.

This definitely isn't water. It's harder to move in than any kind of lake I've been in.

I put my right leg out of the cut and searched for any solid ground. Thankfully I found some in a matter of seconds, and put my weight on it before swinging the rest of my body out of the container. It took all of my willpower to make sure I was far away from the torrent of liquid pouring out before gasping for some much-needed breath.

After catching my breath, I decided to take a look around, starting with the container I was in. Looking at it from the outside, it looked more like a chrysalis than a container. But something else caught my eye, namely the rows of chrysalises that looked exactly like the one he was trapped in. Each one glowed with a luminescent green light bright enough to light up the immediate area around it, but nothing more.

I walked over to the chrysalis nearest to me, and put a hand on it. It cast a soft glow across my arm, and it had the same texture as the one I was trapped in earlier.

There's so many, and they're all empty. How long have I been here?

I brought my hand level with my eyes.

My fingers are pruned. Surely there's no way I've been in there THAT long. I'd have been long dead by then.

"How are you awake?" A panicked feminine voice called out.

I turned towards the source of the voice only to find a horse. But it wasn't just a horse. It was a horse with a horn. Not only that, it had holes going right through its legs, and, on closer inspection, wings too.

Time seemed to stand still while I buzzed around inside of my head for answers.

Genetic experiments, maybe? I've heard B.O.W.'s were getting popular on the black market. It formed a coherent sentence, though! Does it have human intelligence? I thought the point of B.O.W.'s was to have a super soldier that doesn't question orders. Whatever. It has intelligence, so maybe I can reason with it.

All of these thoughts had taken place in one second to the outside world. They don't call me a quick thinker for nothing.

"Hey. Take it easy. My name's Leon, I work for the president. Can I ask you a couple of questions?" I said carefully.

"What? I...I suppose so." The creature said hesitantly.

"That's good. You wouldn't mind coming closer, would you?" I said in the same tone I would use to talk to a small child. Just because the creature had intelligence doesn't mean it had the experience and teachings of a grown adult.

The creature hesitantly stepped forward into the light of the chrysalis. I could see its face clearly now. It seemed to be... afraid? It was tall enough to be level with my neck. I could see from the way the light shined off of it that, instead of skin, it had a rough, black exoskeleton.

Remind you of something? Starts with a 'verdu', ends with a 'go'.

I shivered slightly at the memory of my fight with the verdugo. The creature's expression seemed to lighten up at my shivering. Now it seemed... Cocky? It's hard to tell with B.O.W.'s.

"Afraid?" The creature asked in a proud tone.

"No, you just reminded me of someone." I replied back coolly.

"Oh." She(?) replied in a dissapointed voice. Her ears folded back against her head as well.

Alright, horse ears do not work that way. It's time to get some answers.

"If you don't mind me asking, who or what are you?" I asked.

"In all honesty, I should be the one asking you that. But I suppose you did already give your name and occupation, so I suppose I should do the same. I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings." She said witha sort of practiced grace.

Changelings. Lets see... the offspring of trolls and...elves it think? Don't the parents abduct a child of two human parents and put the changeling in its place? If that's true, what was I doing in a chrysalis?

Good thing you got into the supernatural after Raccoon City, huh?

"Could you tell me what I was doing in those Chrysalises?" I asked.

Heh, Chrysalis' chrysalises.

"They were going to..." she trailed off into a mumble.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you."

"I said they were going to..." She trailed off into mumbles again.

"Seriously, speak up. I can't hear what you're saying."

"I SAID THEY WERE GOING TO CHANGE YOU INTO A CHANGELING!"

My eyes popped opened in surprise. "WHAT! WHY?" I demanded.

"So you could survive in this world! Your quantum structure wouldn't survive in this world, so I had to change your structure!" she quickly said.

I calmed myself, and slowly nodded my head before speaking.

"Yep. That's definitely the biggest pile of crap I've ever heard."

She looked surprised. "What? How did you know?"

"I can catch even the best liars from a mile away. It's part of the reason I was chosen for Secret Services." True story.

"Secret what now?" She asked confused.

"Nevermind. Now, I'm gonna ask you again, and I want the truth this time: Why was I in the chrysalis?"

She hesitated for a couple of seconds with a nervous expression before finally relenting. "Because we're afraid of you."

"What? Afraid of me? Why?"

"We saw everything you did! That town, the castle, the Island, even everything while you were passed out! How are you still alive after all of that?" she exclaimed.

What? How did they even see all of that?

He sighed. "Alright, we're gonna play a game. I'm gonna ask you a question, and you're gonna answer truthfully. Then you get to ask me a question, and I'll return the favor..."

Chapter 7 - The Grass is Always Greener

"Alright, so let me see if I've got the facts straight." I said, running my hand through my hair. "I'm not in my world anymore, there are talking ponies instead of humans here, and they can either fly, use magic, or are rediculously strong, depending on the type of species."

"Correct. And you were sent on a mission by a leader your country chose to represent itself because his daughter was stolen by an evil cult, but it was only supposed to be an investigation, not a struggle for survival." Chrysalis stated.

"Right."

"Actually, 'struggle for survival' might be the wrong word for it. You almost made it all look easy." Chrysalis said.

It was kind of fun, wasn't it?

I almost forgot about you.

"Right. Hey, listen. I've got another question for you." I said.

"Go right ahead."

"Since I broke out of that chrysalis thing early, there wouldn't happen to be any...side effects, would there?"

"Why do you ask that?" Chrysalis asked, intrigued with the subject.

Because I have a voice in my head.

...I hate when you're right.

"Because... I... have a voice in my head." I finally relented.

"I don't see how that's such a problem."

I raised an eyebrow. "It wasn't there before."

"Oh." She simply said.

She put a hoof to her muzzle in thought. How weirdly human. "No one has ever broken free of the Chrysalis before the transformation was complete, so I really don't have any information on the subject matter."

"Crap. Well, any idea what this 'voice' might be? Voices don't just pop up from nowhere."

"I might know the answer. Tell me, is the voice in your head telling you to follow my every whim no matter what?"

No.

Stop doing that.

No.

"No." I simply stated.

"Well then I guess it isn't the voice of the hive." She said.

"Voice of the hive? You guys work in a Hive Mind?"

"I... guess that's an accurate description. I've never really thought of a name for it. Mind if I borrow it?" She asked.

I waved my hand. "Go ahead. I'm not the one that thought it up anyways."

"Thanks. So, about this voice..." She trailed off.

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you just ask it about itself?" She asked quizzically.

"That might be as effective as dirt, but I'll try." I said.

Hey--

I heard, and to answer your question, I think I'm part of your subconscious.

You 'think'?

Well, I'm about as sure as you on the subject, considering I AM you. I might have been awoken by the effects of the chrysalis, but even I'm not sure. The best way I can describe it is this: You know the voice in the back of your head that always helped you during times of extreme stress, like in Raccoon City and during the mission?

Yeah?

I'm that voice.

"Hey, have you found out what it is yet?" Chrysalis said, snapping me out of my reverie.

I realized I was staring off in some random direction, and snapped my attention back towards her. "Yeah. It's nothing to worry about."

Heck, if you've helped me before, nothing to worry about, right?

Right.

"Would you mind telling me what it is? For the sake of research, of course." Chrysalis asked hopefully.

"The closest I can put it is that it's a part of me. Sort of like a part of my subconcious." I replied.

"Huh. That's a weird side effect. Has anything else changed? Can you transform?" She asked.

"Transform?" I said curiously.

Suddenly, Chrysalis burst into green flames. Thinking quickly, I grabbed my swiss army knife and was ready to plunge it into the chrysalis beside Chrysalis to let out the substance and douse the flames, but suddenly the fire stopped. I looked towards the fading flames to see -- not Chrysalis -- but a combination of a pegasus and a unicorn instead.

"You like?" She asked in an entirely different voice from her own.

Before I could stop myself, the words "How did you do that?" left my mouth.

They're changelings. It's in their names. Duh.

"The ability to change our form is inherent to all changelings, whether they were born one or converted." She stated.

Yeah, about that...

Questions later, super powers now.

I guess you've got a point there.

"Alright, so how can I tell if I can transform or not? I mean, it's not like I've done it before or anything." I said.

"Simply envision yourself as what you want to transform yourself into, and your changeling side should do the rest."

Changeling side? Great, I'm half changeling.

Quit complaining. You've got super powers, don't you?

Yeah, but at what cost? If that's true, I'm partly not human anymore, and some part of me might be completely loyal to Chrysalis.

You've got a point there. I REALLY hope that's not me.

You and me both, pal. Alright, I think I know a certain stylish devil hunter I want to look like.

Dante from Devil May Cry? There might be a slight problem with that.

What?

You two look almost exactly alike, minus the hair and stuff. Seriously, have you ever looked at a picture of you two side by side?

Fine, point proven. Actually, that brings something to mind. Dante's only more powerful than other devils because his emotions give him power, right?

I see where you're going with this, and if you don't ask about this, I'm going to strangle you.

Heh.

"Sorry for the long wait, but could you clarify something for me?" I asked.

"What is it?" She said as she transformed back to her original form.

"You guys feed off of emotions, like love and all that, right?"

"Yes..."

"Does that mean you aren't capable of emotions yourself?"

Chrysalis looked slightly saddened at this subject. "While we do indeed have our own emotions,but unlike other creatures, they slowly fade away with time. That is why we must constantly replenish our own supply, least we slowly become weaker and more animal-like until, finally, we lose the thing that keeps all living things living: the will to live. After that, our body just starts simply shutting down, or, worse yet, we go on a mindless rampage until we die of exhaustion."

"That's...surprisingly grim from what you've told me of this world." I said in morbid surprise. "I can't imagine what it must be like to slowly lose what makes you 'you' until you just aren't 'you' anymore." I paused in thought for a moment. "Actually, scratch that, I can. It almost happened to me once."

She raised an eyebrow at me (I didn't know they had those).

"Remember how I had the plaga inside of me, and I actually lost control of myself at one point before I was able to get it out?" I helpfully said.

"Oh yes... that. It took that woman stabbing you in the leg to snap you out of it, right?" She asked.

"Right, and that one wasn't even fully grown. I don't wanna imagine what would have happened if it had grown to full maturity." I said.

"Yeah..." she said sheepishly.

Actually, it would be kind of similar to what Chrysalis was trying to do, don't you think?

"Actually, I'd imagine it would be kind of like what you were trying to do to me just a couple of minutes ago." I said with disapproval dripping off of my voice.

"The chrysalises haven't been used in a long time!" She hastily said. "Please trust me! We wouldn't dare think of adding another member to the changeling race! I was wrong to even consider changing you! We barely have enough emotion to go around as it is!" She exclaimed pleadingly.

Food shortages? Sounds like someone's falling on rough times.

"Alright, I trust you. But promise me you won't use those chrysalises on anyone against their will again." I said.

"Yes! I promise!" She said desperately.

She was a little too quick to agree to such an extreme term. I think I might actually be their last hope or something.

Good thing you took debate class to meet that girl in high school, huh?

I smirked.

I can honestly say that I never thought something like that would ever come in handy.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it. Trust me when I say that nothing good can come of brain washing." I decided to change the topic. "Anyways, I think I'm going to go ahead and try to transform now. Stand back."

Chrysalis took a couple of steps back, and I closed my eyes.

Alright, I think I know who I want to transform into.

Harry Mason from Silent Hill 1?

I know me so well.

I pictured myself in my mind. I was standing in a black void, still dressed in my black shirt and pants the combat gear that I had purchased from the merchant. I pictured myself slowly morphing into into another person, my long blonde hair receding and fading into a soft brown. my clothes slowly reshaped themselves like a liquid before solidifying into a blue jeans, and a brown jacket over a black vest with a white undershirt. My face sowly shaped itself like clay into that of another individual. I heard the sound of fire blazing all around me, and opened my eyes to see the last remnants of green fire dying out around me.

I looked down at my hands and saw the sleeves of a brown jacket.

"Yes! It WORKED!" A silly grin spread itself across my face.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, looked a little discouraged. "Uh, one problem."

I raised an eyebrow.

"While your clothes and hair have indeed changed, your face looks exactly the same as it did before." She said.

Crap. Well I guess that's not bad for only being halfway inhuman.

I closed my eyes again, and imagined my form morphing back into its original form. I heard the familiar burst of green flame and opened my eyes to see my arms back to their original form.

"So it's official now. I'm half changeling. Is this permanent?" I asked.

I don't look forward to having to avoid iron for the rest of my life.

"No. I'd imagine the changes would revert the moment you go back to your world." Chrysalis said.

Phew, dodged a bullet there.

Speaking of bullets, I'll have to be sure to ask for my weapons back later. Right now I have another question.

"You said you summoned me, right? Would you mind telling me how and why you ended up summoning me?"

Chrysalis sighed. "Alright, but first you'll need to know a few things."

She told me of her people's shortage of emotions because of a "changeling craze", and how it led her to invade the capital of Equestria in a last ditch effort to save her people, which I could neither condemned nor approved of. It fell under the catagory of "necessary evil" for me, seeing as how the ponies were so prejudiced against the changelings. She told me how it failed, and most of her changelings were either killed in the resulting blast, or hunted down and killed without a second thought because of the escalated "changeling craze". She explained how rest were either with her and in hiding, or disconnected from the hive altogether.

"Anyways, shortly after the invasion, sometime after the invasion one of my changeling drones were flying over the Everfree forest, which we are currently deep inside of. I can 'see' through every changeling's eyes as if they were my own, being the "central hivemind" if you will. What I saw through my changeling's eyes was the princess of the night casting some sort of spell, complete with intricate drawings on the ground. I ordered the drone to land close to her and listen in. I 'heard' the Princess of the Night talking about summoning a hero to protect Equestria from the remnants of the changelings. Unfortunately, before I could listen to any more, I felt the presence of the Princess of the Sun arriving, and told my child to hurry back to base before it risked the chance of discovery. I never saw what happened, but I did see the specifics of the spell on the drawings."

"And you thought you'd summon a hero as well." I finished for her.

"Well... yes. I replicated the spell's drawings, and it was easy enough to figure out what to do from there. Fortunately the summoning seemed to knock you out, but unfortunately I got a glimpse of your memory."

"Lemme guess. It was the mission." I supplied.

"Yes, and that horrified me. As soon as I regained my composure I threw you into one of the chrysalises in the hopes that you would turn. That way you would be controllable so you couldn't turn on us and kill us all as soon as you awoke."

I could tell she was being honest. "What in the world would make you think that? I did that entire mission to save someone."

Chrysalis rubbed the back of her head sheepishly with her hooves (which should be impossible, but I should start learning to stop questioning these things). "I... admit that I might not have been thinking as well as I should have. I was coming in here to observe you and possiby reconsider my actions when I found you, actually. The chrysalises are only supposed to be used as a last resort, like, for example, in case we absolutely need more soldiers for a battle, or when we are near extinction. However, with the 'changeling craze' going on, a lot of ponies are distrustful of everyone, and it's hard getting even a drop of love or pity from someone when they're paranoid about everyone. We're running out of food, and with the Equestrian's hero soon to be on our trail, I might have gotten a little too desperate and hasty in my actions. So please forgive me for trying to turn you. I am truly sorry." She finished.

The emotions were an act, but the words were truly ment. I can see how having only a few of your species left, as well as having imminent extermination on the horizon could lead you to making some desperate and hasty decisions.

I nodded my head. "Alright. I forgive you. But remember what I said about using the chrysalises. No more changing people against their will."

"I promise." She lifted a hoof to her heart. "No more changing ponies against their will."

I nodded and smiled, before thinking of something.

"Hey, how many changelings are left?" I said with a tone of hope.

"Not counting me and the ones that are disconnected from the hive, there's four. We barely have enough emotions to go around, so they agreed that they should be put to sleep until we find a good source of emotions to feed on." She explained with a hint of sadness.

"So you need a good source of emotions, huh? Good thing you're looking at one." I said smugly.

Chrysalis' eyes seemed to light up. "You would really do that for us?" The shine in her eyes was then replaced by suspicion. "Wait, we tried to brain wash you and turn you into one of us. Why would you help us after what we did?"

I shrugged. "I'm just a nice guy, and you seem to be falling on some hard times. I'd rather die than not give help to someone who needs it. It goes against everything I stand for."

Chrysalis seemed to be bouncing up and down. "Oh, this is marvelous! I was hoping that after you found out what we did, you'd just leave without hurting us or telling the guards, but this is so much better! I can't thank you enough, Mr. Kennedy!"

I smiled. The sight kind of brought a warm and fuzzy feeling to my chest. "Sure, sure. But please, call me Leon. Now then, show me where these changelings are."

She happily turned around and led the way.

"So, you found Luna trying to summon a hero, and she convinced you it was a good idea. However, instead of the man you were trying to get, you got me?" A monotonous voice called out.

The Sun Princess and the U-3 experiment were sitting in the living room of Twilight's library, discussing how U-3 had come to Equestria. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Lyra had been sent home, and the house patched up. The princess had assured the town's ponies that U-3 was not a threat, but it was only a temporary solution, and a proper introduction to the town was still in order. Fluttershy had chased after the manticore, and assured them that, while it was indeed injured, it was nothing permanent. In fact, she said that what U-3 did might have actually fixed a number of back problems he had developed over the years.

"Yes, and while you were mortally injured at first, we both used our combined powers to heal you. We had no idea what you were, and we were almost drained of energy, but we knew that when the magic of light and dark were combined, it could accomplish great things. However, when you stood up, well, to say we weren't expecting a monster was an understatement. As soon as you got up you looked at us and roared in what I assume was hostility. At first, I attempted to battle you, but Luna convinced me that we were both in no shape to fight, and so we fled." Celestia responded.

"After that I guess I found my way to Fluttershy's after a couple of days." I suggested. "By the way, what was up with your coat and mane back when the manticore attacked? The colors seem a bit duller than usual."

"Ah, yes. That." She seemed a bit embarrassed. "When I was thrown from the manticore's entrance, the psychic link I had connected to you was suddeny severed, and the back lash from it left me disconnected from the magic that flows through Equestria, as well as my own. A side effect of this was a decrease in the brightness of my fur and mane." She explained.

"Huh. Interesting. Speaking of the manticore, you said it was brain washed. Do you know by who?" I asked inquisitively

"Yes. It was most definitely the work of the changeling queen, Chrysalis. I assume you've heard about them?" Celestia asked.

I nodded my head. "The girls told me about them while we waited for Twilight to get up. Invading a capital is a serious move, one that wouldn't be made without serious thought."

"Yes, I'd imagine it was the knowledge of changelings becoming commonplace among the populace that drove them to do it. It was a foolish move, but it almost worked. Luckily they were not succesful, and most of them have been taken care of by now." Celestia said.

" 'Taken care of'?" I asked for clarification.

"Tracked down and disposed of. They're heartless monsters who have kidnapped thousands of ponies, and are responsible for injuring hundreds of my subjects in that attack. They're ruthless, and just don't listen to reason. The fact that they just sent a manticore to attack a village should be reason enough to prove that. I wish I could negotiate with them, I truly do, but It seems that diplomacy just isn't an option here. " She finished.

Ugh. Genocide. It doesn't sit right with me, but if they're really that much of a threat, I suppose it's a necessary evil.

"Luna should be here soon." Celestia said, quickly changing the subject. "We'll wait until she gets here to regroup and head towards the changeling's hide out in the Everfree Forest. If she and I can work together, we could probably develop a way to keep the forest from effecting you. Until then, however, we should prepare to introduce you to the town. I'd imagine they'd want answers for why a monster beat up another monster." She said.

I nodded, and watched as she went out of the door. I could see reporters standing outside waiting for her. The door closed behind her before I could get a good look at any of them, though.

Well, I'm all alone now, save for Spike and Twilight who should be back soon. I'm in a library, might as well read up on what's real in this world.

I awkwardly shuffled over to one of the book cases, trying to keep my head low enough not to bump into the ceiling. Luckily, I managed to find what I was looking for right off the bat.

That's some effecient organizing. I thought as I retrieved the book from the book case.

" The Fauna of Equestria, huh? Seems like what I'm looking for." I said as I cracked the book open.

"Here we are!" Chrysalis said.

This tunnel is HUGE.

I looked around me. It seemed to be one long, gigantic tunnel, with hundreds of sizable holes covering either side of the cave.

I gave an impressed whistle. "Did you guys build this all by yourselves?"

"Well, not us specifically, but most of the swarm. This used to be the sleeping quarters. It still is, I guess, but now it doesn't house anywhere near the number of changelings it used to." She said solemnly.

Suddenly, she hung her head down. "I was really foolish. I never should have done that stupid invasion. I thought it would save us, but now it's done the exact opposite! We're almost dead, and It's all my fault!" her expression twisted into one of pained agony, and tears began to fall from her eyes. "It's all my fault!"

She collapsed into a sobbing heap.

I guess the reality of the situation never really hit her until just now.

The empty sleeping spaces must have reminded her of that fact and forced it to the front of her mind.

I crouched down to her level, and placed a hand on her neck. I slowly started petting her up and down her mane. "You did your best--"

"My best got us killed!" She cried.

"No one could have blamed you for what happened. Your people were starving, and you did the only thing you could."

"But what if there was something else I could have done! I could have saved them all! They could still be alive! I'm so stupid!"

This isn't working. Let's try another approach.

"Listen:" I grabbed her head and forced her to make eye contact before continuing. "Your people were starving. They had no chance of finding another source of food, and if you hadn't done anything, your people would have died a slow death. But you did what you needed to do. You were presented with an impossible situation and you came out with a game plan. Now I don't know much about what your kind thinks, but I'd consider that pretty freaking impressive."

She sniffled. "Really?"

"Really."

Nearby , the sound of bodies sliding against stone were heard. I turned towards the source and smiled before speaking again.

"I think someone wants say 'hello' ." I said.

Chrysalis turned around to look towards the source, and her teary eyes burst open.

"M-...My queen? Why am I awake? Have we found a suitable food source?" The first changeling asked, rubbing his eyes. The others were busy crawling out of the holes they were tucked into.

"But--How? That was just sympathy! There's no way it would be enough to awaken all of you!" She turned towards me ,wide-eyed, before her horn lit up in a green glow.

"By the gods! The emotion is just pouring out of you! I've never seen sympathy this strong!"

Okay, I know I'm being sympathetic right now, but nowhere near the amount she's implying. What's going on?

I think I may have an idea, but I'll need to think it over for a while. Besides, you have some supernatural beings to feed.

I turned towards Chrysalis, still smiling, and offered my hand to help her up. She smiled, and put her hoof in my hand. I grabbed it, and helped her up. She sniffed and rubbed the tears out of her eyes.

"Let's get to work." She said.

Chapter 8 - No Pinkie, You Can't Name the Chapter.

My god, this world is terrifying.

Having finished the book, I closed The Fauna of Equestria and put it back into the shelf with my still human-ish right arm.

And here I was thinking this world was nothing but sunshine and lollipops. How in the world can these ponies sleep at night?

At that moment, the sound of camera shutters and shouting began to rise from outside. I shuffled over to near the window, and leaned down to pull the curtains back to see what was going on. As soon as I had made contact with the curtain, however, a bright purple flash and the sound of the balcony door opening drew my attention.

"In all my years of studying, I'll never know how the paparazzi always seem to know where Celestia is at any given time." Twilight sparkle said, with spike on her back. She seemed annoyed.

"Maybe they have somepony on the inside. Like a spy!" Spike enthusiastically suggested.

I raised an eyebrow (I don't know if they're still there, but dang it, I'm raising them!) at Spike riding Twilight like an actual horse.

"Spike, I don't think... wait, hold on a second. You might actually be on to something, Spike. They always seem to know where Celestia and I always go, and if all those reporters work for different companies, who knows how many spies we have!" Twilight said, her face (muzzle?) growing more paranoid by the second.

She seemed to notice the look I was giving her.

"What?" She asked.

"Well, two things:" I continued. "One: I think it's more likely there's only one spy handing out information at a price to different companies instead of multiple spies working for seperate companies all at the same time, and two: why is Spike riding you like we ride horses on our world?"

Both Twilight and Spike blushed. "Well, you see, not too long after Celestia gave me Spike to keep under my care, he started acting up while we were on our way to one of my lessons. He kept trying to wander off, and since I needed some way to keep an eye on him, the first thing that came to mind was to put him on my back. For some reason he calmed down right away when I did it, and he even went to sleep! From then on, it was just always more efficient to have Spike riding on my back. He could do things while I got us to where we needed to be, and I could always keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't start acting up. " Twilight finished explaining.

I smirked (bad idea, but they didn't react. I wonder if they're getting used to it by now?) " He calmed down immediately, and it was the first thing that came to mind? Why Twilight, if I didn't know better, I'd say it was a maternal instinct."

I totally knew better. Celestia had told me all about how Twilight had passed the fake entrance exam and hatched a fake egg.

Twilight and Spike's blush intensified tenfold. Their eyes made contact with each other, and they held their gazes toward each other. Their blushes slowly faded, only to be replaced with a warm smile on each one's face. Twilight turned back towards me before speaking.

"Yeah, I guess it was." She said with no embarrassment in her voice.

Huh. It's like they just had an entire conversation without even saying anything.

"I'll say! I wish I could do that!" said an unknown voice from behind me.

I swiveled my upper body around to find a pinky pony on my lower half's back smiling at me.

Who is that, and how did I not notice her climbing on my back?

"Pinkie Pie! How did you get in here?" Twilight said alarmedly.

"Through the front door, silly!" Pinkie cheerfully replied.

"But how did you get by without the paparazzi noticing you?" Twilight asked.

"What paparazzi?" Pinkie asked with honest confusion.

"What do you mean 'what paparazzi'? The ones outside! Look!" Twilight pulled open a curtain to show a completely empty space that had once been filled with countless reporters.

"Wait, what?" Twilight blurted.

All of a sudden, pinkie gasped and rose into the air in a magnificent display of blatant disregard for physics. Before I could even start talking, a flow of words started coming out of Pinkie's mouth.

"Oh my gosh Twilight! Me , you, U-3, and Spike should have a jousting contest! It'll be awesome and we can have it double as a 'Welcome to Equestria' party for U-3 and it can be the main event and we can have cake and-- *gasp* SPIKE CAN BE A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR JUST LIKE HE ALWAYS DREAMED OF!"

Spike blushed hard.

"Actually Pinkie, as exciting as that sounds, I think we should leave it to Celestia to plan the introduction." Twilight said carefully.

"So you mean we aren't going to go jousting?" Pinkie asked unsurely.

"Maybe later, Pinkie. But for now this is a delicate situation. First appearances are everything, and this could make or break U-3's reputation in the eyes of the public. It's going to be hard in the first place because of his... 'disposition' , so we want to have everything running as smoothly as we can, which includes keeping U-3 from the eyes of the public until he's ready." Twilight finished.

Any wavering in Pinkie's voice disappeared instantly. "Oh, well why didn't you say so, silly? If you wanted to keep U-3 a secret, why don't you keep him at Applejack's farm instead of the house where Celestia's prized student lives?"

Twilight frowned. "As much as I would like to, Pinkie, Fluttershy had to take back the cage they used to get U-3 here so Fluttershy could care for the manticore that U-3 fought."

"Not to worry!" Pinkie said with joy in her voice. She continued, hopping off of my back. "Applejack asked me to come get you in the first place, so I came prepared!" Pinkie said, walking out of Twilight's front door as she finished.

"Applejack? Why would A.J. want pinkie to bring you to her farm?" Twilight asked, looking towards me.

I attempted a shrug (I think it worked.) "Maybe the others told her what was going on, and she thought she'd do you guys a favor?"

Any response that Twilight could have had was interrupted by a knocking sound on the window. I looked over to see Pinkie waving us over. I looked over to twilight to see her looking back at me. She shrugged and we both walked over to the window. Twilight gave me more window-space than her since I had to lean down and everything.

What we saw was Pinkie standing beside a large box shaped object that was covered in a tarp. It was almost four times as big as her.

"I wonder what it is." Spike thought out loud.

"Ladies and gentle-monstrosities, may I present to you..." She stood up on her hind hooves and pulled the tarp off with her front hooves. "The cardboard box!"

True to her word, there stood a giant upside-down cardboard box.

Twilight opened her window. "Pinkie, you aren't seriously considering having U-3 hide under there all the way to the farm, are you? Don't you think people might question why a giant box is moving through town all on it's own?"

"Maybe if they saw you riding it, but if they saw me riding it, they'd just cast it off as me being me! And besides, it'd be covered, wouldn't it?"

"Pinkie, thats... genius!" Twilight said, her face suddenly lighting up. "I mean, I'll have to come along to make sure things go smoothly, seeing as how it's my responsibility to keep U-3 away from the public and all, but that's a really good idea!"

"And on the way you can tell me all about dragons! Twilight made me leave with her before I had a chance to ask last time." Spike pointed out hopefully.

"Yep yep!" Pinkie said, propping up the open half of the box against the doorway. "Now everypony into the box!"

Chapter 9 - The Fruits of Life

Everything had gone just as pinkie had said it would. U-3 provided the horse power, and Pinkie Pie provided surprisingly good directions. While they had occasionally been stopped by shouts of 'Pinkie, what are you doing?' , Pinkie had always been happy to reply 'Driving a box, silly! What does it look like I'm doing?' and for whatever reason that was always enough for whoever was curious.

While things had been a little cramped at first, at U-3's suggestion that Twilight and spike ride on his back (which was accompanied by some giggles from Twilight and Spike), things had gotten a little more roomy.

"... and there's another theory that says that dragons don't actually breathe fire, but instead, make a spark that ignites flammable gas that they carry inside of their bodies." I finished up.

"No offense, U-3, but I've already read all about what you said, and your knowledge is pretty out-dated." Spike said.

"Wait, what?" I said, confused.

"Pretty much everything that you've said are all theories about dragons that are dated back to before Equestria was on good terms with dragons. Not to mention some of them are out-right wrong, like that last theory on their ability to breathe fire." Twilight clarified.

"Oh really? Then how DO they breathe fire?" I asked.

"Magic." Twilight replied.

Of course.

"Everypony out! We're here!" Pinkie Pie announced loudly.

The sound of fabric moving across a surface could be heard, which was followed by blinding sunlight as pinkie flipped the box off of them.

"Agh! Pinkie, a little more warning next time!" I said, squinting my eyes.

We were now in the middle of what looked to be an field of apple trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. Strangely, all of them had at least four baskets under them.

"Sorry!" Pinkie quipped before running off in a seemingly random direction. "I'll go get Applejack. Don't wonder off!"

Now that Pinkie was gone, I turned to Twilight. "Do you have any idea where we are?"

"I think we're in Applejack's apple field, although I don't know what part." Twilight responded.

After that sentence, for some reason I felt the strong urge to stretch. I started off with the usual "raise your arms as high as you can" stretch, which lead to me stretching my upper back out, which lead to me stretch my lower back out , which lead to me stretching my legs out, which--

"U-3, what are you doing?" Twilight interrupted.

I looked at myself as I realized I was currently in some strange, front-half-lowered, back-half-raised position. I quickly stood resumed my normal posture.

"Stretching." I said casually.

"That is the weirdest stretching that I've ever seen. It looked like something a cat would do." Twilight said off-handedly.

"Well..." I said before pointed down towards my lion paws. "I am part lion, so I guess it only makes sense."

"Hey guys, I think I see Applejack and Pinkie Pie coming!" Spike said, pointing in a direction with his claw.

I and Twilight looked over to see a pink blob and an orange blob coming closer from the distance. As they closed the gap between us, the blobs began to take shape, and turned into two ponies: Pinkie, and another earth pony that I hadn't seen before.

Said earth pony looked decidedly nervous, but she decided to speak up. "So you're the alien everyone's been talkin' about, huh?" She gave me a thorough once-over. "Yeah, I can see why Princess Celestia might want to keep you outta sight until she's ready. My name's Applejack." She offered her hoof out to me. It took me a second to realize that she wanted a hand-shake.

I leaned down, and grabbed her hoof with my hand. Before I could even start shaking, she vigorously shook her hoof up and down, taking my arm along for the ride.

"That's a mighty fine hoof-shake you got there!" Applejack said as she let go of my hand.

"Likewise." I said, my arm still shaking a bit. I noticed that her expression had cleared up into a more friendly one after the hand-shake.

"Applejack, why did you send Pinkie Pie to come and get U-3?" Twilight asked.

"Well, when I heard that Princess Celestia was in town, I decided to pay her a friendly visit. She explained the whole situation to me, and I offered to let U-3 stay at my farm until she could get everything ready. She liked the idea, and I wanted to take a look at you with my own two eyes, anyway. I can pick out the unfriendly type mighty quick." Applejack finished up.

"Well, thanks Applejack! Now I can focus on helping Princess Celestia get everything ready for U-3!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Aw, it's nothin', Twi'. You know I'd do this kind of thing any day!"

"Alright, well Spike and I are going to head back to Ponyville. Hopefully we can help Princess Celestia get everything ready by today!" Twilight said.

"And I've got to get back to work at Sugercube Corner! So many muffins, so little time!" Pinkie exlaimed.

"Alright, we'll I'll see ya'll when I see ya'll." Applejack said.

"Bye Applejack! Bye U-3!" Twilight said as she walked away with Pinkie beside her.

"Yeah! bye!" Pinkie said.

I waved them off, and Applejack spoke up beside me.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, seeing as how you'll be staying here a while, you mind helping me with my apple orchard?" She asked.

"Not at all. I actually used to work on a farm when I was younger, although it didn't grow apples." I neglected to mention that the same farm bred horses and raised livestock.

"Perfect! Then we can get started right away!" She said, walking over to a tree.

I walked over to a separate tree and picked up a basket with my human arm, which I then put at rest on my tentacle arm. Luckily I was tall enough that I wouldn't need a ladder to reach the apples. I reached my human arm up to pick the apple from the tree and--

"Hey! What are ya' doin'?" Applejack exclaimed.

What?

I looked over to Applejack. "Erm, picking apples?" I said confused.

"I don't know how you aliens do it on your planet, but that's not how we do it here. Watch and learn." Applejack said.

She then ran straight at another tree. I was worried she was going to crash into it, but moments before she hit the tree, she swiveled on her front hooves, did a 180 on the spot, and bucked the tree. Amazingly, every single apple on the tree fell off and landed inside one of the baskets, some even piling up to be twice as tall as the baskets themselves.

If I could have, I would have had a stunned look on my face.

"And that's all there is to it. Now you try." Applejack said, motioning to another tree.

In disbelief , I pointed a finger at myself, as if to say 'me?'

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Yes, you. Now come on, we're wastin' day light!"

Slowly, I made my way over. Alright, just hit it as hard as you can. It's going to work, and not fail horribly like it should.

As I stood in front of the tree, I looked it over and tried to find the best way to approach hitting the tree. Finding the perfect spot to land my attack, I pulled my arm back, and swung it as hard as I could at the tree. To my chagrin, all that fell from the apple tree was a couple of leaves.

"Uh, ya' gotta buck it, partner." Applejack said.

"One problem with that." I said slowly

"What?"

"I don't know how to buck." I said flatly.

"Wait, you're tellin me that your whole life, you've walked around on them four legs, and you've never learned how to buck?" Applejack said disbelievingly.

"Well, to be fair, I haven't always walked around on four legs. They're kind of new to me." I said.

Yeah, the only reason I can even move about as well as I can in the first place is because of some subconcious instincts left over from my time as a mindless monster.

Applejack shook her head. "You aliens sure are weird, you know that?"

I shrugged. "So can you teach me?"

"I sure can! I don't mean to toot my own horn here, but I've got a pretty mean buck." Applejack said.

"Oh, learning from the best, am I?" I said in a teasing voice.

Applejack blushed. "Aw shucks, I'm sure there a plenty ah' ponies who can buck harder than me. I'm pretty sure my brother Mac can buck WAY harder than me."

That sounds vaguely dirty.

"Alright, so let's get started." I said.

"Alright, well since you're just starting out, let's forget the running start, and just have you buck while standin' still." Applejack said.

"Alright." I said in confirmation. I turned around to have my back to the tree.

Alright just like Applejack did. balance yourself on your front legs, raise your back half, and then kick out, all in one fluid motion.

I pushed against the ground with my back legs a little too hard, and ended up nearly losing my balance. Luckily I managed to get all four feet back on the ground.

"That was just a fluke." I said off-handedly. "I'll get it this time."

"Take your time." Applejack said with an observant eye. "Don't rush into it."

I nodded at her. Take things slowly.

This time I was more cautious, and lifted my back half off of the ground a small distance a couple of time to get a feel for it. I noticed that every time I raised my back half, my human top half would lower as well.

Eventually, I raised my back half up confidently, and kicked out with my back legs as hard as I could. The buck landed with a satisfying *CRACK*, which was unfortunately, followed by the sound of something large hitting the ground. I turned around to find a jagged stump where Applejack's tree had previously stood. My eyes flicked past the stump to find the rest of the tree laying on the ground beside it.

Oh crap.

Cautiously, I looked over to Applejack, whose face seemed to be a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and anger. For the longest time, neither of us moved, and simply stared at each other.

Eventually, to my surprise, the anger slowly melted away from Applejack's face. " 'S okay. I know you didn't mean to do it."

Phew.

"But you still owe me an apple tree." Applejack said. "You gotta make up for your mistakes."

"Yeah, no problem. I know how to plant seeds." I said.

"Well hold on there, first you gotta uproot the stump." Applejack said.

Well, that should be easy.

"Let me go get the harness." Applejack said, walking away.

Wait, what?

Chapter 10 - Ascend to New Heights

"Okay, that's enough." A voice called out.

I worked out the kinks in my neck. I was feeling more than a little tired. "Are you sure? It didn't seem like much was happening."

"While it may be visually unimpressive to you, to us it was more than you can imagine." Chrysalis said.

"Well it sure took a while. I can't imagine that feedings that happen every day usually take that long, especially for only four changelings. What gives?" I asked.

"Well, I didn't actually just use you to feed the changelings. That was done in only seconds. I also used you to fill up our 'vault'."

"You guys have a vault for emotions?" I asked.

"Well, not a literal vault. As queen, I have the ability to store a huge amount of emotions inside of myself and distribute them as needed. Right now I'd say we have about enough for two years, or longer, if we ration the emotions."

Enough for two years? Sheesh. Feel tired yet?

Well, actually, I am really tired. Although that could just be the stress of all this catching up to me.

Well, before you decide to go take a nap, you might want to get your weapons back.

I almost forgot about that! I guess with everything that's happening it kind of slipped my mind.

I absent-mindedly brushed my gun holster with my hand. "Hey, where did you take my weapons?"

At this, Chrysalis turned sheepish. "They're in my quarters, but I may have... broken them a tiny bit."

"WHAT?" WHAT?

I opened the chest to find all of my weapons , still intact, laying on top of hundreds of papers, as well as a few gems. I hurriedly took them out and vigorously took each and every one of them apart. I made sure every spring, every bolt, and every hammer was still in place, and put them back together with the skill and speed you could only acquire from doing the same thing hundreds of times. As far as I could tell everything was in working order, and nothing was missing. Well, nothing except for one thing.

"WHERE IS ALL OF MY AMMO?" I yelled.

"Ah heh, well you see, I saw you use these 'guns' multiple times, all to devestating effect. So I might have decided to try them out for myself." Chrysalis grinned half-heartedly.

"And you used up-- ALL-- of my ammo?"

"Well, when I started, at first i was only going to use a few 'ammos'. But when I started, I just couldn't stop! It was such a rush! I kept loading one 'ammo' after another, and before I knew it I was out of 'ammos' for that gun, and it was on to the next one!" Chrysalis explained.

I ran my fingers through my hair and sighed.

Well at least she's being honest.

"Alright, well I can kind of see where you're coming from. I still remember the time I fired my first gun. It was the good old M1911 handgun. Once I had fired a shot, I couldn't get enough of it. But for the record, they're called 'bullets' , not 'ammos'." I lectured.

"Right." Chrysalis said, glad to be out of that conversation.

I took another look into the chest, and rummaged through the papers and gems until I found what I was looking for.

"Ah! My knife! This baby has gotten me out of a jam more times than I can count!" I said before sliding the knife back into its sheath on my chest strap.

Next up was my flashlight. Not as useful as my knife, but infinitely better than stumbling around blindly in the dark. Luckily I didn't need it here. Chrysalis had told me about how they used the natural glow of the gems that grew here to provide a light source.

Unfortunately, the suitcase I normally use to carry my guns around was nowhere to be seen, and I only had one holster. So I made the tough choice of putting my guns back, with one exception: the revolver I had nicknamed "The Broken Butterfly". I kept that one in my holster for good luck, even though it was basically useless without any bullets.

Alright, now that you've got your equipment back, try to take that nap now. If it's true that I'm part of your subconscious, then I'll do my best work while you're asleep.

Alright. To be honest I could use a bit of sleep after all that's happened.

"Hey, do you mind if I sleep here for a while? This is the only actual bed I've seen." I asked Chrysalis. It was true, her room was the only room I'd seen with an actual bed instead of just a hole in the wall.

"Go ahead. We'll need to start working on what we're going to be doing, so you'll need to be well rested."

"Well, wake me up on about an hour, okay?" It was only a nap, after all.

"Alright. I'll see to it that my changelings get everything in proper working order while you are asleep."

"Alright." I said. I jumped onto the bed, closed my eyes, and was instantly asleep.

I awoke to find myself above a field of white, with blue above me. I knew I was above the clouds already, and that I was in the sky. The idea of falling was not even present in my mind, and i was completely comfortable with my surroundings. There was only one thought that mattered to me at the moment.

I'm flying.

I spread my arms out and swooped down to touch the clouds. I watched as the cloud vapors slipped in between my fingers as they raked across its surface. Feeling satisfied, I drew my arm back and flew higher. I flew as high as I dared to, and marveled at the sight I saw.

In between the gaps in the clouds I caught glimpses of a luscious land filled with green and spots of blue. The mountain tops rose up from the grounds , gaining on a film of white snow as my eyes rose to their peaks.

I closed my eyes to take in the serenity of it. The feeling of peace that I had right now could not be explained in words. It was something that you would have to feel for yourself to be able to--

"Leon!" A voice called out.

I looked to my lower left to find a black shape that I vaguely identified as Chrysalis standing, not flying, in the air. Suddenly my surroundings stretched and zoomed away, leaving only Chrysalis to be seen.

"Leon, you're flying!" Chrysalis called out.

Then, without warning, I was suddenly falling. My surroundings shifted to Chrysalis' bedroom, and before I could do anything to catch myself, I landed on the bed I was sleeping on before. I blinked before looking to my side to find Chrysalis with a look of disbelief on her face.

"Could you always do that?" She asked uncertainly.

I opened my mouth to talk, but I was speechless. Instead, I simply shook my head.

Chapter 11 - Incorporating New Skills

"Do you think you can do it again?" Chrysalis asked.

We had moved out of Chrysalis' bedroom after the initial shock of my levitation wore off. We were now back in the main sleeping chamber, which now carried no changelings.

"I don't even know how I did it the first time." I responded.

Hey, you were awake while I was dreaming, weren't you? Do you know how I did it?

Sorry, I was busy investigating some sort of anomoly in our mind at the time. It seems to be linking to somewhere else, but all I got out of it was the sight of a bunch of trees. As for your flying trick, I might actually have a reasonable explanation. You remember when we were talking about Dante, and how he's only as strong as he is because of his human side's emotions?

Yeah?

Well, think about it. If all the humans could be as strong as Dante just because they had emotions, the demons wouldn't be a problem. Instead, they're just normal humans without any powers, but still have the human emotions that make Dante strong.

I still don't see what you're getting at.

What I'm saying is that, while humans already have all the things they need to become powerful, they lack a way to use them. Haven't you ever wondered why wizards need staffs, wands, or magic words to use magic?

"Leon?" Chrysalis' voice rang out worriedly, almost ripping me entirely from my thoughts. "Are you okay?"

"Hold on." I responded, not even moving my head to look at her in favor of continuing to stare out into space. I plunged myself back into my thoughts.

I'll move this along. What I'm saying is that your half-changeling side might have given you magic, and while that's cool and all, your emotions could be acting as a super-booster. Where you having a dream while you were asleep?

Yeah.

What kind of dream was it?

A look of realization dawned across my face. "A flying dream."

"What?" Chrysalis asked, surprised at my sudden out-burst.

Did I say that out loud?

"Uhh, I was just having a chat with the voice in my head, and it said that being a half-changeling might have given me the ability to use magic, with my human emotions super-boosting it." I said hurriedly in an attempt to save myself any further embarrasment.

Chrysalis scrapped her hoof on the ground. "I can attest to the power of emotions. I myself was defeated by a spell powered by emotions."

"Really? What kind of spell was it?" I asked.

"A... shield spell." she said before quickly adding something else. "But it was strong enough to cover an entire capital!"

"That's a big area." I said.

That strong? If I could do something like that at all times...

"What kind of emotion was fueling it?" I asked.

"Only the strongest of any emotion of all!"

"Which is?"

"Love."

I snickered a bit.

"So wait. You--"

"Don't say it!"

"--were defeated--"

"DON'T!"

"--by the power of love." I finished.

Chrysalis threw her head back in exasperation and rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes, laugh it up. I've heard this all before." Before I could say anything else she quickly changed the topic. "You've never done magic before now, correct? Well then you shall need some training. Luckily for you, I happen to be an expert."

Her horn glowed green before a rock covered in the same green glow raised itself in front of me.

"Before we can begin on the harder spells, we need to start simple, and let you become comfortable with your magic. Let's start with something simple, like telekinesis." Her horn stopped glowing, and the rock lost its glow as well before falling back to the ground. "First, you need to find where your magic resides. Look inside yourself, and find where the magic is most concentrated."

I nodded and closed my eyes. I let my mind wander, and could feel some sort of sixth sense pulling my attention to a specific part of my mind. I drew closer and closer to that part of my mind, until I mentally reached out and touched it. Suddenly, an intense feeling of warmth exploded into all parts of my body. My mind was suddenly taking in new forms of information. I could "see" in my mind what was going on around me. I could "feel" the presence of lines of energy that were practically everywhere. They were moving through the air, in the ground, and even grouped together inside of Chrysalis, flowing through her like some kind of organic structure. They were a multitude of different colors, constantly changing. When they changed, not only did their color change, but the way they "felt" did as well.

A sense of wonder filled me. I felt like I was, on some level, one with the world.

I decided it was time to open my eyes.

It looked exactly as it had before I delved into myself, except for one thing: Chrysalis now had an aura around her. Chrysalis's eyes widened in surprise, and the aura around her changed into a bright yellow along with her expression.

"Your eyes are glowing!"

Really?

Instantly, an image of myself popped into my head as clear as day, but only for a second. It was like looking at myself from outside of my body, but only for a second. Like Chrysalis had said, my eyes were glowing a bright white. However, there was also a faint blue aura surrounding myself as well. It was defying gravity, seeming to eminate from me and rise upwards before dissappearing. Why hadn't chrysalis mentioned that as well? Could she not see the things I could see?

I focused my mind and returned to the task at hand. I raised my hand towards the rock and focused on it. I could feel the lines bending to my will and releasing energy to do my bidding. With one raise of my hand, I lifted the rock off of the ground. The same kind of blue aura that had surrounded me now surrounded the rock.

"Wait, your entire body is glowing!" Chrysalis said.

"What does that mean?" I asked with a surprising echo accompanying my voice.

"It means your entire body is a focal point for magic, not just one part of you!" Chrysalis exclaimed. The aura around Chrysalis was suddenly mixed with a shade of blue. Hopefully I'd soon be able to grasp what each of these different auras meant. "Okay, now let's try to improve on your levitation. Try throwing the rock over to me."

I nodded. I flinged the rock over to Chrysalis, who caught it with her own magic. Her aura changed slightly, now incorporating shades of orange. "Good. Now let's try to pick up more than one thing at a time." She promptly levitated twenty rocks up and gathered them in a pile. "Lets start off with two."

I nodded, and deftly raised two rocks from the pile. Chrysalis' aura once more took on a deeper shade of orange.

"Okay. Now try levitating as many as you feel you can do."

I nodded once more, and one by one started levitating rocks until they were all up in the air. For some reason, I felt the urge to have the rocks start revolving around me in a circle, so I went ahead and let it happen.

Chrysalis' aura had finally changed orange entirely, with no trace of the yellow or blue from before. She shook her head before speaking. "Okay, this is wrong. It takes months for foals to learn to control their magic, and even longer before they can even get to the level of skill you are showing here! Are you absolutely sure that you've never done magic before?"

Actually, now that she mentions it, all of this seems to be coming to me very easily, almost absurdely so. It almost even felt natural.

"I am one-hundred percent certain that I have not done magic before, but you are right. This is almost too easy. Back in my world, humans were said to have an innate connection to the mystical world, what with having psychic abilities and all. I'm not sure if that actually has anything to do with what's going on, but right now that's the only possible explanation I can think of." I finished.

Chrysalis' aura had started to gain the shade of another color. I couldn't quite tell what color it was yet, but I know it changed slightly."Well, how about you let go of your magic right now, and tell me about your experience with it. Maybe that will provide us with some answers." She said.

"Okay." I nodded.

I mentally retracted myself from the spot of my brain the I had touched and grabbed hold of. As control of my magic faded, so too did the ability to sense the lines and auras. The rocks that had been revolving around me dropped to the ground, forming a circle around me. The warmth that flowed through my body also receeded, making everything seem cold in comparison. I shivered slightly from the cold,before realizing that I seemed a lot "slower" than when I was magic'd up. My mind felt sluggish, and my vocabulary felt more limited as well. Did my magic improve my mind when it was activated?

"Are you okay, Leon?" Chrysalis asked. She must have seen me shivering.

"Yeah. It's just that when I had control of my magic, It felt so warm. I was so used to the warmth that now that it's gone, everything feels colder in comparison." I responded.

Chrysalis nodded her head. "I see. go ahead and tell me everything about what happened."

I opened my mouth, and started to tell her every single detail about what had happened.

Chapter 12 - Meating the Family

I masterfully reared up my lower back half and skillfully bucked the tree with just enough force to knock all of the apples out of the tree. I heard the satisfying sound of the apples landing neatly in a pile in the baskets below the tree.

"Nice work, U-3! Looks t'ah me like you've got buckin' down!" Applejack said as she brought the apple cart over to the tree I had just bucked.

"Well, I've been practicing all day. " I said as I leaned down to pick up the baskets and put them in the cart. Applejack started counting the baskets after I finished putting them into the cart.

"Yep! That's tha' last of 'em! We've reached our quota fer today!" She swung her head around to face the sun that was lowering towards the horizon. "Right on time fer dinner, too!"

I straightened up at the concept of food. I hadn't had anything to eat in the entire time I had been in Equestria, so the concept of food sounded very appealing to me.

"Ah'll have t'ah introduce ya' to my family when we get home." Applejack said as she started walking away. I trusted that she knew where she was going, and followed her.

"Do they know about me?" I asked.

"Yeah. Princess Celestia told 'em all about you after I offered to have ya' stay here with me." Applejack stated.

"Glad that's taken care of, then." I said. I paused, thinking of something, and then asked, "What do you think they'll be having for dinner?"

"Prob'ly apple pies." Applejack said.

I sighed (it came out as more of a rough exhale)."That's what I was afraid of." I said.

"Wha'do you mean by that?" Applejack asked suspiciously.

"I have no idea what I can and can't eat. I mean, before I became this," I gestured towards myself with my human hand before continuing. " I was an omnivore. But now that I'm mixed with a bunch of carnivores, I have no idea if I can still eat fruits and vegetables."

I wonder if I have three stomachs now, or just one big one. For that matter, if I have three stomachs, does that mean I have three sets of lungs? How about hearts?

My thoughts were interrupted when Applejack spoke up. "So y'er sayin' that ya' might only be able t'ah eat meat?"

"Maybe. I don't know for sure yet. I'm planning to use this dinner as an opportunity to check and see." I replied.

"Well, whatever happens, you're always welcome at my farm. There might be some ponies out there who discriminate against meat eaters, but ah'm proud t'ah say I've never met a single one in ponyville. They need to realize that it's just ah fact of life and get over it." Applejack said.

I looked over at her in surprise. "Wait, some of you eat meat?"

Applejack shook her head. "Naw, not ponies. Griffons. An' they're omnivores, by tha' way."

"Griffons? You're kidding me, right?" I asked.

"Naw. We had a griffon in ponyville a while back, 'though she turned out to be a bit of a bad apple."

Well, looks like The Fuana of Equestria left out some things.

"Wait, you said the griffons eat meat. Aren't all of the animals here sapient?" I asked.

"There're two ways you can legally get meat in Equestria: either by buying it from traders who sell meat they got from tha' griffon homeland where there ain't enough magic to make the animals there sapient, or by huntin' the animals in equestria that ain't smart enough to be sapient even with all of tha' magic in tha' land, like fish. 'Course, you could always hunt in tha' Everfree Forest where tha' magic only penetrates enough to make only tha' most dangerous animals sapient. 'Course, that place ain't called 'dangerous' for no good reason, so everypony usually just stays away from it. " Applejack finished up.

I nodded my head, letting it all sink in. "I'm guessing there are hunting seasons for fish and the like to keep the population up?"

"You got it, partner. Most of tha' meat during tha' off-seasons comes from tha' traders." Applejack said.

"If it's the only source of meat during the off-season, and the traders have to get their supply from a far-off land, I'd imagine the prices must be pretty high." I deducted.

Applejack nodded her head. "That's why some of tha' griffons that live in Equestria turn vegetarian during tha' off-season. They get tha' nutrients they need from other foods."

I nodded my head, and looked ahead of us to find a two-story house coming into sight. I stopped and turned to Applejack. "I'll let you go warn them first." I said.

By the time Applejack had come out to tell me it was okay to approach the house, the sun was just starting to touch the horizon.

"Okay, Ah've told everypony that you're coming. You don't have to worry about anyone freakin' out about'chya." Applejack said.

"Thanks. Let's get going." I said before approaching the house. The door was once again to small for me to enter, but it was nothing that leaning down wouldn't fix. I just hoped that the ceiling was high enough for me to stand.

Before I could reach the door, however, it was suddenly opened. Inside the door frame stood a large red stallion with a mane the color of wheat.

"Heya, Big Mac! This is our guest that I was tellin' ya' about!" Applejack said.

Big Mac stared at me straight in the face without even a flinch, and said, "He's a might too big for the house."

What? No "Ahhh, it's a scary monster"? Not even a flinch? Just acceptance? I'm liking this guy already.

I was about to speak up and tell them they could just bring the food out to me when Applejack spoke up first. "Well if U-3 can't get inside, then I guess we'll all just have t'ah bring dinner outside."

"Eeyup." Big Mac said with a smile.

In only a couple of minutes, a picnic blanket was spread across the front lawn. An elderly mare joined us, along with a filly with a ridiculously large bow in her mane. I had expected both of them to at least flinch at the sight of me, but neither did, to my surprise. The elder mare had apparently confused me with one of Applejack's uncles ("I'll explain later." Applejack had said.). The younger one, however, looked on at me with more curiosity than anything. I have to admit: having someone who didn't scream and run at the first sight of me or grimace like I was some kind of abomination that shouldn't exist felt good.

And they had gone out of their way to accommodate me, too. They could have just brought my food out and been done with it, but instead they decide to move everything outside so I wouldn't be left out. It kind of made me nostalgic of my own home. Mom would never let anyone eat dinner until everyone was at the table.

My musings were knocked aside as a voice sounded off in front of me. "Hi there! M'ah name's Applebloom! What's yours?"

I looked around for the mysterious voice only to come up empty handed. I even looked behind me for good measures.

"Down here!"

I looked down to see the small filly from before looking back up at me with the cutest smile I had ever seen. "Tha' princess told me all about'chya! Did you really save her from ah manticore?" The filly said with adoring eyes.

I straightened up. "Yep, I sure did!"

Although I still don't know where that memory came from. I've never worked in law enforcement in my life!

"Woah! Can you teach me what ya' did t'ah that manticore?" Applebloom asked me.

Now that's just asking for trouble.

I shook my head. "Sorry, maybe when you're older." I said.

"Awww." She said.

"Applebloom, stop pesterin' y'er uncle." The elderly mare said.

Applebloom turned to face the mare."But he's not--"

"No 'but's!" The elderly mare interrupted.

Applebloom sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine." She said before walking over to an empty spot on the blanket. Big Mac chose that moment to walk out of the house carrying several apple pies on his back.

That's some impressive balance.

Big Mac walked over to my and gave me a whole apple pie and a fork. "Here ya' go."

"Thanks." I said taking the pie from him. I wrapped my tentacle arm loosely around the pie and grabbed my fork before realizing something I should have realized a long time ago.

How am I going to eat with my mouth like this?

I looked at the long, gigantic tongue sticking out from between the mandibles that used to be my jaw.

Maybe it's some kind of proboscis?

I raised my tongue and struck it into the pie. I attempted to suck through my tongue like a straw, but it wasn't working. I looked up to see all of the Apple family (barring the elderly one, who had fallen asleep) staring at me.

"Sorry." I said before taking my tongue out of the pie and wiping off any pie that stuck to it with a napkin. The feeling of the cloth rubbing up against the sensitive yet unfamiliar organ was extremely strange. "I don't exactly know how to eat with this body."

Applejack nodded. " 's okay. Take y'er time."

I thought long and hard about how i could ingest the pie.

Maybe what's left of my mouth can stretch open like a snake's mouth?

I tried to open my mouth as wide a possible, but nothing happened other than my mandibles moving a couple of inches.

Nope. That didn't work. Okay, let's think.

I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to think of any way to eat the food. Slowly, my mind turned towards the memory that I had watched with Celestia. I had seen myself mindlessly fighting that man, but the plaga had been coming out of a giant slice in my back. It didn't look like your ordinary, two-inch plaga, though. This one had been mutated by the expirements. It seemed to take the shape of a giant fleshy tentacle ending in two razor sharp mandibles twice the size of my human arm. They could snap together like a giant pair of scissors with lethal results.

However, It was only when I realized what was inbetween the two mandibles did I figure out how to eat. Inbetween the two giant razor sharp mandibles was a mouth the size of my head, and lined with teeth.

I opened my eyes. I could feel the presence of the plaga inside of my back. "I think I've figured out how to eat." I announced.

Applejack spoke up."Ya' did? Great job! So how exactly do ya' eat? 'Cause I ain't seein' a way."

"I think it'd be faster to just show you. Be warned: I'm about to do something freaky." I said before backing up away from the picnic just in case the plaga decided to go hostile.

I started exploring the muscles in my body to try and find one that might control the plaga. I started with my middle back when suddenly the feeling of a hundred knives stabbing into me tore through my body. It only lasted just a moment before mysteriously dissappearing completely, but it was more than enough time for a short scream of pain.

"AAAAGH!"

The pain cleared in an instant, and I realized that I had clenched my eyes shut. I took a moment to collect myself before opening them. All of the Apple family (once again barring the elderly mare) were standing upright with their eyes wide open.

Two giant blades entered the side of my vision, followed by a mouth the size of my head. I felt a twinge of triumph at being able to summon the plaga, but that quickly turned to panic when I realized the plaga still had a mind of it's own. I waited for a couple of second, before realizing that the plaga hadn't actually done anything yet, and I still hadn't come under its control.

It must still be docile.

"Everybody, meet the thing that ruined my life. This is the plaga." I announced. I panicked when I realized that I had just exposed the only thing keeping me alive to potential danger, but I calmed down when I remembered just how many bullets it had taken before dying.

Even my weak point is built like a tank.

Applejack spoke up. "U-3, I don't mean to be rude 'er nothin', but--"

"Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!" Applebloom spouted while stomping her hooves on the ground with her eyes closed.

"Eeyup." Big Mac said with a neutral expression. I could see he was eyeing the razor sharp mandibles.

Meanwhile the old mare was still sleeping. She could probably sleep through a hurricane.

"Don't worry guys, I think he's harmless." I said. "But just in case, I think you all should back up a little."

Dinner had gone fairly well. I had thought the giant mandibles would have gotten in the way, but it turns out that they can turn in a complete 90 degree angle away from the mouth. The others had stayed a few feet away and had been fairly apprehensive of it until they saw me start spoon feeding it. Applebloom had started giggling at that, which was soon followed by Applejack. Even Big Mac eventually cracked a smile.

Applejack had asked if she could come closer ("Ah trust you." She had said), and I had told her she could, but to do so slowly so I could gauge the plaga's reaction to see if it was dangerous. Thankfully, it confirmed my suspicions that it was, in fact, completely docile.

After that, things had calmed down. Everybody came back to the blanket, and we had a (relatively) normal dinner. After I had finished my share of pie, I had asked Applejack if she knew somewhere I could sleep. She had offered to let me sleep in the barn, since the house was too small.

So now, here I am, laying down on top of this pile of hay. The plaga had somehow found a way to place itself back inside of me, and even close up the tear it had burst out of.

This has possibly been the craziest day of my life. I thought as I closed my eyes. Or at least a close second.

And then I fell asleep.

Chapter 13 - Heavens to Betsy

The woman's cries turned to gurgles as the blood from the cut in her neck flooded her wind pipe.

A sigh came from beside me. "Did ya' do it again, James?" My co-worker George said.

I found myself back in the labs where I was forced to work for the Los Illuminados. A woman was tied down naked on a table with cuts and bruises all over her. she was missing some of her fingers, her left nostril was missing, and a shallow cut ran from her chest to her stomach. Her eyes were red from crying, and her forehead was sliced open. My coworker George, a tall man with shot black hair and a black scraggly beard, had come over from his work-space to check out how I had screwed up the torture.

"Yeah. I'm just not as good at this as you. are" I admitted. I grasped the scalpel and drove it straight into the woman's chest. She gave out one last gurgle before she closed her eyes and passed out from the lack of oxygen, never to wake up again.

George scratched his beard as he looked at the woman's quickly dying body. "Well, I guess this one's going to the villagers. We have to keep 'em feed somehow." He said.

"Yep. Should we give her to the usual people, or should we cut this one up ourselves?" I asked.

"I'm feelin' in the mood for some cuttin'." George said, taking out an extra scalpel from a tool set. "That whore Adriana left me for another man."

"I told you she was bad news, man." I said.

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm just a sucker for punishment." He said with a shrug.

I chuckled. "You'll find the right one someday. Come on, let's get to cutting. You take the bottom half , I'll take the upper half."

Suddenly, I wasn't "me" anymore... I was strapped down on the table, with "me" and George hovering over me. I was suddenly aware of what was happening, no longer trapped in the mental mindset that makes you go along with whatever is happening in a dream.

"I" grabbed a scalpel and started leaning closer to me. I tried to scream, but I couldn't make a sound, no matter how hard I tried.

No! I don't want this! Stop! Please!

The scalpel drew closer to my vision. "I think I'll start with the eye." "I" said.

No! I'll do whatever you want! Please! Stop!

I tried to scream as the scalpel plunged into my eye, tearing apart my vision.

I awoke with a loud gasp, and tried to get up as fast as possible, but only succeeded in tripping myself up and falling down on my lower stomach. I could feel my hearts racing.

I could feel the urge to start crying coming on. Those people didn't deserve what had happened to them. They had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Los Illuminados was the worst of humanity. They would capture people from the neighboring areas and bring them in for experimenting. Any outsiders that happened to wander into the Los Illuminados' land were subject to either immediate death, or prolonged torture, depending on where they were caught at.

I would never have done any of those things if that plaga hadn't been inside of me, controlling me and telling me what to do. I've personally killed over fifty people and their screams and pleas still haunt me to this very day, all because of the Los Illuminados and their disgusting parasite.

I never should have accepted that invitation. I knew it was too good to be true. This all could have been avoided if I had just never accepted that stupid letter!

I slammed my fist into the ground in frustration. "I never wanted this..." I whispered to myself.

"Never wanted what, honey?" A female voice with a wisconson accent rang out from the dark abyss that filled the barn. Suddenly, a lantern turned on to reveal a white cow with black spots on it. I would have normally found a talking cow to be at least a bit strange, but in my current emotional state, I didn't give it a second thought.

"Nothing." I said hoping she would go away. The cow picked up the lantern with her teeth and walked over to me before putting the lantern down and laying besides me.

"Now, I know better. Ol' Betsy here can tell when there's something wrong. Why don't you tell me what's wrong?" The cow (who I assumed was Betsy) said.

I gave her a thorough once over before glumly saying "I don't think you would understand."

"Try me, dear." She said.

I told her everything. I told her about my life before the Los Illuminados, about how my father and I had used to work on the farm to raise money for my college tuition, and how every day we would come home from the fields to my mom's delicious cooking. I told her about my friends growing up, my school, and my college years. I mentioned how great my future had looked before I told her how I had been tricked into coming back to el Pueblo. I told her everything about the plaga and more, about how I was forced to torture, kill, and experiment on innocent people while they cried and screamed for mercy. I told her ho horrifying it was to me now that I could have ever possibly gone along with what the plaga had wanted me to.

Finally, I was finished. I had had to stop every so often to calm myself down so I could continue telling the story without bursting into tears, but it was worth it. I would never be able to rid myself of the guilt or the screams in the back of my mind, but the pressure pushing down on me from the memories was gone for the moment.

"Listen here, James: no one should have had to go through what you had to. What that group did was horrible, and I know that you would have never gone along with them or did what you did if it wasn't for that horrible plaga. I've heard your story, James, and I know that you're kind at heart. Don't you ever forget that ." Betsy finished up.

"Thanks." I said, wiping my eyes of the tears starting to collect. "But please, don't call me James. I'm not James anymore, just U-3."

Betsy nodded. " Whatever you want, dear. But I'm still calling you James for tonight." she said, laying her head down.

I likewise laid my upper half down. "I think... I might be okay with that." I said, closing my eyes. " Just for tonight."

And then I fell asleep.

*Snap*

"I can't believe you haven't gotten hit this entire time." My bro said.

*Snap*

"Yeah, well he's got a pretty predictable pattern. 'Still eats up all of my ammo reserves though. I've got a big gaping hole where a chunk of my ammo used to be." I said.

*Snap*

Me and my brother were sitting on front of the television. He was watching me play Resident Evil 4, and I had gotten to the part where you fight "it". Currently I was avoiding its scissor blades and waiting for a chance to strike.

*Snap*

This was it! "It" always stops after the fourth attempt. I turned Leon around and took aim with the Broken Butterfly. I moved the laser sight , and amazingly managed to land a shot directly into the mouth of the roaring parasite! To my surprise, it was even the shot that killed it!

" Woah ! That was a nice shot!" My bro said before fist-bumping me.

"I'm glad that's over." I said as I checked the clock on the wall. "Alright, bro. Ten o' clock. Time to get to bed."

"Aww." He complained.

"Come on, you know the rules." I said, ruffling his hair. "I'll save the game and then I'm going to bed. In the mean time, you need to hurry up and go to your room before mom notices that you're still awake."

"Alright. " He said dejectedly. "But you have to promise to play Resident Evil 4 again tomorrow!"

I chuckled. "Alright , bro. Now get to bed."

I returned to the game as I heard the sound of the door to my bedroom shutting. True to my word, I went back to the last save station I had found, and saved. I gave the merchant a mock salute in real life as I turned the game off. I turned the lights off, and headed to bed.

I awoke to the sound of a rooster crowing. I couldn't remember anything about the dream I had, other than it had involved me somehow. That's a weird thing about dreams: sometimes you can remember exactly what happened in detail, while other times you don't even remember you had a dream.

The door to the barn swung open, casting light across Betsy and I laying side-by-side. I squinted my eyes to try and see what figure had opened the door.

"Oh, am ah interruptin' somethin'?" The southern voice of Applejack said slyly. "Ah'll come back later, then."

I was confused at what she meant, until my mind wrapped itself around the fact that Betsy and I were laying side-by-side. I hoped that I couldn't blush anymore, otherwise my face would be red hot. "N-no, it's not like that at all!"

"Well, I've gotta say Applejack, he sure does have some handsome legs." Betsy said slyly.

"W-What?" I said in a mix of confusion and panic at the embarrassing situation.

"Real strong and firm." Betsy confirmed while nodding her head.

Both Applejack and Betsy had the biggest grins on their faces. It was obvious they were just joking around, but it was so embarrassing!

Applejack spoke up. "Ya'll get yerselves ready and come out when ya'll're presentable and the like. U-3: someone's here to see you, and Betsy: It's that day of the week again. Time for y'er milkin'."

Betsy nodded her head. "Alright. You go ahead and get everything ready, Applejack. I'll make sure U-3 is up and about in a couple of minutes."

"Alrighty then." Applejack said as she closed the barn door.

Betsy turned to me before pausing. "Hun, you're redder than a tomato."

Chapter 15 - The Darker Half

"Yep, that's the last of the hay." Betsy said, finishing her inspection of me for any more hay that was sticking to me.

"Thanks, Betsy. I'd have looked like a fool walking out there with hay sticking to me." I said.

"Oh, it's no problem. I didn't figure you as the kinda guy who moves around a lot in his sleep." Betsy said.

I shuffled around, the details of my nightmare returning to me. "Yeah, but it's on-and-off most of the time." I explained.

"Well, now that you're all ready to go, better not keep your guest waiting." Betsy
said, walking over to the barn door. She grabbed the handle with her teeth and pulled open the barn door. Light poured in from the opening , illuminating the inside of the barn. "I've got to stay here and get ready for Applejack. She does all of the chores around her house first before she goes out into the fields for apple buckin'."

I walked through the door held open for me by Betsy. "Alright. I'll see you later, then." I said.

"Bye!" Betsy said before closing the door to the barn.

I looked towards Applejack's house before spotting a rather contrasting sight: a pony as big as Celestia, but instead of a white coat with rainbow hair, this one had a deep purple coat, and had a mane that was the color of the moon on the edges, but was blue speckled with white dots on the inside. Honestly, the inside looked like someone had painted a picture of the night sky on it. It flowed as if there was an invisible wind like Celestia's did, although not as fast. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that this was Celestia's sister Luna, and that she was the one here to see me. She was standing around in between the house and the barn, and facing the house. However, on closer inspection, she appeared to be writing a letter. Her horn was glowing, and she was levitating a piece of paper and writing on it by levitating a quill. As I made my way closer, I could make out wings on her side. That, along with the glowing horn on her head, assured my suspicions that she was related to Celestia.

"Hello." I said, making myself known.

She twisted her head sideways to face me. "Ah, thou must be U-3." She said. The paper and quill dissappeared in a flash of light before she continued. "Our sisters has told us much about you."

I raised a non-existent eyebrow. " 'Our' Sister?"

"Ah. Excuse me. I am still learning the modern Equestrian dialect. I have an unfortunate habit of slipping back into the old one." She said.

The old Equestrian dialect? It sounded like old English to me. It makes wonder exactly how deep this translation spell goes...

Luna started walking around me in a circle, looking me over with a critical eye. "I did not get a chance to thoroughly look you over when I summoned you. I can see now why you are worthy of the position of hero. Your strength is clearly shown through the firmness of your muscles." She finished.

Oh geez. I REALLY hope I'm not blushing right now.

"Erm, thanks. What did you need me for?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Celestia has prepared everything for your introduction. All that is left is for you to meet Rarity for your formal attire, and to show up to the town hall. After that, we can march on the changeling's base and bring the changeling queen to justice." Luna said.

Speaking of the changelings...

"What's your opinion on all this changeling business? I mean, surely Celestia's over reacting a bit, right?" I said.

At this question, Luna bit her lip, and simply said nothing for the longest time. I was about to speak up when she finally relented. "I...must be completely honest with you, U-3. I have been absent for a great deal of time, and during this time, my sister and ponykind have changed very much. So great is the change, that I have locked myself away in my study, and have refused to take part in politics until I can be fully caught up with modern events and mannerism. Existence is all but peaceful compared to before my banishment. I must admit, though, In an age like this, such a hunt to exterminate the changelings seems so out of place. But with the public demanding blood and revenge for all their dead family members, along with the fact that they actually ATTACKED our capital..." She seemed at a loss for words for a moment before pushing on. "1000 years ago, I knew my sister so well that I could practically finish her sentences for her. But now, she's changed so much from the Celestia I knew 1000 years ago that I'm lucky if I can even guess what she's going to do next. And not just that, but while I was banished to the moon, she has had time to learn, and to fine tune her mind. She has improved so much that I can barely keep up with her train of thought as of late. So, until I reach that level again where I can sit beside her as an equal, I just have to wait and trust that whatever she's doing, it will end up being better for everypony."

Wait, the public is wanting blood? This is the first time I've heard about this. Luna says she's not playing a part in politics, which means she wasn't part of the decision to exterminate the changelings. Also, it seems that she's putting all of her trust into Celestia to make sure that everything comes out for the better. It must have taken a lot for her to admit something like that. "Thanks for being honest with me, Luna. It means a lot more to me than if you'd just given me a vague answer." I said.

Luna nodded, and quickly changed the subject. "Has anyone told you the history of Equestria yet? I think it could give you some context on the changelings."

"Lyra gave me the very basics, but she only went as far back as the banishment of Nightmare Moon." I said.

Luna looked uncomfortable at the mention of Nightmare Moon, but she continued none the less. "Then I shall be the one to teach you. In the beginning, there was only chaos. The land was ruled by an entity called Discord. The world had no shape, the world had no order, and the ponies that lived in it had to endure the harshest of lives. One day, however, a group of six ponies, known only in legend as the Original Six, discovered the salvation of ponykind in the form of the Elements of Harmony."

" 'The Elements of Harmony'?" I asked in hope of clarification.

"The Elements of Harmony are six ancient artifacts that embody the six elements that make ponykind great: kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, laughter, and magic. They house the greatest magic that ponykind has ever known, being at far greater levels then even Celestia and I's magic combined could ever reach. Not much is known about them, and even less is known about how they work, but we do know that each element chooses a pony that embodies their own element as a host, and that when all six hosts have been chosen and are together with each other and their elements, they can unleash the element's full potential. The process of using the Elements, however, is physically taxing. It leaves even the most durable of ponies sapped of all of their strength just after one use, but often, that one use is all it takes. The current bearers of the Elements of Harmony are Fluttershy as the bearer of kindness, Rarity as the bearer of generosity, Rainbow Dash as the bearer of loyalty, Applejack as the bearer honesty, Pinkie Pie as the bearer of laughter, and Twilight Sparkle as the bearer of magic." Luna clarified.

I listened closely, and took it all in. None of the bearers had informed me of their status, but then again, it was never really brought up before. I suddenly thought of something. "Wait, you said that the elements choose ponies that embody their element as a host. What happens if a pony stops embodying their element?" I asked.

"They lose their connection to their element entirely, and the other bearer's connection to the elements is severly weakened." Luna said.

I nodded my head. "Okay, I think I understand. Go ahead and continue with the history lesson."

"Very Well. The Original Six's names and feats are lost in legend, but the general consensus in all of these legends is that they discovered the Elements of Harmony, and used them to defeat Discord, turning him into stone and bringing order to the world. Let us fast forward a couple of hundred years. Ponykind has established a form of government with three branches: the earth ponies, the pegasi, and the unicorns. The earth ponies, with their natural connection to the earth, were responsible for growing the crops to feed all of ponykind. The pegasi were responsible for controlling the weather and making sure it was optimal for the earth ponies, as well as any military operations. The unicorns were responsible for raising and lowering the sun and moon, and for furthering the advance of ponykind. This form of government worked, but prejudices were high amongst ponykind, and they were rarely ever agreeable with each other." Luna paused to let me take it all in.

I nodded my head, signaling for her to continue. I had long since come to terms with magic moving the sun and moon. I wasn't exactly in my own dimension; I shouldn't expect everything to work the same. And besides: Magic.

"Ponykind did not know this, but far away from their still small country, a land-bridge connecting modern-day Equestria with the griffon homeland had risen out of the sea, allowing animals of all kind to migrate from the griffon homeland to Equestria. One of these animals in particular, the windigo, found the establishment of ponykind. Ponykind's negative feelings towards each other gave the windigos plenty of sustenance, and eventually they wrenched control of the weather from the pegasi and turned the pony's homes into an eternal blizzard. The blizzard killed all of the earth pony's crops, which meant that none of the other ponies were getting food. All of the ponies turned their suspicions on each other, which in turn fed the windigos even more. Eventually, the ponies decided they would migrate to warmer lands. They did not know it yet, but they would be migrating to modern-day Equestria. They had though that the migration would solve all of their food problems, but wherever the ponies went, the windigos followed. Eventually, the windigos got so strong that they actually assaulted the ponies one last time for a feast of negative emotions. However, it was in ponykind's darkest hour that they learned to get along and appreciate each other. With the windigo's source of power gone, the windigos were easily driven back by the now unified ponykind, and the ponies named the newly found land 'Equestria'."

"Seems like things got better just in time." I mused.

"Yes, but the windigos were only the beginning. Other creatures, some just as bad as the windigos, were still migrating to Equestria. Even though the ponies had now gotten over their differences, the challenges were great. The military was stretched thing across this new land, and they were having great troubles keeping the monsters and predators away from ponykind." Luna said.

"Yeah, I read about some of them." I said, recalling my time reading The Fauna of Equestria. "What did they do about them?" I asked.

"In secret, separate from the rest of ponykind's knowledge, a group of pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns had been developing a way to assist ponykind. They reasoned that ponykind needed leaders to help lead ponykind into a new era. These leaders would need to embody all three races of ponykind, with all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses, so that all of ponykind would accept them. They would also need their strength to be matched by their wits. As you might imagine, none of them could meet these requirements, so they turned to the strongest and wisest things they could think of: the sun and moon. The very things that had guided ponykind through the best of times and the worst of times, would now be the very saviors they needed." Luna said.

I whistled (Hey! I can still do that!). "Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'aim for the stars'."

That brought a smile to Luna's face. "Indeed. The spell took months for the greatest minds of ponykind to concoct. From the development of this spell came very many serious advancements in the field of magic. Finally, the fruits of the hard work of the pegasi,earth ponies, and unicorns came to fruition: the spell was completed. Using the life force of all but a few members in order to power the spell, they called down the very essence of the sun and moon in the form of two ponies."

"Let me guess: These two ponies were you and Celestia, right?" I said.

"Correct." Luna said.

"So let me get this straight: you and Celestia are literal avatars of the sun and moon?" I asked.

"Correct, although we act much different now from how we acted back then."

Wow. That explains so much. Celestia's coat and rainbow hair suddenly make sense now. Contrary to popular belief, the sun is white in color, not yellow. The atmosphere just interferes with the light and makes it look yellow. As for the hair? It's the UV light spectrum, obviously. I'm guessing the invisible wind always blowing through her mane is symbolic of solar wind. Everything about Luna is pretty obvious about what it represents, though.

Wait, hold on a second. I just thought of something.

"When Celestia was disconnected from the magic flowing through Equestria, does that mean she also lost her connection to the sun?" I asked.

"That is correct. However, as we are beings of magic, when we lose our connection to the magical flow, we are affected far more than just a loss of our magical ability: we are severely weakened in physical regards as well as magical. We can barely carry ourselves, and any amount of flying is out of the question. We are helpless when we are like this, and must wait for our magical connection to naturally reestablish itself. However, it takes a great deal to sever the connection. In all of my life, I have only seen it happen to one of us a total of five times. Celestia was simply careless in acquiring information on your world."

Acquiring information on my world? She told me she was checking to make sure I was righteous of heart! Then again,I shouldn't hold it against her; I probably would have done the same thing. Information about an entirely other world? Yes, please! And I guess she did kind of get her comeuppance in the form of a manticore.

Luna resumed her history lesson. "Although these two newborns interred into the world fully grown, they were still like foals. It was the job of the remaining few who had not sacrificed themselves for the spell to teach and train them. Some of the greatest minds were left behind, and a few were legendary generals. Thankfully, the mental capacity of the two sisters were great, and, under the tutelage of the greatest minds of ponykind, they quickly matured and learned everything they could. Alongside their education, the generals taught the two sisters everything they knew about combat and military tactics. After years of teaching and training, they were finally ready to release the two sisters unto ponykind. The two sisters single-handedly saved an entire village from being attacked by a group of manticores. The two sisters then traveled all over Equestria, driving the monsters out of various villages and cities, along with help from a few local heroes here and there. They announced what they were, and that they were there to lead ponykind into a new age. Awed by their strength and selflessness, ponykind gladly accepted the two sisters as their new leaders. The two sisters quickly organized all of ponykind in either driving the dangerous animals out of Equestria, or driving them into extinction within Equestria."

"So wait, how many animals did you drive into extinction, exactly?" I asked.

"Well, it was not total extinction, as there was always more back in the griffon homeland, but within Equestria I think there were 157 species we drove to extinction, and that's not counting the ones we simply drove out of Equestria." Luna said.

"Oh...so I guess the changelings are just a small thing compared to what happened then..." I said.

So much for maybe talking Celestia out of it...

Luna just nodded her head before speaking. "We should get going. Mustn't keep the element of generosity waiting, after all."

I nodded. "One more thing, though: you were supposed to drive out all of the monsters and predators that ate ponies from Equestria, right? But what made you decide to leave the Everfree forest alone?"

"It used to go by another name: the Lunar Reserve. I was obsessed by the curiosities present in the Everfree forest, and its resistance to magic played no small part in that decision. When we decided to make our base there, we had trained all of the monsters in the Everfree forest. Ever since my banishment, though, Celestia ordered that the Everfree Forest Castle be abandoned, the elements left inside, and the monsters left to themselves. I imagine she did it all in memory of myself, although the Everfree Forest DID prove to be an able guardian of the Elements of Harmony." Luna finished.

I nodded`"I can understand an interest vested in the pursuit of knowledge, even if that interest means leaving a dangerous forest standing. So how are you going to get me to Rarity's? Last time I had to move through town we had to employ some... extreme measures."

"A simple illusion spell will do the job." Luna said. She lowered her horn, and it started glowing. "Hold still while I apply the illusion." She said. I obliged and stood as still as possible. The glow was quickly replaced by a bright flash that filled my vision for a brief instant. When the glow faded, in the place of luna was a conspicuous light brown mare with a dark brown mane, complete with dark brown eyes.

"We are ready." The brown mare announced in a voice totally different from Luna's.

I looked down to see if I had changed at all, only to see that I hadn't changed one bit. I was about to voice my concerns when Luna spoke up.

"The illusion does not alter your own perception of yourself, it merely alters everyone else's." Luna said.

"Oh. Well, how do I look? What color am I?" I asked.

"I have given you the colors of a lion, a dark yellow coat with an orange mane, along with prowling hazel eyes. I thought it would be appropriate." Luna said with a smirk.

"Heh, I appreciate the irony. Alright, lead the way!" I said.

And so we set out to Rarity's place. Hopefully I could get more information about the public's blood lust from her, since Luna seems out of the loop.

Final Chapter: Closure

So I figured its been 5 going on 6 years since i wrote this story and i figure you folks deserve to know how this was going to end. I'll be honest, I don't remember much of the plot points I had planned in the past so ill just give you the important points.

The voice in Leon's head is a player of the game, dragged in along with leon by the effects of Chrysalis' spell (because magic is funny that way, and I thought leon and the player working together and leon being influenced by whoever he was 'partnered' with was a cool concept.) The reason why Leon had so much love to give was originally because he was human (cant remember why), but if i wrote it now, id have it be because of all these potential connections.

U3 will be accepted by the ponies after the main six, celestia, and luna all appear and vouch for him as a hero they have summoned that was going to March into the Everfree forest and help deal with the changelings. and when they march into the Everfree forest, they would come upon Chrysalis' Lair. However through a series of traps and the efforts of a love enhanced super chrysalis and her love enhanced guards, everypony would end up separate and scattered in the forest. U3 and Leon would fight, but U3 isn't just a mindless monster anymore and Leon is lacking his 'partner'. Leon is faltering, but Chrysalis manages to come by and sense the magic barrier around U3. She doesn't know what it means but shattering the barrier of her enemy is good right?

So she does, and U3 once again loses his sapience, returning back to the mindless monster he was. This juggernaut of a beserker starts going after EVERYONE, and because they're all separated and unorganized, they cant really get a good foothold to mount a solid offense on the sudden wrench in everyone's plan.

However, the 'player' inside U3 (who mind leaped from leon to U3 because they were both pulled from the same instance of the game) manages to assume control of U3. He explains what's going on, to all of them, both sides' stories. Holding quite a bit of power in the situation he manages to mediate things after having seen things from both perspectives. Celestia demands imposing terms from the get go. Chrysalis is begrudging at first, her old pride flaring up when face to face with the ones that beat her so badly. But when she looks at the few soldiers and changelings she has left, she returns to the humble self she'd been, and realizes this could be the changelings' only chance, considering ponies had already seen them as things to be feared and hunted even before the invasion. She accepts the terms. Celestia acknowledges that the hive cannot exist without chrysalis, and recognizes the excruciating circumstances that led to the invasion, so she says she will allow her special treatment. She will still be a political prisoner of Equestria for the time being however, and the changeling hive will integrate into Equestria.

With all things said and done, Player explains that, whole he's happy things had come to agreement, he's also going to lose control of U3 soon and that's a bad thing cause everyone's worn out from the fighting. Celestia's magic barrier worked by containing the ambient magic of equestria in a bubble, but now there's nothing to bubble, and the air in the Everfree Forest wont hold magic. It'd ve too far for him to get back out of Everfree in time, too. Player asks if the mane 6 can use the elements of harmony to help U3, and they try to, but they're tired from the battle, and its not strong enough to work with the Everfree Forests' effects putting up resistance to their magic too.

If they just leave, U3 will surely disappear into the woods and become hard to find, and a huge problem if they do-- not to mention they'd be essentially be losing U3 as a friend again. The raging monster wouldn't be able to be peacefully subdued, he'd fight to the last dying breath--which leon and player confirm, as they'd each killed him once already. And even if they somehow lured him out, there'd certainly be a cost of life. They'd need a solution now or things would have to get a lot worse before they get better.

So Player has an idea. He asks celestia, luna, and chrysalis to all perform the summoning spell together, using the elements of harmony as focal points of the magic circle and with Leon as the center point. Player explains that perhaps since Leon has connected with so, so many people, surely at least some of them are eligible as bearers of the elements of harmony, right? Even if Leon himself isn't, surely there are some others that he's 'partnered' with that have played the game that would qualify, right? So they do that, and it works. All of the elements of harmony channel through leon, each summoned 'partner' that bears the element would have their thoughts appear in different colors to comment on the situation. Each of them would already know the situation through Leon's memories, especially since celestia and luna was helping with the summoning now and its not just Chrysalis trying to imitate what she saw.

Leon channels the elements' powers, each 'partner' inside of him still at full power unlike the mane 6 currently. Leon takes out his empty Broken Butterfly, cracking it open as if to reload it. The lines of power gathers in his hands, Leon loading them each of the six power streams into the six chambers of the Broken Butterfly. He clicks it back together, and spins the chamber, the mana lines swirling together. He takes aim. One last comment and cheer from each of the 'partner' spirits inside of him, and he fires.

In an extravagant display of rainbows, emotions, and colors, the magical shot is described in excruciating detail as it goes through the air in slow motion, similar to the 'final shot' moments from many different Resident Evil games.

The shot hits U3, doing no physical damage to him, but piercing all the way into his chest, and into the plaga. The magic nestles deep inside of him, glowing through his body and softly shifting colors as if the magic inside was shift through a slow swirl of colors.

This shot not only gives U3 his own source of magic (that's temporary and has to be refilled by being in a place saturated with magic like equestria) to keep his sapience going, it also harmonizes him and his plaga. No longer will he be controlled in the presence of a master plaga or control plaga (or indeed, in the face of certain frequencies--which is how control and master plagas work in the first place). Dominance over an unwilling host isn't harmonious, but cooperation is. U3 will still have very many sleepless nights dealing with what he has done in the past, but he won't have to worry about being controlled ever again.

Im pretty sure Player and the other channeled spirits go back to their homes with assistance from celestia and Luna, bidding farewells to everyone after a bunch of talking to everyone. I don't remember about Leon, however, so i suppose you're free to imagine whatever you want there. However, I know for certain that U3 stays, and enjoys his new life there, accepted among the ponies.

The series ends with celestia looking over her city. The changelings are recovering, and it will be a while before they are truely accepted, but it will only be a matter of time. The incredible fear and paranoia of changelings that ponykind has felt against them for generations has been quelled greatly by their sound defeat, though of course its not entirely gone.

Though Celestia didn't plan the invasion, it is revealed at the end that the reason celestia gave the drastic order to hunt the changelings was not only to quell the public calls for revenge for the lives lost in the invasion, but also because she knew changelings were a hive mind. At least, the main part of it was. In order for negotiations to happen, Chrysalis needed to be worn down severely, else her own pride would keep her from giving into negotiations. In addition, it helped quell the extreme fear and paranoia surrounding changelings that had already existed even before the invasion, which had no doubt left the changelings to starve and force their hand with the invasion. This had shown that there was no need to fear--that when push comes to shove, ponykind could handily root out and defeat any kind of changeling force. Now the sympathetic reasoning for the hostile invasion could come out. It would take a lot of time, and probably even more work, but the changelings would recover, public opinion will shift and change (Celestia would have to handle that carefully and keep a close eye on it, but she had faith in herself), and changelings would, for once, have a healthy position in the modern world, and be able to thrive and live as ponykind do instead of living on the fringes of society as feared and hunted predators. Perhaps cruel in the short term, but celestia was of the opinion that it would pay off greatly, tenfold even, in the long run.

This was such a great story to write, even if i did lose motivation. I always told myself i'd go back and write it, but i never did. And long after it faded in my memory, one of the times i remembered it, and this time im I came to terms with the truth i'd never go back, but you folks deserved some closure. I hope you enjoyed reading, because i enjoyed writing for this crazy story. If there's any plot points I didn't answer here that you want an answer to, ask them in the comments and I'll answer them.

Have a good life <3

Chapter 1 - Ascend From Darkness

*Snap*

The American Agent Leon Kennedy ran away from yet another snap from the scissor-like mandibles of the creature chasing him.

It had started as a simple investigation mission to gather information about the possible location of the president's kidnapped daughter. Needless to say, it didn't go as planned. The mission had turned crazy before it had even began. First his transportation had been killed, then the only road out had been cut off, and then all of the townspeople had turned against him and started actively trying to kill him.

It only got worse from there. Cults, mind controlling parasites, and even genetic experiments. It sounded like something you'd find in a movie. Unfortunately, it was an all too real reality for him. Luckily, he'd had experience with extreme situations. You've probably heard about how he had been one of the survivors of the Raccoon City Incident. It was the entire reason he had been hired to work for the Secret Service, and inspired him to learn how to be cool under pressure.

But we're getting off track. Let's get back to the present.

In his search for the president's daughter, he had fallen for a trap set up for him and was now having to fight this monstrosity of a creature. It looked like a centaur crossed with a chimera as far as he could tell. He hadn't gotten a good look at it. He barely had enough time inbetween attacks to get a shot off already, so he didn't have time to stop and stare. He'd used up a sizable chunk of his ammo resources so far, but the creature was resilient. It even went so far as to have the plaga parasite bursting out of its back keep fighting after the main body died, with it taking control of the lower half and taking the upper half's place. However, Leon was determined to end this battle here and now.

*Snap*

Stopping after a couple of steps, Leon turned around and raised his magnum in front of him. He knew he was completely safe after the fourth strike attempt. While the creature in front of him was a formidable foe, it was not the least bit intelligent. It always followed a set pattern of attack, even if it meant taking a direct hit. In this case, it would always snap at him four times before roaring at him in frustration.

Aiming with his laser sight, Leon calmly moved his aim to the middle of the parasite's mouth, which was now wide open. Pulling the trigger, Leon could almost imagine the bullet tearing through the inside of the parasite, wreaking all kinds of havoc inside of the creature.

Giving out one last roar, the creature finally subsided to the pain. The legs holding it up gave out, and the parasite fell limply onto the corpse of its former host.

"I'm glad that's over." Said Leon as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Darkness. Darkness everywhere. I can see a light...it's getting bigger. I feel dizzy... the light is almost here.

Suddenly, gravity took hold as the light engulfed me. I felt myself falling through the light before hitting the ground hard. I could feel myself coming into consciousness....

I awoke to a pain pulsating from my head.

God. My head is pounding. Ugh, It kind of hurts to think, too.

My eyes shot open.

Wait a second! How am I thinking at all?

The sound of a familiar voice echoed from my memories

"After the procedure, you won't be human at all. You'll lose any cognitive abilities. You'll just be a mindless beast..."

Trying to remember more, I found my memory to be a bit hazy. Everything after the operation was just a blur. With some effort, I recalled how I came to be known as "U-3".

I was elected as the best (and only) candidate for a special operation the scientists in the Los Illuminados, a deranged cult bent on world domination, had come up with. It was very different from the procedure used to create the formidable "Regeneradors". Where-as the procedure to create the Regeneradors focused on metabolism and the regrowth of limbs, the U-3 project focused on combining certain aspect from very different animals into one plaga-mutated being. With the plaga inside of me, then no matter how little of my mind remained afterwards, they could still control me at their every whim.

Speaking of which, the plaga inside of me is acting strangely subdued. Before, it would influence my actions like a drug, always nudging me into doing this or that based on the whims of its controller. Interestingly enough, while the plaga always had full control over me and my co-workers, it never did anything to influence our personalities. We were still cracking jokes while slaughtering outsiders.

Outsiders...

A flash of memory swept through me at that word.

An American agent.

Dirty blonde hair.

Dim blue eyes.

A bright black shirt.

A bright flash of light.

Ngh! The pain!

With an inhuman groan, I let the painful memory slip away into the haze of my mind. I decided to try and take my mind off of things by taking a look around.

Groggily, I stood up. My body felt numb, but I was surprised at how I could already easily move around in the alien body. I suppose it's either a result of the plaga's natural ability to adapt to all kinds of hosts and communicate between them flawlessly regardless of species, or from having at least SOME part of my mind stuck inside this body while I was feral, retaining lots of muscle memory.

I gave my new body a quick check over. Out of the changes, the most noticeable was that I no longer walked on two legs. Instead, everything from the waist down was replaced with what seems to be a mix of a lion's leg, and a centipede's torso. Though it was the size of a lion's torso, no fur grew anywhere. Instead, it was the same color as a human's skin. The centipede torso continued past the lion legs , but bent upwards at an angle reminiscent of a snake. Instead of a head, however, the centipede torso was connected to my human torso at the stomach.

Looking my human body over, three things were most apparent.

1: my left arm was now a fleshy prehensile tentacle. To my surprise, I seemed to be able to extend it to be almost twice as long, and then retract it back to normal length as if nothing ever happened. Seeing as how I could dexterously wrap it tightly around my other arm, it seemed to be good enough to hold things, provided they were big enough not to slip out.

2: my bottom jaw was now split down the middle and extended past the top jaw, resembling mandibles. Out of my mouth hung a long, cylindrical tongue, ending at a point. It suspended itself naturally in the air, but I found I could control it if I wanted to. It looked to be about a foot long, but I couldn't accurately tell without a mirror.

My right hand now had claws.

I checked myself for any sign of an exposed plaga. Finding none, I turned my gaze to my surroundings.

With a quick scan of the area, I determined I was at the edge of a forest, with the trees lined up a couple of yards behind me. Considering that the industrial island I was on had absolutely no forests at all (unless you count the "iron jungle" of the factories), it's pretty safe to say that I'm either back on the mainland, or somewhere else entirely.

The sun is only just reaching over the horizon, turning the sky into the light blue between night and day. Along the edge of the forest a couple of yards to the right of me is a small cottage. It's a good thing it's only morning. While I'm sure my mother would love me all the same, I'm fairly certain that my horrible visage would bring unwanted trouble.

The forest seems to be a good place to hide. Although I have no idea what my diet consists of now, I'm willing to bet I could still eat meat. While I could not possibly hope to be fast enough to catch any of the forest's prey, I'm fairly certain I could challenge the area's predators and kill them for a meal.

Turning towards the forest, I start to walk to it. Before I could get very far, however, I could tell that something was very wrong. With every step I took, I could feel a part of my rational mind leaving me, being replaced with a horrifying numbness instead.

I quickly backed away from the forest before I could lose myself any further. To my massive relief, I could feel my mind returning with every step I took back. The numbness was hurriedly fading away as well. By the time I arrived back where I started, the numbness was completely gone.

While my mind was still cloudy, and it still slightly hurt to think, I was thankful I had caught the forest's effects in time. I shuddered at the thought of losing my miraculously regained intelligence and going back to being a mindless creature.

Hmm...if the forest is somehow dampening my intelligence just by being near it, then can I fully regain my mental capacities by getting far enough away from it? I guess there's only one way to find out.

I turned around to walk away, only for my lion-ish legs to bump into something.

"Oof! Hey! Watch where you're-- AAAAAHHHH!" A feminine voice screamed.

Looking down towards the source of the voice, I see something that was small enough to escape my normal field of vision: a small mint green horse with a human-like face and a horn on its head.

What.

"Wugh." I expressed in my all-knowing glory.

Well, if the horse didn't have an expression of absolute terror before, then it sure did now.

Whoops. I guess I kind of forgot about the part where you need a normal mouth to talk.

The sound of a door being flung open could be heard to my right. I look over to see a yellow horse with a pink mane. Her eyes lit up with surprise and horror when she saw me.

"Flu-... Fluttershy, i-is this another one of your exotic animals?" The green horse asked in a shaky voice.

I looked towards the green horse, and then looked back towards "Fluttershy" for her response. Before she could even shake her head 'yes' or 'no', however, a flash of green streaked towards her. She wore an expression of surprise for half a second before being tackled into the house. The door mysteriously slammed shut behind them without any apparent cause. I then heard the sound of locks clicking and furniture being moved.

If my mind wasn't all fogged up, this entire incident might have moderately shaken me up. I say 'moderately' because when you're part of the Los Illuminados (whether you want to be or not), you learn to take things in stride. Things like having a mind controlling parasite inside of you.

Shaking my head, I started to walk away from the forest when an errant thought popped into my head.

What if they call the authorities?

I tensed up at this for a few seconds, before remembering two things:

It's talking horses. I doubt they have cops.
Even if they do have cops, what are they gonna tell them? 'Hey, I saw a monster outside my house.'?

I chuckled inwardly at myself for a moment before running away from the forest at full-speed, eager to regain my full intelligence. So eager, in fact, that I didn't notice a nearby rainbow take on a life of its own and blind-side me.

"Hold it right there, Mister!"

I'm really beginning to miss being able to talk.

Chapter 14 - He's Called Player Because he's Good With the Ladies

Oh god! I remember! I remember it all! I have a family! I have a brother! I was playing a game with him! My mother, my father, my brother-- I'll never see them again! Why did this happen to me? I didn't deserve this! I didn't want this! I'm not a hero! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!

I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I mentally screamed.

Leon jerked his head head back in surprise at the suddenness of my voice.

Woah, calm down. what's up? Leon asked mentally.

I don't know how to fight! I've never killed anyone in my life!

Calm down! You don't have to worry about that stuff! I'll be doing all the fighting!

But what if you die? What happens to me then?

Listen: just calm down. I haven't died yet, and I don't plan on doing it any time soon.Now I need you to trust me, and tell me what's going on.

Leon's word managed to bring me back from the brink of hysteria, but only just enough to form a coherent thought.

O-Okay. Give me some time to gather my thoughts.

I started calming my mind and piecing together the things I needed to tell Leon.

Alright, I've figured out who I am, but to understand who I am, you must first understand some things. One: I'm not from your world, and I'm not from this world either. I live in an entirely different world. Now in my world, for whatever reason, peices of your world ended up becoming a video game series in our world. I don't know how it happened, but it did, and the games are very popular.

Leon nodded his head. Okay, but how does that relate to who you are?

Just wait for me to be finished. In two of the games, you are the main protagonist. Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 4. A player controls both of you during those games. Now, remember that "Voice in the back of your head that only show up at times of extreme stress"? Tell me the instances in when the voice showed up.

I could sense Leon was starting to get unnerved by all this. Nonetheless, he answered in kind. During the Raccoon City incident, and during the mission.

Right. What I'm thinking is that the video games in my world are somehow connected to when they take place in your life. My best guess is that the players who play the game are somehow helping you. But I'm guessing your fate isn't defined solely by the players, because in the video games you can die at any time, but you're still here and alive. I'm guessing your fate is ultimately decided solely by you, but the players help out a great deal. That's not to say that you're not skilled without them, it's that your skills are magnified a great deal when the players are involved.

Leon nodded his head. Okay, but I still don't see how that relates to you.

Last night, before I went to bed, I played a bit of Resident Evil 4. That's the one of the mission, by the way. I'm guessing that the spell that dragged you here recognized you could do greater with a player helping you out, and dragged me along with you. I don't know why it chose me, but it did.

So wait, you're saying you're my 'player'?

Yeah, but not in the usual sense. Usually, I'd just guide your movements, not actually talk and interact with you.

When did you realize this?

When you tapped into your magic. I'm not about to say that I understand the way magic works, but I think you tapping into the magical world somehow opened up all of this knowledge to me.

Okay. So you're another person entirely. How did you know about me taking debate class back in high school? that couldn't have possible been exciting enough to include in the games.

I'm guessing that whatever dragged me into this with you gave me extensive knowledge of your life.

That was most of it, but I knew something else, too. Something else that would have to be fixed as soon as possible. I've been effecting Leon all this time. He's not just acting like Leon, he's acting like ME with a dash of Leon's personality. When he's like this, I'm no better than the plaga. I've got to get him to re-establish mental dominance in a fit of emotion. Luckily, I know just how to push my buttons.

Leon.

Yeah?

Remember that whore Ada?

What did you just say?

The one who you fawned over, only to let her die?

Wha--

The one who tricked you, let you believe she was actually dead, only to show up and trick you AGAIN, and leave you to die?

Now wait just a--

And even after all this time, you STILL can't let go of her. HOW PATHETIC! You probably even still LOVE her!

...

YOU DO! I'll bet that even now, you're still--

SHUT! UP!

I felt myself being pulled away. No! I was only supposed to be suppressed a little, not pulled away entirely! What's going to happen to me? I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I DON'T--

I shook my head. It felt like a pressure in my head had been suddenly lifted. What had I been doing these past few hours? We've got to get a plan of action, an ETA to enemy arrival... Geez. There's a lot of stuff to do.

"Chrysalis. Could you come over here for a second?" I asked.

I mentally "awoke" to the sight of... a cow. I was in a different body, and-- WAIT IS THAT U-3? HOW IS IT HERE? WHY IS IT HERE? THIS IS CRAZY! THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY-- no! The time for freaking out can wait! For now I will simply observe, wait, and see what I can figure out. I don't have the mental strength with this host to communicate with them. For now, all I can do is observe.

Observe and plan.

Chapter 16 - Player's Thoughts 1

Eugh. I thought that having access to this guy's memories would be a GOOD thing. Some of the things this guy has done under the plaga's influence makes me sick to my stomach. It's one thing to see gore and violence in video games and movies, but in real life? There's no words to describe how stomach churning it is. I'm glad that bastard Saddler is dead.

I can't re-establish contact with Leon, so I'm sifting through this guy's memories to try and figure out the whole picture behind what's going on. I can still see and hear whatever U-3 is seeing and hearing, but I can't seem to "talk" to him like I could with Leon.

I have no earthly idea how U-3 is suddenly talking and thinking for himself. Although I haven't gotten through all of his memories yet, so I can't be a hundred percent certain, I'm pretty sure that he wasn't sapient when Leon fought him. I can only hope that the rest of his memories will explain all of my questions.

Well, this walk from the farm to this "Rarity"'s place will certainly give me plenty of time to review the rest of his memories.

I wonder if U-3 is the "hero" that the moon princess and the sun princess (who I now assumed to be Luna and someone named "Celestia", based on the history lesson that Luna gave to U-3) summoned in order to help take care of the changeling problem. If that's true, then magic has a hilarious sense of irony. If it's true, though, then the spell might have made a mistake. I don't even have to read his mind to know that U-3 is against killing the rest of the changelings. Then again, magic works in mysterious ways. There may be something I'm simply not thinking of.

In any case, the only way I'm going to get more answers is by looking through the rest of this guy's memories. Honestly I'm kind of excited to see what the "Cannon" is regarding how Leon handled that fight. I never thought to check Leon's memories regarding the mission while I was still with him. Did he do well? Did he do poorly? Was he absolutely insane and did the entire fight with only the knife? I'm about to find out!

Wait...

No, that can't be possible. This is exactly how the battle went down in my game before I went to bed!

I need to see the rest of those memories.