With the Flip of a Coin

Chapters

Act 1, Scene 1
Act 1, Scene 2
Act 1, Scene 3
Act 1, Scene 4
Prologue

Act 1, Scene 1

The temperature in Ponyville was a very pleasant warm, though the breeze that came through occasionally would send a brief shiver down the spines of any pony that felt it. The sun was visible, but the clouds were steadily growing in number day by day. For Ponyville, this was usual for the time of year; they were slowly nearing wintertime. Despite the fact that winter wasn’t scheduled for another three weeks, the ponies started their preparations early, making it all the more easy when the time for winter actually came.

No matter the season or weather, though, the Cutie Mark Crusaders would continue on their quest to discover their cutie marks. After all, a different season meant more opportunities, right? The three young fillies had just finished with their most recent escapades throughout the Ponyville area and had decided to regroup in the club treehouse, and were sitting in front of a surprisingly large pile of assorted metal objects.

“Um, can someone remind me why we did this, again? I mean, it is kinda neat, but what was this supposed to accomplish?” Scootaloo asked.

“Remember, Scoots? Cutie Mark Crusader Metal Finders? Ah thought we went over that a bunch.” The response was permeated with the thick country accent that only came from a member of the Apple family.

“Yeah, yeah, Applebloom, but I mean, what was that supposed to do? It’s not like metal finding would be much of a job. We wouldn’t even be able to do anything with it. All we could do would be to say, ‘Eeyup, there’s some metal’, and then what?” Scootaloo was trying to show to her friends that they had possibly just wasted an entire day to get a cutie mark that she thought might not be too practical.

Sweetie Belle figured that she should interject before things got heated between the pegasus and earth pony. “Girls!” she said loudly. “I think we should look through what we’ve got here. Obviously, we didn’t get our cutie marks, but look at all the stuff we found! There’s got to be at least a hundred bits here, not to mention the rest of the junk. We might find something in this large amalgam of metal that could give us new ideas for cutie marks!”

“. . .” The other two fillies stared at Sweetie Belle.

“Ama-whatsit now?” Applebloom was rather confused.

Scootaloo shook her head. “You’ve been spending too much time around Twilight recently.”

“Who do you think taught me the metal detection spell?” came the white unicorn’s response.

“I don’t think you’ve got it all right just yet, Sweetie Belle. I mean, look here-” Scootaloo lifted up a small wooden wagon wheel “-your spell found this, and it isn’t even made of metal!”

“Well, it could just be the spell. When Twilight showed it to me, the spell said that I was made of metal, but how could that be right? I’m a pony. I just think the spell isn’t one hundred percent accurate. Anyways, back to the metal,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Sweetie Belle has a point. Who knows what we could do with this stuff!” The excitement and interest in Applebloom’s voice was obvious.

“Alright. I guess there’s bound to be something worth our while in here. Let’s get to it.” Scootaloo conceded the point.

The trio of fillies descended upon their confusingly large pile of assorted metal objects with gusto, sorting and tinkering with the motivation of a possible cutie mark.

Hours later found Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle looking at numerous smaller piles that had been organized using the large pile that they had somehow managed to get into the treehouse.

“Alright girls! Whatta we got?” The yellow filly had decided that an assessment of their stash was in order.

“Well, I counted a total of one hundred and two actual bits that we’ve found.” Sweetie Belle had been tasked with finding and counting the bits that they had recovered.

Scootaloo nodded and gave her report. “And I figured we’ve got about twenty kilograms of random metal that we can’t do anything with. I mean, where did this stuff even come from? Who just leaves a sheet of metal lying around?”

“How’d ya know how much metal ya got there?” Applebloom decided to voice the question that was on the minds of her and her unicorn friend.

“Well, one of the pieces of metal we found happened to be one of those old balance scales.”

“How’d we miss that?” Sweetie Belle said. “Well, what about you, Applebloom?”

“Well, ah gathered all the things that looked useful. We got ‘bout ten pots and pans, a few buttons, this weird golden cane thing, and a cool lookin’ urn.”

The other two Crusaders noticed the sealed urn that Applebloom had just mentioned. The object in question was rather different from the other pieces that the trio of fillies had found. It was fairly large, about half a metre tall and thirty centimetres wide. Though it was very dirty and had copious amounts of muck on it, it was very obvious that it was quite the ornate piece. There were decorative protrusions from the sides of the urn that gave the appearance of ivy vines winding around the container, eventually melding together towards the top to form two handles that connected to the lip of the urn. On top rested a lid, though it was sealed shut by multiple layers of rust and mud.

“Does anyone remember where we got it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Applebloom responded, “Yeah, ah think it was given ta us by that big purple sea serpent in the river with the questionable hairstyle.”

Applebloom trotted over to the urn and grabbed a handle in her mouth, bringing it to the other two. Dropping it in front of Sweetie Belle, there was a very distinct clack of something hard striking metal.

“Did you hear that, girls?” Scootaloo asked. “There might be bits in there. Looks like your count was wrong, Sweetie.”

“Oh come on!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed

“Well, let’s open this derned thing!” Eagerness was very evident in the yellow earth pony’s voice. She immediately set to prying the lid off using a combination of her teeth and hooves. After a minute of attempts with no results, Applebloom let go in defeat.

“Here, let me try something.” Sweetie Belle seemed to want to attempt to open the urn. Lifting it with simple telekinesis, she used her magic to lift the mud and dirt from the crevice around the lid. “Now try it, AB.”

Giving it a quick tug, the lid came off easily. Peering inside the now open urn, Scootaloo attempted to see what was in the urn that made the clinking noise. “Huh?”

“What is it, Scoots?” Applebloom asked.

“It’s . . . Well, it looks like a mask. Sorta.”

“What do you mean ‘sorta’?” Sweetie Belle responded.

“Here, gimme a sec,” Scootaloo said before reaching in to the jar and grabbing out a thin, round object. “See?”

Indeed, the object that Scootaloo had pulled out looked similar to a mask, but with very obvious differences. First was that the mask was far too flat for a pony. Where the muzzle would have been was only a small triangular protrusion, making the mask only a few centimetres thick when laid flat on the ground. The eyes were much smaller than that of a pony, and there was no way one would be able to see out of the mask, even if they managed to somehow get it on. The last difference was both simple and complex: the mask didn’t make sense. Looking at one side, the mask was a very pure white, with a large smile adorning it, with the eyes and mouth holes that went all the way through the mask. Turning the mask over, it was pitch black and sported a frown almost completely opposite its other side. The most confusing element was that looking at one side, it could be felt that the mask was only single-faced. Flipping the mask around to look at the back simply seemed to shift it into the opposite mask face. By all means, the mask should be double sided and impossible to wear, yet only one side could be seen at a time, and the side that wasn’t seen simply wasn’t there. The mask that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had found was impossible. Even if it was a magic object, it was no magic that had been seen before.

“Girls, I don’t like this mask. It don’t feel right.” Applebloom voiced her concerns after observing the mask.

“I get what you mean,” Scootaloo said, “There’s something off about this thing, weird shifting aside.”

“I get strange feelings when looking at it. I look at the happy side, and I feel . . . hopeful. Like everything is going to be alright. But the other side . . .” Sweetie Belle shuddered.

“Yeah, we’d better put this back. I don’t feel like it belongs here.” The orange pegasus filly stared at the mask.

Almost two minutes later and the trio were still rooted where they were, staring at the mask on the floor, not one of them having moved to pick up the mask.

“Umm, why haven’t we done anything?” Sweetie Belle broke the silence.

“Ah . . . Ah don’t know,” Applebloom said, “I know I need to, but I don’t feel like I want to. It’s like . . . I can’t.”

“Guys, I don’t like this,” Scootaloo said with a slight whimper. “I know I don’t usually say this, but, I’m scared.”

The other two nodded in agreement before Sweetie Belle spoke up.

“Maybe . . . I could try my magic and move it back into the urn?”

“S-sure. Yeah, you do that,” Applebloom said. None of them had moved their eyes from the mask.

Sweetie Belle slowly worked on concentrating on levitating the mask. It was a slow and difficult process, with Sweetie Belle still working on getting her magic control consistent. After half a minute, she started sweating and panting, the mental effort seeming to show through her physical state. Slowly, a light green aura wrapped around the mask, lifting it many centimetres off the ground, and started to move it back towards the urn. Suddenly, Sweetie Belle let out a pained cry and broke the magical link, sending the mask clattering back to the floor. The cry from Sweetie Belle seemed to bring Applebloom and Scootaloo back into focus as they rushed over to where their friend was laying on the floor, breathing heavily.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” Scootaloo asked worriedly.

“Yeah, ya ain’t hurt, are ya? Applebloom followed.

“Not anymore, but it did. It was like, the more effort I put into it, the harder it got to lift it up,” Sweetie Belle said, “Then, all of a sudden, it felt like a spike was shoved in my head. It hurt so much, I couldn’t keep up the magic. It was like . . . like it didn’t want to be moved.”

“That would be because it isn’t yours.”

The three fillies immediately froze. That wasn’t one of their voices. That had been something else. Something that wasn’t there before. Slowly, Applebloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle turned towards where the mask was, about two metres away. Upon finding where the mask had been, they soon noticed it was no longer there. In its place was something much larger and much more ominous.

Standing where the mask had been moments ago was a very large creature, entirely concealed by a similarly large grey cloak, with its hood drawn up, obscuring where its head was with an empty cavity. A long arm surrounded by a sleeve was visible, extending from the sides of the creature’s upper body, and ending in what looked like a fleshy, five-digit claw, similar to that of a minotaur. In that claw was the mask that had been the source of the CMCs troubles for the past several minutes. The three fillies could only stare in open-mouthed shock, frozen in terror. What was this thing? It was most definitely not there a minute ago. There was no sign of teleport, like a flash or a pop. The thing was very tall, needing to duck its head so as to not hit the ceiling. How had something so large gotten in without making a sound?

“We are going to have to ask that you not scream. We have not come here with the intention of harming you. That, and we absolutely hate screaming children.” The voice that came from the creature was odd. It was deep and obviously masculine in tone, and had a strange echoing effect, with each echo carrying a different pitch. When it spoke, it gave a sense of calm reassurance, yet also had the contrasting effect of being very foreboding. “Now, we hope that you can be calm in asking your questions, of which we are sure you have many. First though: no, we are not going to harm you.”

Applebloom was the first one to snap out of her shock. She stepped forward tentatively, as if attempting to see if the creature would make any moves to hurt her. True to its word, the creature did not make an attempt to harm Applebloom, much less move at all. Once the farmer filly was within four hoof-lengths, she looked up at the creature’s hood, trying to see if she could spy a face within the blackness, but alas, she could not.

“How’d ya git in here?” was the first question from Applebloom.

There were several seconds of silence after the question had been aired before a response was received.

“Magic.” The deep echoing voice once again sounded forth.

“Yeah, but like, how?” Scootaloo had regained her surefire attitude after seeing Applebloom attempt to interact with the intruder.

“It is magic. We do not have to explain anything.”

Sweetie Belle looked as though she was about to protest, mouth open in preparation to speak, but after a second of thought, promptly closed it. A few moments later and she decided to say something different.

“You talk a lot like Princess Luna used to. Do you know her?”

Once again, a heavy silence remained before the creature spoke. It slowly turned it’s cowled head in the direction of Sweetie Belle, thoroughly creeping her out.

“Princess? We must say that we do not. However, considering that you three are merely small children, it would be nice to meet such a figure of authority. Could you take us to her?”

The Cutie Mark Crusaders blinked in confusion. They certainly hadn’t been expecting a response question such as that. How were they even supposed to go about doing that?

“Uh, mister,” Applebloom said, “sorry, but we can’t. Ya see, the princess is off in Canterlot, and that’s mighty far to walk. There is a princess in Ponyville though! We could take ya there, seein’ as we’re just outside town.”

They couldn’t tell if the silence meant that the creature was thinking, or if it was waiting for more, due to not being able to actually see anything through the thick grey cloak.

“Yes. That would do fine. Take us to your leader.”

Eyeing the tall figure before her, Applebloom said, “Right. Jes’ make sure ya follow us and don’t get lost.” With that, the trio of fillies exited the treehouse, Scootaloo beckoning the large cloaked figure to follow. Once they were on the ground, the Crusaders turned around to face the ramp that they just stepped off of, but the tall figure wasn’t following them.

“Uh,” Sweetie Belle said, “where’d he go?”

“I didn’t see him follow us out,” Scootaloo confirmed.

“Are you looking for us?”

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo all simultaneously screamed and whipped around at the sound of the creature’s voice coming from behind them. It was about four metres away, simply standing just as it had been in the treehouse, not moving a muscle. Assuming it had any. It was rather hard to tell.

“How the hey’d you get down here? You didn’t follow us!” Applebloom sounded both agitated and confused.

“Magic.” The response received a deadpan stare from the three small fillies. “Shall we go?”

“Fine,” Scootaloo said before starting off down the road toward Ponyville, the three others close behind her.

Several minutes had passed before there was any speaking, what with the creature’s lack of speech seeming to remove the desire to talk from the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Eventually, Sweetie Belle broke the silence.

“So . . . what exactly are you, um, mister?” Her question was one that had been on the minds of everypony since they first discovered the tall hooded figure.

“Not a pony.”

“Well, we can see that, but what are you?”

“Different.”

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

“Have you ever seen us before?”

Scootaloo stopped abruptly. “WOULD YOU CUT THAT OUT AND ANSWER HER QUESTIONS ALREADY?!” she shouted, having turned around to face their follower.

“But we have been. You simply do not like the answers.”

The annoyance and anger in Scootaloo’s eyes gave the impression that she was on the verge of attacking the strange creature. Seeing that, Applebloom stepped in front of Scootaloo.

“Scoots, now ain’t the time. Let’s jes’ git ta town, let him meet Twilight, then we can be back to crusadin’, alright?”

Scootaloo took a few deep breaths to calm down, continually shooting the stranger a stink-eye. Turning back around, she continued the pace on their way to Ponyville, with the rest of the trip passing in silence, barring the sounds of nature that could be heard along the way. They eventually reached the edge of town, the first buildings several metres away.

“Would we be correct to assume that this princess lives in the large crystal tree?” asked the creature.

“Eeyup,” Applebloom said, “Now, we could take ya there, and introduce ya to Twi -- hey! Where’d he go?” She had turned around in order to speak more directly to the grey companion, but he had disappeared, leaving no trace of ever having been there.

Scootaloo spoke up. “You don’t think . . .”

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle responded, “Magic.”

At that, the trio of fillies turned back to face the castle that was situated at the other end of town.

“Uh oh.” Applebloom sounded very concerned. “Girls, maybe we should . . .”

“Eeyup,” was the response from both Sweetie and Scootaloo.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders immediately took off towards the Castle of Friendship, hoping they would get there in time to explain to Twilight why there was a mysterious hooded creature in her house.

After five minutes of the fastest galloping they’d done since setting part of the Apple family barn on fire, the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally reached the doors to Twilight’s castle. Pausing briefly to catch their breaths, the filly trio tried to figure out what to do next. Sure, they had planned to get to the castle as fast as possible to explain to Twilight what had happened, but they hadn’t thought about how they would go about doing so.

“Do ya think he’s in there?” Applebloom asked.

Scootaloo put an ear up to the massive crystalline doors. “I don’t hear anything, so maybe not.”

“You do realize that the doors are made of solid crystal, several centimetres thick, and the castle is huge. Even if you could hear through it, they might be in a different part of the building,” Sweetie Belle responded, hoping to make the orange pegasus filly see some sense.

The castle doors opening before Scootaloo could respond made up their minds for them. Cautiously edging their way forward, the three fillies slowly made their way into the giant crystal tree.

“H-hello?” Applebloom called out.

“Applebloom?” The Cutie Mark Crusaders heard Twilight call out. “Is that you?”

“Eeyup. Sweetie and Scoots ‘re here with me, too.”

“Really? It’s the wrong day for your Twilight Time; is there something that you needed?”

Scootaloo responded to Twilight’s question with, “Sort of. Could we talk real quick?”

“Of course, girls. I’m in the study. Second floor, third door on the left of the middle hallway.”

Seeing the stairs, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo made their way up to the second floor. Once there, they started down the middle hallway, approaching the third door on the left. As they walked, Sweetie Belle asked, “Thanks for opening the door for us, Twilight! I don’t know if we could have opened them on our own.”

“That’s silly. They’re enchanted so that they aren’t very heavy; just one of you would be able to open both of them. Besides, I didn’t open it for you.”

Confused, the CMC finally reached the entrance to the study, and stood in the doorway, turning to look at Twilight. Once they did, all three fillies froze in shock. Twilight was sitting in her chair at a large desk, writing on an enormous scroll. Standing not one metre behind her was the large grey cloaked creature, towering over Twilight like an ominous statue. The worst part was that the violet alicorn didn't seem to notice it at all.

Seeing the looks on the trio’s faces, Twilight asked, “Girls? Is something wrong?”

“Just wondering, Twilight,” Sweetie Belle said, “do you have any protective wards on the castle?”

“I don’t know what that has anything to do with, but yes.”

Scootaloo asked next, “And do those wards keep out unwanted visitors who don’t enter through the doors?”

Now slightly more concerned, Twilight responded, “Yeees . . .”

“Then how’d he git in here?” Applebloom finished, pointing at the figure directly behind the alicorn.

Twilight froze. “What?” It came out as barely a whisper.

“We believe they would be speaking of us,” a deep baritone voice said.

With a shriek, she spun around and flapped her wings, sending her hovering in the air a couple metres from where she had been, opposite the source of the voice, horn already charged with a stun spell ready to go.

“Who are you?!” Twilight demanded firmly, glaring at whatever it was that had snuck into her castle.

There was a long pause before the creature spoke, much like it had whenever speaking with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “We are surprised that the three young ones did not ask this of us whatsoever. We find it amusing that you are the first to ask, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Do you know this thing, girls?” Twilight questioned, not turning away from the cloaked figure she was facing, for fear of what may happen should she look away.

“About that . . .” Applebloom said.

“It’s kinda what we came to talk to you about,” Scootaloo finished.

Twilight, directing the focus of her words back to the grey being, said, “You still haven’t answered my question!”

“No. We have not.”

Thinking that she’d not get anywhere with that particular question, she asked another. “How did you get past my wards?”

“Here it comes . . .” Sweetie Belle said in the period of silence before the uninvited guest spoke.

“Magic.”

“That can’t be possible. The only ones who could bypass my spells are the other Princesses themselves. Therefore, you must have used something else.” Twilight was growing frustrated, the creature not cooperating with any questions in a rational way.

“Whether we were lying or being truthful is up to you, Princess Twilight; you will be correct either way.” As with most other answers the cloaked figure gave, it only created more questions. “You may cease with the spell now; we intend no harm whatsoever. Not that it would do anything to us, of course.”

Twilight was skeptical. “How do I know I can trust you?”

“You cannot. We are a being that has bypassed some of the strongest magical security ever seen, snuck up on you unawares, and you know nothing about us. There is no rational reason why you should trust us, but the choice is still yours to make.”

“I am one of the strongest magic casters since Starswirl the Bearded. Why wouldn’t my spell affect you?” Twilight asked, horn still glowing.

“Magic.”

“Aargh! Give me a straight answer for once!” Twilight practically shouted, her frustration boiling to a peak.

“We cannot. Sound waves are just that: waves. To have a straight answer would be to speak with a soundwave at equilibrium, thus contradicting itself.”

Twilight’s eye started twitching. “You know what? I’m just going to call Princess Celestia, and let her deal with you. I don’t like where this is going, and I’m afraid I might just end up testing out some new spells I’ve been experimenting with.” At that, Twilight summoned a piece of parchment and quill, writing quickly on it with her telekinesis, before sending it off with a flash and a pop.

Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, still standing in the doorway, decided that instead of wait, they would try to talk with Twilight about what they’d originally came for.

“So, as we were sayin’,” Applebloom said after trotting into the study, “we kinda tried gettin’ our cutie marks in metal finding. We spend the day collecting all the random metal we could find with Sweetie Belle’s metal finding spell, and took it back to the clubhouse.”

Scootaloo continued, “After spending forever sorting it all, we found this cool looking urn! When we figured out that something was inside it, we opened it up, and we pulled out some mask-looking thing. It kinda freaked us out, but none of us could put it back, so we tried having Sweetie Belle use her magic to get it back in the pot.”

“It didn’t react too well with my magic,” Sweetie Belle said, “but when it backfired, this guy showed up, and took it. He still has it, I think. Anyways, we decided to bring him here to talk with you, because he said it would be nice to talk with a member of royalty. When we got to the edge of town, he just disappeared.”

Twilight returned to standing on the floor, trying to piece together what the she had just been told. Before she had a chance to respond, the room lit up with a brilliant flash of white light before fading, leaving a newly arrived Princess Celestia and Princess Luna standing in the middle of the room, directly between Twilight and the cloaked figure.

“Twilight Sparkle?” Luna was the first to speak. “You sent a letter requesting our presence. Might I inquire as to what for?”

“I must agree with my sister, Twilight,” Celestia said, “You weren’t specific as to why you needed us so urgently.”

“Well, the reason I called you here was because of that.” Twilight pointed at the large figure behind the two royal alicorns.

Turning around, Celestia and Luna eyed the odd creature up and down. After a brief moment of inspection, realization seemed to dawn on Luna’s face.

“Ah! My sister and I sensed a very large magic disturbance from somewhere in Equestria, though we have not been able to pinpoint exactly where it came from. It must be this odd statue that you have found,” Luna said to Twilight.

“Well . . .” Twilight started, only to be cut off.

“We are no statue, Vessel of the Dark Miasma; we can assure thee of that.”

Both Celestia and Luna tensed and immediately froze, shock plastered on their faces.

“What . . . what did you just say?” Celestia’s response was a hushed whisper, one that carried a volatile undertone of anger and worry.

“We said that we are no statue, Carrier of the Prometheon Flame.” The voice coming from the cloaked creature seemed to increase the amount of dread that it inspired. The three fillies shivered, wondering just how the voice of one creature could do that to a pony.

Celestia’s eyes widened, along with Luna’s. Those titles had not been said in a long time. A very long time. Luna growled aggressively and set herself into a fighting stance, ready for what she perceived to be an imminent attack. “Where have you heard those titles, creature?”

“We wish to inform you that we are not the source of the magic disturbance you have felt. We also wish to say that we shall not harm any of thee, nor shall we engage in violence. We are not a threat.”

Celestia managed to compose herself back to her usual self. “Luna, relax yourself. He speaks truly. We shall, however, continue this discussion later.”

“Sister, how can you be so sure there is no trickery?” Luna questioned.

“If this creature wanted to harm any one of us, it could have done so already, as it has obviously been here with these four for a short while already.” She turned to Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Might I ask as to how you came across this being?”

At that, the four ponies regaled what had happened up to that point to Celestia, hoping it might clear things up. After having listened, the solar princess turned around to once again speak to the hooded figure.

“I shall cast a truth spell on you, and you will answer our questions honestly.” Celestia’s horn lit up a vibrant green. The hooded figure still did not move. “Is what these four ponies said correct?”

“Yes.”

Celestia’s horn switched to red. Then back to green. Then red. The truth spell was flashing rapidly, switching colors several times a second.

Celestia frowned. “You say that you are not a threat. Are you?”

“We are not.”

Again, the spell began switching rapidly.

“Are you the source of the magical disturbance?”

“We are not.”

Once more, the glow blinked rapidly in both colors. Seeing this, Celestia cancelled the spell, having figured that it was no use.

“We know the cause of the magical disturbance that you seek,” the hooded figure said.

Luna turned toward the large grey being. “Can you tell us?”

“Yes.”

The six ponies waited nervously for the creature to tell them. After a minute of silence, Twilight spoke up.

“Will you tell us the source of the magical disturbance?”

“Now that, Twilight Sparkle, is entirely up to your superiors. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, We have knowledge of what it is you seek, as well as the ability to assist you. What say you?”

“We ask that you tell us what we wish to know,” Celestia said formally.

“Before We tell you, We must say something first. This source is a great power, and likely to change Equestria forever.” The ponies in the room were shocked at this. “What do you wish? The knowledge and assistance to combat it, or the knowledge and only that?”

Twilight, Celestia, and Luna all turned toward each other, each trying to think of what to do.

‘Sister? Twilight?’ Celestia said telepathically, ‘what do you think? Shall we obtain the aid of one who obviously knows more than we do about it?’

‘I’m not sure, Princess,’ Twilight responded, ‘It could be a very helpful thing to have aid.’

‘I disagree wholeheartedly!’ Luna all but shouted mentally, ‘I do not trust this creature. We would be better off just getting the information and leaving it at that! Then we could question this being more thoroughly.’

‘Luna,’ Celestia said, ‘just because he makes you uneasy is no reason for hostility. Besides, should we enlist his aid, we will be able to keep a closer eye on him. There is something very off about it.’

‘Celestia, Luna, I think we might want to do that. Even though the spell said that he was both lying and telling the truth when he said that he was not the source of the magical disturbance, he was most definitely telling the truth,’ Twilight said.

‘How are you so sure, Twilight Sparkle?’ Luna asked.

‘Feel for his magic, Luna. There isn’t any. That being has no connection to a single leyline. He is completely devoid of any magic.’

After sending out a thaumaturgical pulse, a look of concern flashed across Luna’s features. ‘Then how, might I ask, did he bypass your wards?’

‘That’s what I want to know, Luna. That’s why I think we should keep an eye on him.’

‘I must agree with Twilight, Luna,’ Celestia said, ‘I say we obtain his help, if at least for assurance that our little ponies will be safe.’

‘I concede. We shall do as you say.’ Luna all but sighed.

Breaking out of their mental conversation, Celestia turned back to the creature and said, “We have reached a conclusion. We request the knowledge and the means to combat this growing evil. Thus do we contract thee.”

There was a heavy silence that hung in the air once Celestia had made it known what the plan was. Moving for the first time since entering the room, the creature slowly reached into its robe and withdrew a medium sized coin. Moving swiftly, he flipped the coin into the air and caught it on its way down. Looking at the side facing up, the figure returned the coin to within the robe. The ponies thought they saw the likeness of one of his masks on the coin, though which one, they couldn’t tell. Reaching into the robe once more, the creature withdrew the mask that the Cutie Mark Crusaders had found. Turning it around so that the white smiling side faced the ponies, it brought it into the cavity of the hood, the mask disappearing in the blackness. Once the figure had pulled its arm back to rest at its side, it spoke once more.

“Kai étsi archízei.”

Author's Note

Eeyup. Stuff is a' happenin'. Onwards!

Act 1, Scene 2

Pinkie Pie always knew when a new pony entered town. Whether they were just passing through or moving in, Pinkie knew, and was ready for a party. Pinkie Pie always knew when a new pony entered town. Until she missed one. Did she know she missed somepony? Obviously not. The larger question it begs is how Pinkie missed that pony, considering she simply walked right in, straight down the main road. This pony was completely fine with that. Of course, she had no idea that visitors were supposed to get a party, much less even know of the party pony’s existence. To her, it was a regular day in Equestria, with pegasi setting more clouds in the sky, and Cloudsdale increasing the wind chill to the region. She hated every second of it. This mare was simply on her way through Ponyville, heading to her destination, which she was told was somewhere in the small village. The storm grey unicorn mare decided that the best place to start would be the gigantic eyesore of a castle. Somepony important obviously lived there, so why not begin inquiring there? Pulling her brown cloak tighter to her frame, she trekked onwards, straight through Ponyville.

Princesses Celestia, Twilight, and Luna, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders all stood still as they continued looking at the figure in front of them, cloak still obscuring any view of it. Several minutes had passed since the creature before them had placed the mask into the gaping hole that was its hood.

“Creature?” Luna started, “Art thou alright? We wish to hear what you have to say.”

“Send the children away,” came the voice from the hood.

“C’mon girls, let’s go git back to the clubhouse. I got tons of new ideas for cutie marks!” Applebloom said.

With the cheer of assent from the other two fillies, they quickly galloped out of the room, presumably on their way back to the Crusader’s treehouse.

Luna turned her head back to the creature from watching the filly trio leave the room. “Now may we hear thine proposal, creature?”

“One sec.” The voice that came from the creature sounded much different from what it had previously. In comparison to the voice heard previously, this one was quite a lot less ominous and sounded quite normal.

The grey-cloaked being reached up and gripped the edge of the hood, slowly drawing it back. The face that was revealed was quite a shock to the three princesses. What stood there was most definitely not a diamond dog, nor was it a minotaur, as may have been suspected at some point. Its facial features were rather flat, when compared to a pony’s, with a short nose instead of a muzzle, and oval-shaped head. It had small eyes with green irises and outward-facing ears on either side of its head. The only hair visible was a very light blonde, short wavy crop on top of its head and there was no fur covering its deeply tanned skin.

As soon as the creature looked at the three princesses, he immediately flinched backwards, bringing a hand up to his eyes, blocking his view of them. “GAH! Turn down the auras! God, that’s bright. Painful, really.” Whilst saying this, it reached into the robe once more and withdrew a pair of sunglasses, putting them on. Having done this, the creature straightened back up, and turned his gaze back to the three alicorns. “There. All better. Now, I’m sure you got a bunch of questions, and I’ll answer. Most of ‘em, anyways.”

Twilight, being the ever inquisitive pony she was, spoke first. “Yes, we do have many questions. Now, I’m sure tha-”

“My name is Josephi; I’m a human; no, I’m not originally from Equestria; I’m not a threat to law-abiding ponies; yes, I’ll help with the oncoming threat; and no, you may not study me.”

“ . . .” Twilight was speechless. Despite interrupting her, Josephi managed to answer almost all of her primary questions that she had planned. “How did you . . . ?”

“I have been asked the same questions countless times over many years. I figured you wouldn’t be much different from the rest of the people that ask me stuff.” Josephi waved dismissively.

“You sound different from before, Mister Josephi,” Celestia said.

“What, ya’ mean not spooky, cryptic, and third person plural? Yeah, I get that often,” Josephi responded.

“What happened to change that just now?” Was the reply.

“Wrong question. Wrong questions get wrong answers.”

Twilight joined in again. “Would you please tell us what the source of the magical disturbance was now?”

“Fine. Just let me-” Josephi trailed off as he began removing the large cumbersome cloak that was still around his body. Upon removing it, it could be seen that the human was wearing a white hoodie with a pair of black feathered wings embroidered on the back. He wore a pair of dark denim jeans, each trouser leg going over the black, military-style boots he wore. To the ponies, however, he was just wearing some odd looking clothing, nothing like the formal clothing that was always worn by the noble class. Looking around the study for a chair and finding none that he would fit in, Josephi chose to simply sit on the ground, slouching against a wall with his hand in his pockets and legs propped up. “So. I gotta hear it again. Whadda ya’ want?”

“We wish to know of the magical disturbance and this great threat that you have spoken of,” Luna said.

“Well, it’s simple, really. You guys, and by that I mean your entire country, are royally screwed,” Josephi began. “The magic was a very large gr-” whatever he was about to say had been cut off by a very loud and incessant pounding on the doors of the castle.

Josephi stood back up and made his way out of the room, towards the castle entrance, talking to himself the whole time. “Man, that’s fine. It’s not like I was trying to say something. I most definitely didn’t want to finish talking to the head honchos around here. Inconsiderate jerk.” The three princesses had been following him the whole time, trying to see what he would do. They noticed, to their horror, that their newest guest was headed for the door.

“No, wait!” Twilight yelled, “Don’t-” She was too late though, as Josephi was already at the doors, opening one inwards.

Once the door had been opened, Josephi stopped and looked down, noticing a storm grey pegasus mare standing in front of him with a very unamused look on her face.

“Well, shit,” Josephi said calmly, still looking at the pony in front of him.

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all gasped at the vulgar language just used, and the fact that it was said right in front of a pony, coupled with the fact that the being that answered the door was more than likely to scare the ever-living daylights out of any pony who met him.

However, this was not the case. The mare in front of Josephi didn’t even bat an eyelash at the the being in front of her, much less flinch from the language. What she did instead was something that the princesses had never expected. Shifting her gaze upward, the pegasus kept her deadpan stare focused on the face of the human, and spoke directly to him.

“You owe me a fuckin’ beer, you goddamn asshole.”

Luna frowned even more, whilst Celestia and Twilight’s eyes nearly bulged out of their skulls. This mare had used more profanity in one sentence than most ponies used in entire years. Ponies weren’t known to swear or curse outside of a few questionable phrases, ones that were rarely ever heard. Sure, they knew what it meant, but ponies knew better than to use such words. Not even Diamond Dogs and Yaks used such profanity. And this pony used plenty.

All Josephi did was pause, back up, then fall to the ground laughing. Not missing a beat, the upset pegasus mare continued speaking to Josephi, oblivious to the three alicorns not four metres away.

“Do you have ANY idea just how far I’ve had to walk? You never mentioned where the nearest goddamn port was. You didn’t tell me you’d be in the middle of the fucking country. I ended up in Croland. Do you know how far away Croland is? It’s a port town on the northeast part of Equestria. THREE THOUSAND FUCKING KILOMETRES AWAY!!! I have walked, trotted, and galloped. For one. And a half. MONTHS!!!”

Celestia had managed to regain some semblance of balance to her mind, which had been spent spinning after hearing the pegasus speak. “Now, now, my little pony, I’m sure-”

“Yeah yeah, gimme a sec, ‘kay? Kinda busy here dealing with this little shit.” The mare interrupted and brushed off Celestia’s attempts to speak. The princess, once again, went into shock. “Where was I? Oh yeah! Then - get this - then, I had to actually go through the towns and cities of this fucking country. This country is un-fucking-believable. The racist-as-hell language just grates on my ears, the naivete of the citizens is laughable, and everything is always bright, cheerful, and happy! This place is the absolute fucking worst! Don’t even get me started on the songs. You know they start randomly singing during big events? Call ‘em ‘heart songs’ or some bullshit. I managed not to get pulled in to any, but they go on for fucking ever! Never mind the ridiculous attitudes of these people, it’s all condoned by their rulers! From what I’ve heard, it sounds like the bitch who runs this place created her own little utopia and everyone in it is a sheltered moron! They don’t have a lick of common sense, or even knowledge of the world around them. No one I’ve talked to has ever been outside of Equestria. None of them even know that there’s more than one continent on this whole fucking planet! This is supposed to be the land that ponies come from? I’d rather not recognise this place as a motherland. That would suck. I have put up with fifty-two days of hell. I would rather spend a year in the Oceania Desert than do this again. You, you uninformative motherfucker, owe me a fucking drink. Hardest shit you can find, and you can be sure I’ll drink plenty. NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

During the entire tirade of the irate pegasus, Josephi had kept laughing, finding the entire scene absolutely hilarious. The princesses . . . not so much. Luna looked like she was having a conniption, Celestia appeared ready to faint, and Twilight looked normal. That was however, until one noticed the golden aura of magic surrounding Twilight’s ears and Celestia’s horn. To say that what had happened was a surprise would have been an understatement. Drastically.

Josephi finally managed to calm down, stand back up, and regain his composure. Looking back at the grey pegasus, he said, “So, Electra, did you drag any of the rest of the sorry bastards with you? I imagine it would have made this whole ordeal much better.”

“No, I didn’t. Because you didn’t specify where you’d be, we each took a different edge of the country, and worked our way in. I don’t see the rest of the crew, so I’m assuming I’m the first one here. Which is great. Now I get to collect three-hundred drachmae from Ete. Not that this country even accepts drachma, dammit. Oh yeah, who’re they?” The mare now identified as Electra pointed at the three princesses.

“Oh, them?” Josephi looked over his shoulder at the three alicorns. “Yeah, you’ll love this. That’s the three princesses that rule this country.”

“The one I just insulted?”

“Pretty damn loud, too.”

“Well. Shit.”

“Great way to open negotiations with another country, Lec. Insult the country indirectly to its rulers.”

Electra turned towards Luna, Celestia, and Twilight, making a quick bow. “Your highnesses, I wish to apologize for insulting your country, and by extension, you, so callously. As such, I wish to formally - and believe me when I say this is heartfelt -”

“Well, my little pony, it’s-” Celestia began, only to be cut off once again.

“Your country sucks.”

“ . . .” For the fourth time that day, Celestia’s brain entered shutdown mode.

Luna, however, was not of the same mindset. “Now listen here, foul pony, I -”

“I’m just a regular pony, not a fowl pony. Those freaks live in the western part of The Echo. No relation,” Electra interrupted.

That managed to get Luna to enter reboot mode, just like her sister. Twilight, though, stayed silent throughout the whole exchange. Then again, she didn’t hear a word of it, due to Celestia’s silencing spell cast on her ears. All she saw was a grey pegasus mare animatedly moving about: flailing her hooves, shifting her wings, and shaking her head. Until Celestia removed the spell, that is. Once that was done, Twilight was greeted with a silence that came from nopony having anything to say. Except for their non-pony guest, that was.

“Well now. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get back to what we were doing when we left off. I need some fuckin’ sleep.” Josephi wandered back to the study, where the group had originally come from, Electra close behind.

The three princesses stayed where they were, each one trying to process all the new information given to them in such a short amount of time, and all of the new questions it brought up.

Back in the study, Josephi had already found the nearest wall and resumed his sitting position, closing his eyes in boredom, whilst Electra went to the nearest chair and flung herself over it in an attempt to be comfortable.

“Ya’ know, Lec, you just made my job a shit-ton harder,” Josephi said, “I hadn’t even managed to answer their first real questions when you came along and threw everything to hell. Now they’re gonna be asking questions for hours.”

“Well, after the shit you pulled, I say you deserve it,” came the response from the chair. “Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“. . .”

“Yeah, forget I said that. Let’s just hope we can finish up here and get back home. I really don’t want to have to put up with any more of this Equestria bullshit,” Electra said.

“Meh. I don’t really see what’s wrong with it; seems like a nice place to me,” Josephi said.

“And how long have you spent observing Equestrian society? A day? Less? You can’t really judge.” Electra was clearly displeased with having to talk about what she’d observed. To her, it didn’t feel natural. Too much . . . naiveté.

Josephi looked up at the grey pegasus mare, sighing as he responded. “Electra, we’re here, and, from what you said rather enthusiastically a bit ago, the rest are on their way. Obviously things are going to change for these ponies.”

“Yeah, yeah. Lecture me about our job at a later time. For now, I just wanna sleep,” Electra said.

“Alright then. Let me get all my answers ready for these ponies. I have a feeling that I’ll be doing a lot of talking in the next few hours.” Josephi shifted himself to a more comfortable position on the floor, using the wall for support. It was certainly going to be an interesting few days.

“Sister, do you think that this “Josephi” can be trusted to tell us what we need to know?” asked a rather upset Luna.

“We’ve gone over this, Luna,” responded Celestia. “We do need to know what happened, and what’s coming, if what he said is accurate.”

At this point, Twilight was a little more than confused. It was already promising to be a rather stressful day. “I still don’t quite know what’s going on. Who is that pony? Why are the two of them here? What could be so bad it changes Equestria forever? I just . . . Why . . . “ Twilight started to peter off into half-formed questions, her mind trying to cope with all of the new information.

“Take a deep breath, Twilight,” her mentor said. “Perhaps if we go back to the study, and ask some questions calmly, we might be able to make sense of this whole situation.”

Seeing some merit to the idea, the trio of Alicorns returned to the small room where the two guests were biding their time.

“Ready to start, then?” came the question from Josephi, still slouched against the wall. “Where should we begin?”

“The beginning?” opted Twilight, already levitating out a quill and scroll.

“Yeah, no. We’d be here way too long, and most of it isn’t important anyways. How about the important stuff?”

“That works, I guess.”

“Good.” Electra decided to jump in. “I’d probably end up putting a dagger through this fucker’s eyeball if I have to listen to him prattle on again.”

To say that the statement disturbed the regal figures of the room would have been yet another understatement. Deciding they’d had enough interruptions, they decided to ignore it for the time being.

“Well, I’ll get straight to the point, then. The large magical disturbance you felt wasn’t me. That would be my brother. Where he is, I have no idea, and you won’t be able to find him until he wants you to. Now, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything; I really don’t like doing that. Basically, you guys both screwed and saved yourselves as soon as you chose me. When you chose me, the other became my brother. Should you have chosen him, the other would have been me. It’s a rather complex issue, but the point is that I’m here, and he’s there, not the other way around. Which is good; it means we get to prepare.

“Anyways, I rule a kingdom quite a ways off, all the way across the sea, in the northern part of the continent of Ondelloth, known as the Celicarnan Empire. My brother rules over the Galireon Provinces, to the south of my kingdom. Yeah, I’m technically a foreign dignitary, no I’m not here in that capacity, and you shouldn’t act like I am. I’m here to help your sorry asses. The two empires have had a stalemate for the past forty years after yet another war. Of course, you’d know this, Celestia and Luna, if you would have shown up to the centennial meeting of world leaders at some point in the past two-thousand years. Seriously, we still use those old titles of yours because we don’t have any others. Most places have been treating you like a giant empty spot on the map, not to be touched, because of the amount of isolation you keep putting your country through. Not good.

“I am a being who’s been doing shit for the past ten thousand years because I can, and I’ve been getting bored lately. I was kinda hoping I could talk with your mom and pops; it’s been a while. They around?”

This was, as expected, quite a bit to process all at once. The question at the end, though, snapped them out of their reverie a bit, with Celestia the first one to answer.

“You knew our parents?”

“Eeyup. They were a pretty amusing couple. Know where I could find ‘em?”

“Alas,” Luna piped in, “they perished shortly after we closed our borders. They were assassinated by a foul shade and left the kingdom solely to the two of us.”

“Damn. I was hoping for some . . . familiar . . . company,” said Josephi.

Twilight was still in the middle of processing quite a bit of this. Other continents? A meeting of world leaders? Celestia and Luna’s parents? All of these concepts were quite new to her, and they only raised more questions. What of this brother that Josephi mentioned? Was the kingdom going to be at war? What would happen to the citizens?

“-ilight. Twilight!”

The purple alicorn was snapped from her thoughts by Luna. “Hmm? Oh, yes, do continue.”

“Actually, I’m finished. I don’t know what else to tell you. I could probably answer more questions once I’ve had some sleep, but I’ve given you most of the important stuff. We’re mostly waiting for my brother to make his move. Trust me: it’ll be something big. Anywho, is there anywhere I can sleep? I’m still rather tired and magically exhausted, so I’ll be needing somewhere to recover a bit. Don’t worry about Lec; she’s capable enough to find her own place.” This earned Josephi a glare from the pegasus across the room, but she made no attempt to argue.

“Well, I’ve got a few guest rooms that you could choose from, I guess. However, it isn’t exactly meant for non-ponies. Will that be okay?” Twilight piped up.

“Meh. Good enough. Lead the way, purple.”

Twilight trotted out of the room, Josephi following close behind. As soon as they were gone, Luna turned to Celestia.

“Sister, this doesn’t seem good. I don’t know where he’s from, or who he is, even if he claims to have told us so. I cannot trust him.”

Celestia sighed before responding. “I know, Luna. I have to agree with you, but we cannot judge somepony-”

“Someone,” sounded the grey mare across the room.

“ . . . Yes. Ahem. Someone until you really know them. It wouldn’t be fair. For now, let us simply monitor him, maybe put up a few detection and scrying spells around the place just to be safe.”

“Let us do just that. Come, sister.” With that, the two alicorns walked out of the room to enact their plan. As they did so, Electra leaned back further in the chair, closing her eyes and smiling to herself.

“I told you, Josephi. Naïve.”

Author's Note

I'm working on the map. It'll be big, comprehensive, and colorful. It will, however, take a little bit of time. Let us continue, and see how this story develops. Onwards!

Edit (20/6/16): changed the name of the continent to match the map.

Act 1, Scene 3

To say that Mike was having a pleasant day would have been quite accurate. To him, walking around any part of Equestria was quite nice, and the longer he stayed, the more appealing it was. This was a land of peace and harmony; love and inclusion; civilisation and wilderness. It may have been a mere three weeks before winter, but that didn’t matter much to Mike. It was still pleasantly warm, and the occasional breeze didn’t affect him much. Flowers of every color were still all over the streets and flower boxes of Ponyville, and the trees along the road still had their vibrant hues of reds, oranges, yellows, and browns. He could see the local fauna prepping their homes for winter, and the decorations in ponies’ houses being exchanged for those of the upcoming season. It was, overall, quite a lovely sight. The only thing that bothered him was all of the stares.

Constant open-mouthed gawking from the ponies whenever he walked by was beginning to grate on Mike’s nerves, though that was only evidenced by the occasional twitch of the lips. One would think that the multitude of events that Ponyville had endured would have meant that the residents would be used to seeing strange beings, though that was obviously not the case. Mike was tall. Very tall, even for a human. Being a full 2,1 metres tall, Mike towered over most creatures, minotaurs included. At that height, it wasn’t hard to catch the attention of anyone, even from individuals quite a ways away. One of the most notable features of Mike was one that definitely made the ponies curious: he was quite well-dressed. His full suit ensemble fit him just perfectly, indicating a tailored job, and not a seam was out of place. A slick ebony walking cane was set with his pace every time he took a step.The dress shoes he wore were polished to perfection, and his white dress gloves appeared freshly ironed. Mike’s lower-back length, straight, black hair had a natural, healthy sheen to it that would make most women green with envy, and despite it contrasting sharply with his very pale skin, he still appeared a dashing figure amongst any crowd. One look at Mike would tell anyone that he was no mere beast, but rather, a being of utmost refinement.

Mike didn’t have anything against the common pony. It was rather difficult to find any being that Mike did not enjoy the company of, no matter who they were or what they did. However, he did tend to gravitate towards the classier places whenever he went out. It wasn’t out of some sense of being more important; he found that he rather enjoyed the interactions that came with polite and disguised banter between well-to-do individuals, especially when looking for answers, as he was at the time. Carrying himself with a graceful poise in his great strides - never walking too fast or too slow - he continued on his way towards the fine dining restaurant that Ponyville had recently gotten. After a few minutes of walking, he had arrived at The Silver Platter. It only took a few seconds after he sat down and set aside his cane at one of the outside tables for the staff to realise that he actually intended to eat there. Seeing the tall being simply sit down and wait to be served seemed to snap most of the surrounding ponies out of their stupors, nearly all of them returning to their daily business after seeing that the new creature wasn’t hurting anyone.

“Um, excuse me, but might I ask who you are?”

The voice came from the only pony who had thus far attempted to approach Mike. It had been a minute or so after sitting down that a grey coated, black-maned earth pony had trotted up to where Mike was sitting, asking him the first question he’d heard all day. Turning his head to look at the newcomer, Mike took note of the pony’s pink bowtie and treble clef cutie mark, alongside the large cello case she rolled beside her.

“Ah, yes. My name, madam, is Mike. Quite simple, I know, but the full thing is one that most people have difficulty with, and is rather hard to remember, so that is what I shall stick with. Might I inquire as to yours?” responded Mike.

Caught a bit off guard by Mike’s response, the mare hesitated before responding. “I am Octavia Philharmonica, sir, and I must say: you appear a tad bit out-of-place.”

Mike chuckled gently while looking at the pony beside him. “I get that quite often. I assure you, I am but a humble traveler. Please, do take a seat. I am feeling a little lonely, so I do hope you’ll indulge my request to dine.”

“Actually, I came here to do just that. I often frequent here after my rehearsals, and I just arrived back in town after an extended weekend performing with the orchestra in Canterlot.” Octavia took a seat across from Mike while saying this. “You know, a pony of your caliber practically screams ‘upper Canterlot’. I feel that you would fit in quite nicely there.”

“While I am not a pony, to correct your statement, I am sure that what you say is true, though I’ve never been there myself, Miss Philharmonica.”

“Please, just Octavia will do fine. From what I’ve seen, y-”

“Might I ask what you two would like to drink, this afternoon?” came the question from the waiter who had just walked to the table, placing a pair of menus on top of it.

“Just a glass of water will do fine, thank you,” said Mike.

“I’ll have some Sec Blanc de Noirs Champagne, if you would please,” Octavia remarked.

As the waiter turned and went back into the building, Octavia decided to continue her discussion. “As I was saying, for such an interesting individual, you arrived without much fanfare at all.”

“Well,” Mike responded, “the abated silence is much preferable over the running and screaming I’m used to. You would not believe how often that happens. I’ve had entire villages evacuated because I simply passed near it. Quite tragic, really.”

“That sounds dreadful! Whyever would ponies run away? You clearly aren’t some savage beast.”

“Most of those incidents were the result of some misunderstandings, you see, and rumors spread to cause some of the others. I am quite relieved to find a community so . . . unique . . . as this one. I find it truly heartwarming.”

The waiter returned, taking their orders, though Mike - oddly enough - did not order anything at all, much to the confusion of the maître d'. Octavia, however, didn’t seem to notice. Once again, she continued with her inquiries of Mike.

“Now, I do enjoy the personal details, but might I ask what you are, Mike? I can’t say I’ve seen anything like you before, and I find it quite interesting. I hope you don’t mind me asking,” she said.

Mike paused to look around a bit, as though he expected the scenery to have changed since he began talking. After a few brief seconds, he resumed his conversation. “Oh no, it is no problem at all, Octavia. Again, it is a question I come across all too often. I am what is known as a human. Though I am quite tall for one, most all humans look similar to what I do. There aren’t many of us out there on this fine planet, but we are quite the robust species. While I’m not entirely comfortable with explaining where I’m from at the moment, I will tell you that you would enjoy it, and fit in almost as though it were a second home. Should we have more meetings in the future, I may have to show you one day.”

Octavia was still trying to get a picture of what other humans would look like, if Mike was a base model, as he said. Taller than any pony, thin appendages, and thick hair only on the top of the heads, from what she could see. It was rather hard to gauge what the normal hues of irises they had would be, considering Mike’s were a striking violet. Or silver. Perhaps a muted brown? She was not sure how she didn’t notice it earlier, but Mike’s eyes seemed to change from one color to the next, though mostly among the three colors she noticed.

“While I am no stranger to attention, Miss Octavia, I believe that any more gazing into my eyes would result in your food going cold,” said Mike.

These words had the desired effect, and Octavia snapped out of her brief trance. When had her food arrived? She certainly did not remember anyone coming close to the table in the past minute. She was sure anyways. ‘How long was I looking at his eyes?’ she thought. Assuming it did not mean much, Octavia began eating her meal. In between bites, she decided to ask some of the more obvious questions.

“So tell me, Mike. Why are you here in Ponyville?” She was quite enjoying the fettuccine carbonara that she had chosen. Not bad, for a new dish.

“Hmm. I expected that might pop up eventually. I do so hope I don’t ruin the mood. You see, Octavia I have come here in search of my brother. It’s a rather important matter, and of the utmost urgency. I have to find him, and stop him before anything bad happens. I fear what he plans to do now that he’s here.”

“Why would you need to stop him? Is he a bad pony, to need stopping?” inquired Octavia.

“One of the worst, actually. Also, he isn’t a pony; he is most definitely a human like me. It’s been a little while since I’ve last seen him, and as soon as I felt his presence near here, I knew I had to find him before he does something. You see, my brother - Josephi is his name - is a wily, cunning, and genius person. His silver tongue allows him to worm his way into many situations, often befriending the nearest figure of authority he can find, appearing as a ‘benevolent’ force to stop the ‘evil’ me. Alas, this feud has gone on for far too long, and I fear the end may be a far ways off.”

“What happened to cause this to begin with, if I might ask?” Octavia, while rather uncomfortable with the idea of an unresolved family issue, was thoroughly intrigued.

Mike lowered his head and sighed before responding. “Well, a long time ago, I made a rather grievous mistake. While I eventually righted my wrong, he couldn’t let go of what I’d done. I know that I can never fully make up for what I did to him, but I had at least hoped that we’d be able to come to an entente, of sorts. Alas, he still tries to find every possible way to hurt me, all in the name of revenge. And so, once I learned he was here, I came immediately to make sure that he does not pull others in, and involve innocents in our debacle.”

“Well, Mike, I most certainly admire your drive to save others while finding a solution to your little feud. I hope there is a way I could help.” Octavia had finished her pasta and breadsticks at this point, and was enjoying the remainder of her wine whilst listening to Mike’s explanation.

“Actually, could you perhaps inform me of where I might find a high-ranking official or authority of some sort? He’s had almost a full day, so I am sure I can find him around that sort, if my experiences are anything to go by.”

Thinking for a bit, Octavia nodded to herself before answering. “I believe that the best place to start would be Twilight Sparkle’s castle, off in that direction-” Octavia pointed with a hoof in the general direction of the castle, though it could clearly be seen above the rooftops. “which should be where you find Princess Twilight, and I doubt you get much higher of an authority in this area.”

Mike turned around in his seat to see the castle looming a ways behind him. In hindsight, it was a rather obvious point, and it was all Octavia could do to guess how he had missed it. “My, that is quite the sight, wouldn’t you say? I have to thank you for this, Octavia. I enjoyed our little chat, and I do so hope I might see you again sometime. You are quite the interesting one, Miss Octavia. I like that. Anyways, allow me to pay for your meal. It’s the least I could do.” Before Octavia could protest, Mike pulled a large handful of odd coins from his suit pocket and deposited them on the table, right next to the bill that the waiter had placed while they were speaking. These coins were unlike any that octavia had seen before; while they were around the same size as a Bit, they appeared to be made of silver, and were stamped with a human’s face on one side, and an odd owl on the other. Needless to say, Octavia was skeptical of their ability to actually pay for the meal.

“Umm . . . Mike, I don’t think th-”

“Don’t worry,” he interrupted, “It’ll be fine. Trust me, I wouldn’t leave you high and dry, as they say. Now, I’ll be off, Miss Octavia Philharmonica. I bid thee, antío!” With that, Mike turned on his heel, retrieved his cane, and resumed the same pace he had earlier, following the streets toward the Castle of Friendship.

“Are you ready to pay, madam?” asked the waiter from beside Octavia.

She took a few more seconds to observe the retreating human, before looking over to the waiter. “Well, I would, but I don’t believe that I have-” Once again, Octavia was astounded. Where the odd silver coins had been a moment ago, now rested a pile of Equestrian Bits, all totalling the exact amount of the bill. Shaking it off, she restarted. “Yes, actually. I believe that it is all there, sir. Thank you for the excellent service, and have a nice day.” Having excused herself, Octavia retrieved her cello case from beside the table and began her walk back to her house. It had certainly been an interesting afternoon for her.

“Jaxi?”

“Yes, Al?”

“ . . . Do you think we’re going to get to do anything soon?”

“I must say, woman, CALM DOWN! This is the fifth time today that you’ve asked me that, Alcestis, and every time I have told you that I don’t know. It’ll take some time for the big man to get anything going, considering he just left yesterday. You’ve gone much longer without the master being near you; don’t become a fidgety little schoolfilly.”

“UGH! I know I’ve gone longer, but c’mooooon. We finally get a hint of some real action, and then we just end up sitting here! Don’t you want to do something, Ajax?”

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t. It has been a while, hasn’t it. However, I choose to contain my anxiousness. Even ‘Nesty and Po are biding their time. The very least you could do is prepare, or something.”

“Fine, but I hope you know that I get first dibs on the Fountain.”

“I have no qualms, though you might have to fight Ty for that one.”

“Fuck no! Why don’t you fight him for me?”

“Language, Al. The reason I don’t want to is because - quite like you - I have no desire to find my insides on my outside and my everything thoroughly cooked. I will have no part of your petty squabble. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be having my daily cribbage match with Ant. If you’re really that bored, you can go assist Tree and Mead with their prep work. Goodbye.”

Ajax left the room, leaving a very bored Alcestis to flop about on the oversized chair in front of the fireplace. “Where’s that goddamn map?” she sighed. After a few minutes of scanning the room from the chair, she finally spied it on the table several metres away. “Ugh. Why is it always so far away?” Focusing on the map, she levitated it over to where she sat, looking up and down the crimped parchment.

“Hey Jaxi?” she yelled out, hoping he was still within earshot.

“Yes?” came the slightly irritated reply.

“Where was it that we were going, again?”

“We covered this extensively, Al.”

“I know, but I forgot again. Humor me, here.”

“Equestria, Alcestis. We’re going to Equestria.”

He had just about had it. It had been about a month since he had begun moving inland, and Ete was growing more and more unhappy. It was his fifth day in the McIntosh Hills, and already it was on his growing list of ‘places to never visit again’. Considering the size of it, most would assume that it could be crossed in about two days, possibly three if one stopped frequently outside of sleeping. They would be wrong.

“Pointy,” muttered Ete to himself. “Why does everything have to be so. Fucking. POINTY?”

As he had learned, much of the McIntosh Hills were made up of small points and ridges, deep crevices and thin ravines, mostly made from eroded sedimentary rock and hardened shale chips. The ridges and small, thin, closely grouped mounds that covered almost all of the surface made walking through the Hills a nightmare. One wrong step could result in a stuck limb, a punctured anything, or even a tumble down a rock face . . . onto more pointy rocks. There wasn’t much cover at all, with no caves to speak of, and finding a flat piece of ground without pointy rocks was a near impossible task. To say that Ete was a little tired was a very large understatement. He was low on rations, there was almost no vegetation or water sources, and the sun was always beating down with not a cloud in sight. In all, Ete was not enjoying his time in Equestria at all. Sure, the landscape was actually quite beautiful, what with clearly visible layers in the rocks ranging from deep grey to saturated reds and oranges, and a natural rolling feel to the rock formations, but not to Ete. Ete was willing to level the whole area, if only he was capable of doing so. He would keep going, though. The map that the locals had given him a few weeks ago said that there was a railroad track fairly close to the edge of the Hills, if he managed to get out. Ete was determined to get there. Once he was, it would be smooth sailing from there. At least, smoother sailing than trying to navigate the McIntosh Hills.

“Maybe I’ll keep one of these damned rocks, then, when she starts laughing, I can shove it down Electra’s throat and watch her gag on it. Bet she already found the boss, dammit. I was hoping to keep my 300 drachmae.”

Ete continued to grumble to himself, and though it made him appear a bit crazy, it definitely helped take his mind off of the pointy rocks. He was going to have trouble forgetting those for a while.

Mike quite enjoyed young children. It often warmed his heart to see such young innocence enjoying the world around them. It was no surprise, then, that Mike was delighted to have come across a trio of fillies on his way to the castle that Octavia had directed him to. The three in question were in the process of running around the corner when they came to a screeching halt in order to avoid actually running into Mike. Upon seeing him, any other thought processes ground to a halt.

“Uhm, girls?” said Applebloom.

“Yeah?” chorused Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle.

“Yer seein’ what ahm seein’, right?”

In unison again, “Eeyup.”

.When Mike saw the three, however, his face broke into a pleased smile. “Hello there! How are you three on this fine day?”

After the Cutie Mark Crusaders had finished gaping like stranded fish, it was Scootaloo who responded first. “Um . . . fine. Who the heck are you?”

“Well, little one, my name is Mike. Might I ask for your names?” Mike hummed curiously after he finished speaking.

“Ah’m Applebloom, this here is Sweetie Belle -” she pointed a hoof at Sweetie “- and this here’s Scootaloo,” she did the same with the orange pegasus. It was, of course, Applebloom who had answered Mike’s question, on account of Scootaloo being too busy muttering something to herself about ‘not small’.

“Well, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Applebloom, and you as well, Miss Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Now then, where were you three headed in such a hurry?”

“We were just goin’ back ta our clubhouse from Twilight’s castle. Say, you look like the fella’ we found and took back ta Twilight. Do you know ‘im?” Applebloom squinted her eyes, almost as though it would help her learn more about Mike.

“I daresay I most likely do. Unfor-” Mike was cut off before he could even finish his word.

“Really!?” Scootaloo sounded ecstatic. “Do you know any cool stories? I bet you do. The other guy didn’t really want to talk much, and when he did, it was all really confusing.”

Mike rubbed his chin with one hand. “Did he now? Yes, that sounds quite like him. I suppose I do have some time, so I could tell you a story . . .“

“Scoots,” Sweetie Belle said, “I don’t think now’s the time-”

“No, no, Miss Belle, It’s quite alright. I haven’t had someone to tell stories to in quite a while. First, though, we should find a more comfortable place to talk, rather than the middle of the road.”

“But the nearest-” Applebloom started.

“Aah, here we go!” Mike interrupted. The fillies looked over to where Mike was gazing. There, against the wall of one of the smaller cottages, was a park bench just the right size for all four of them. It had certainly not been there a moment ago, much to the confusion of anypony who had been paying attention.

“How did you-?” Scootaloo asked.

Mike smirked. “Magic.”

As the three went to sit on the bench next to Mike, Scootaloo was busy muttering to herself again. “I am really starting to hate that response.”

“Pardon?” asked Mike.

“Nothing . . .”

“So, you three, what kind of story would you like to hear?” Mike leaned forward against his cane.

“Do you know any classic-like ones?” asked Applebloom.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Like, one with a hero and a villain and a big struggle or somethin’.”

Mike stopped and closed his eyes to think for a moment. After a minute of thinking, he had his choice. “I think I have just the one, then.

“It was a long time ago, in a land not too far off, not too different from your own. Now, this place was one of the most beautiful places that had ever existed. It never knew cold nor hot, disasters or unpredictability. The flowers always bloomed, the grass was always green, all of the animals lived together peacefully, and the rain always arrived at the right time and in just the right amount to keep the land healthy. Indeed, this place was perfect. In that perfect place, there was a small village. There weren’t too many ponies that lived there, but they were all very happy. How could they not? Life was great for them. Everything that the ponies needed to live was provided by the land around them, and they always made sure to never harm the land. Life continued for many years and multiple generations before any change came. For the most part, the Wizard kept to himself, hardly ever being seen outside of his house. The few times he was, he didn’t talk much to the townsfolk, but he did help them out if they needed it, and everypony came to see the Wizard as one of their own.

“Several months after the Wizard’s arrival, he started spending more time around the ponies, often proposing and leading grand projects. Using his grand magic, the Wizard helped the ponies expand their little village, advance their technology, and grow as a community. The land was perfect as it always had been, and it continued to be so for a long time. During these years of progress, the Wizard came to be seen as a prominent town figure, often being a source of guidance for the ponies when they needed help. It was over a hundred years later that things changed once again.

“The Wizard had ushered in an era of expansion for the ponies, and they grew rapidly. The small village was no more, and in its stead was a small city. The hundred-or-so ponies there had become multiple thousand, and life continued to remain perfect. During all this time, the Wizard himself never changed; he stayed the one constant among a sea of change. What the ponies didn’t know, however, was that there was a storm brewing, and it was just waiting until the right time to be released. The residents of that city were alarmed when a stallion went missing one day. Though they tried hard to find him, none could. It was a month later when a couple more ponies went missing. The next month there were even more ponies that never showed back up. At this point, panic was slowly spreading across the city. Who was next? Who was doing it? What happened to the missing ponies? Why was their perfect way of life being disturbed? During these months, the ponies repeatedly asked the Wizard for help, and though he promised he was doing his best, not even he could discover what was going on.

“And so it was that in the fifth month since the kidnappings started that everypony found out what had been going on, though they quickly wished they hadn’t. The one whom many called friend, leader, and comforter, had turned his back on those he had been helping since he had arrived. Yes, it was the Wizard himself who had been taking the ponies; many had been stolen from their own homes and brought to the WIzard’s cruel lair he called a home. Inside, he had been performing the most evil of experiments, testing his theories on the living ponies he had so callously taken. The Wizard was after something, and he was determined to get what he wanted: an army.

“It turned out that the Wizard had travelled to the small village all those years ago to begin a long-term project, in which he would mold a civilisation to the point where it had enough citizens to turn into his own personal army. With these ponies, he planned to take over the nearby lands and claim them as his own. For the Wizard though, he had a problem: he needed soldiers much stronger than the average pony. No matter how many thralls he had in his service, they would never last if they were mere ponies. At first, the Wizard had began his experimentation on the deceased, attempting to enlist the dead into his service, but it turned out to be a fruitless endeavour. What he needed were living beings, fully capable of thought, but with strong bodies and complete subservience.

“That was when he started his tests on the living townsfolk. Finding simple mind control ineffective, and crystal augmentation too unstable, The Wizard finally found what he was looking for. He realised that one of the most resilient things he could find was his own shadow; it never felt pain, it couldn’t be physically altered, and - best of all - it never did what he didn’t want it to. It was at that point that the Wizard had focused his efforts on turning the ponies into living shadows, completely formed to follow his will. With an army of those shadow ponies, he would be near unstoppable.

“This is what the townsfolk found out the hard way when they discovered they could not escape the city. None were a match for the Wizard’s strange magics, and one by one they fell to his twisted designs. Exactly one hundred and sixty-two years after the Wizard had first appeared in the small, perfect town, not a single pony remained. In their stead was an army of living shadows - beasts meant for nothing more than war and destruction. These shadow ponies, which he called ‘the Umbrum’, ravished the land they once called home. Forests were burned to the ground, fields made barren and salted, and water sources corrupted to become the most foul liquids ever seen. It was then that the cold set in. Gone was the perfect weather, and in was the biting cold, bringing with it snow and ice and the harshest of winds. The land become a desolate arctic wasteland, completely uninhabitable. It was a place cold enough to freeze a wendigo, and had a weather so oppressive and indomitable that not even the strongest of magics known could halt the unending winter. Any memories that the once-perfect land had held were frozen solid and shattered, not a soul alive to remember its legacy, nor a relic left behind to give clue as to what was once there. The Wizard had won, and with his victory came a tragedy the likes of which had never happened in all of history.

“However, it was not the end.

“Before the Wizard could begin his conquest of all that could be seen, another stranger traversed that vile winter desert, and confronted the Wizard. This stranger had heard, long ago, about a mystical place far to the north, where the sun always shined and the grass was always green; where the land gave everything, and no one knew anything but perfection; where harmony was the very substance of life. This stranger set forth to find that mystical place, and would stop at nothing to get there. Along the way, the Traveler learned many things, and grew in magic and knowledge, eventually finding his way to the destination of many years. However, this was no longer the perfect land that had been spoken of: it was the abomination that the Wizard had turned it into.

“The Traveler eventually found his way to the heart of the land, and was determined to stop the Wizard. When the Wizard attempted to dispatch the Traveler, he was stopped by the Traveler’s own powerful magic. Yes, the years that the Traveler had journeyed had taught him much, and he became a powerful match for the Wizard’s evil magic. The battle raged on for what was said to be twelve moons, neither one resting or relenting. It was on the first day of the thirteenth cycle that the Traveler gained the upper hand, and defeated the Wizard, binding him to the ethereal plane for what was to be hundreds upon hundreds of moons.

“Despite his triumph over evil, the Traveler still had the problem of the Umbrum. The shadow ponies were no longer under the Wizard’s control, and they quickly retained their individuality and sentience. However, these ponies, corrupted beyond any hope of repair, were still malevolent creatures, prepared to wreak tragedy upon anything they could come across. The Traveler did not have the heart to destroy the Umbrum, so he decided to contain them. Using the great crystals that had formed under the city since the Wizard’s reign began, the Traveler trapped the Umbrum inside of them. Unfortunately, these bonds would not hold on their own: they needed another source to keep them imprisoned.

“Using a large crystal that he infused with the strongest of his magic, the Traveler created a powerful artefact that would continually strengthen the bond holding the Umbrum in their crystals. On its own, though, the artefact would slowly drain, and eventually weaken to the point that the Umbrum would be released into the world once more. Using his magic one last time, the Traveler created a great city atop where the old used to be, and stored the relic inside. Journeying back to the land he had come from, he led a large group of individuals to the city he created, and set them to watch over the artefact, regenerating its magic when needed. Leaving the residents of the new city to grow and develop, the Traveler had created an ever-living guardian, one where the magic inside of each of the citizens would regenerate the artefact, keep out the dread winter that was its surroundings, and make another land of harmony where the previous had fallen.

“The fate of that city was lost to the annals of history, and none knew what became of the Traveler, but it was said that he began a new journey, waiting until the Wizard made his next appearance. Thus ends the tale of the land that was, ceased to be, and was once more.”

When Mike had ended his tale, he looked around to see that he had caught quite a bit of attention, and had a very large crowd surrounding him and the three fillies. Some sat awestruck at the grand tale, others had tears in their eyes, and some appeared completely entranced in eagerness, as though hoping to hear more.

“WOW!” Scootaloo yelled. “I. Have. NEVER. Heard a story as awesome as that!” Following the orange pegasus’s declaration, a tremendous applause echoed out across the street, all of the ponies in attendance absolutely amazed by the story.

“Where did you hear that story?” Applebloom asked, her energy clearly seeping into her every word.

“My dears, that story is one of the greatest plays to have ever been created. It has been said that the original actors performed it so well, that none have ever been able to recreate that first performance. Some say that it was so lifelike, that it actually was a real story. I am not surprised that most, if not all, of you have never heard it before: it is a rather special one from where I come from, you see.” was Mike’s response.

“It was really cool, mister Mike!” said Sweetie Belle. “Do you have any more?”

“I’m afraid,” Mike responded, “that that is all I have time for today. I really must be going.” With a pleased chatter, the ponies dispersed, going back to whatever they had been doing before stopping to listen. Once he had ample room, Mike stood back up, picking his cane up from where it had been leaning against the bench. The Crusaders hopped off of the bench as well, moving to stand in front of Mike.

“Thanks fer the story, Mike!” Applebloom said.

“Yeah, it was really awesome!” agreed Scootaloo.

“Do you think,” Sweetie Belle asked, “that we could hear another story some other time?”

Mike hummed in thought for a few moments. “Perhaps. It mostly depends on how the rest of this evening goes.” Looking into the sky, one could see that it was getting late into the afternoon.

“Well, we hope you can visit us again soon!” Applebloom held untold amounts of hope in her eyes. “Yer a really nice fella’!”

“Thank you, young Applebloom. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a little reunion to attend to. Good bye, you three.” With that, Mike began walking the same path he had earlier, onwards to the Castle of Friendship, giving a backwards wave as he sauntered on.

“I don’t know about you girls,” Sweetie said, “but I think I’ve had enough excitement for today.”

“Yeah, I have to agree on this one,” responded Scootaloo. Deciding that their day had been a productive one, the trio of fillies headed back to their clubhouse, intent on calling it a day. No one noticed that the bench, once a great centre of attention, was no longer there.

Author's Note

*Le Gasp!* Who's the real badguy? We'll find out soon . . .

'Kay, so I want to give a big thanks to Sober for being a huge source of motivation when I first started writing this a year ago. His awesome stuff can be found here, and you totally should. Really. Go do it.
I'm still working on the map, and I'm not sure when it'll be done. On that note, if anyone wants an idea of what I envisioned the McIntosh Hills to be like, imagine Hell's Half-Acre (this and this), but covering a lot more ground and with more hills.
Anyways, thanks for reading, and I look forward to what you have to say in the comments.
Onwards!

Act 1, Scene 4

A beginning is a truly wonderful thing. A beginning can change a pre-existing set of circumstances or create entirely new ones. Beginnings, though they vary, always involve something important: a change. In stories, a beginning mostly occurs as two different types: a true beginning or in medias res. A true beginning is where the story starts off before or when the first changes occur to, around, or for the focal subject of the story, slowly building up to greater and greater pieces over the course of the narrative. These types of beginnings, planned or not, function as or contain expositions, in which the stage is set for the reader or listener to get an idea of where, when, and who the rest of the story will focus on In medias res, the story immediately jumps into the middle of some form of action, dragging out an important piece of information from some time later on in the plot line. Almost all stories that start with medias res tend to prefer starting in the middle of, start of, or end of a battle or great struggle. While this is not always the case, it creates a sudden, right-off-the-bat burst of action to intrigue the reader. These kinds of beginnings are extremely effective against the reader or listener who would otherwise be disenchanted by a lengthy introduction or description of place and time. For plays, beginnings most often start with either the same true beginning of a story, or in a hybrid of medias res and true beginning. These beginnings, first seen when the Greeks began mastering playwriting, start with the Chorus - a group of people outside of the play, but knowledgeable of the story - explaining past events that led up to the part where the actors start acting. In everyday, real-life experiences, beginnings keep the point of change. A person realises that something has changed about or for them, and they either act or do not act in accordance with the change or changes. While many would argue it, a beginning requires a subject to be aware of what is occurring, no matter how small. This is what makes a beginning, and beginnings never cease to appear; there is always a beginning being discovered somewhere.

An end is a truly wonderful thing. An end can tear apart the greatest of bonds or forge them even tighter. Endings come in an infinite array of options, with no two endings exactly the same. Sure, many endings have the same result, but no two endings were ever completely alike. All endings are the culmination of what happened before them, each one altered from their very beginning. As such, any deviation or change prior to that ending makes for a new, unique ending. These changes do not even have to occur directly in relation to that ending. There exists a theory in which even if the world were stuck in a perpetual loop, every ending would still be different; this can be true because if something were to change outside of the world, that ending would still be different. Of course, this makes endings impossible to completely control. While it may be argued otherwise, the counterargument is that the outcome is what can be manipulated. An ending can achieve a desired effect, but the ending itself wasn’t entirely controlled, just the parts that lead to a specific outcome. Because of what an ending is, everyone has an innate aversion to endings. For many, it means no more of something they were used to or wanted. The unmanageability of an ending earns it the derision of those who are used to controlling their lives or other situations. Though many can ‘appreciate’ an ending, there always exists a negative feeling towards it, no matter how little. There are always a few who appreciate endings, having realised that endings are inevitable and not to be feared, for indeed, once a beginning has come, an ending cannot be prevented. Endings, unlike beginnings, do not require the realisation of the situation to occur. Realisations during endings often signal another beginning, not the ending itself; this allows for the constant development of life and change in and of itself.

Beginnings lead to endings, and endings make more beginnings. What is most often glossed over is that an ending does not directly follow a beginning. There is, no matter the circumstance, something that happens in between a beginning and an ending. During this time, the events that take place are more crucial than the beginning or ending to any progression of story or change. It is by the middle content that it is judged, though the beginnings and endings are the most focused-on points.

The beginning, for three of Equestria’s princesses, started when the creature known as Josephi introduced himself. However, the maelstrom of change started long before, in a place far from Equestria, and it began with two brothers. As such, the two of them being in the same place again after not having seen each other for a long time would most likely escalate things just a bit. And it did.

Electra enjoyed sleep. Often, she would complain about not getting enough or simply wanting more, no matter the circumstance. After walking several miles overnight, traveling through a strange town, and then having a little outburst upon finding her destination, all while aggravated at a certain human, it was rather understandable that Electra passed out on the chair almost immediately after Josephi himself left to go sleep. Something still seemed off to her, though. Electra’s sleep wasn’t as calming as it usually was for her; she was clearly bothered by something. Josephi had just casually mentioned that his brother was in Equestria, and while Electra could understand the princesses not getting the full impact of that, she certainly did. There was no way that Josephi didn’t expect her to worry; he wasn’t that stupid. Electra took the time to start making plans while she slept. She was fairly certain that someone had tried to enter her dreams at some point - she had no clue who it could have possibly been - though they failed quite miserably.

It seemed rather obvious to Electra that the other princesses would stay in the small crystal castle for a while; one did not leave a being of suspect nature and power to remain unchecked. Celestia and Luna had decided to stay in one of the larger guest rooms for at least another day, until they could get some information secured and security assigned. Electra never did enjoy the concept of sleeping around royalty - too many possibilities to become collateral damage in an assassination attempt - she figured it was unavoidable, though, considering she was in a castle, after all. Because of this, Electra had decided to make it a light nap, and as luck would have it, that let her wake up as soon as she heard the knocking at the castle door. Groaning, she got out of the chair she had been sprawled on and made her way to the door, ready to rip into the person audacious enough to wake her up.

Twilight was already on her way to the door by the time that the knocking started. Considering she was no longer working, she reactivated the proximity wards that let her know somepony was coming to the door. Twilight considered it a good thing that she headed there immediately; she didn’t want a repeat of Josephi and Electra. Pleased with her actions, Twilight nodded to herself, sure that she could avoid any incidents now that she was answering the door.

“I’m telling you, sister. Nothing. Not a single one!”

“Luna, calm down. There’s no way that’s possible. Everypony has dreams, even if they don’t always remember them. I’m sure there’s more to it.”

Luna was not satisfied with the response. “Nay, sister, I would know. There isn’t a single indication of any dream from him! It’s as if he doesn’t exist in the dream realm.”

“What about Electra?” Celestia asked. “Do hers indicate anything?”

“It troubles me, sister. I can’t enter her dreams. They aren’t normal, either. There is no door, for her. The dream is there, but it is clouded in the foulest, darkest substance I’ve ever seen. I can see that she dreams, but any attempts to go in are met with failure. It almost acts quite like whatever is keeping me out is sentient itself. Never have I seen such a thing, and it frightens me.”

While the two sisters continued their argument about possibilities within the dream realm, a loud knocking interrupted them.

Sighing, Luna said, “Do we wish to allow dear Twilight to handle this one, or should we perhaps go to see who it is?”

Celestia pondered it for a moment. “Well, it is Twilight’s castle, and she’s no doubt already on it. Either way, it wouldn’t hurt to go see who feels like visiting this late in the evening.”

Deciding upon it jointly, the two Princesses headed toward the foyer where the visitor was to be admitted.

“It’s a godsdamn castle that doubles as a library; who the fuck knocks?” Josephi wondered aloud as he made his way back down the stairs from the guest room. “Not to mention it’s made of hollow crystal. This shit echoes waaaaaaay too much for its own good.”

Despite her best efforts, Twilight didn’t arrive at the door first. It was rather close, though; just as she entered the foyer, the purple alicorn could see Electra already a few hoofsteps from the door. Foreseeing the potential mess, Twilight immediately cried out, “Wait! Don’t-”

Whatever she’d been going to say was cut off as Electra threw open the double doors to the castle. “Whaddaya want?” She slurred drowsily. “‘m tryin’ ta sleep and-”

Just as Twilight had been cut off, so were the storm-grey pegasus’s words abruptly halted as soon as she took a look at who was outside the door.

“Why hello, my dear Electra. Quite the wonder seeing you here. Tell me, would Josephi happen to be here?” The voice that sounded out was crisp and refined, giving a permeable sense of sophistication and pleasantness to the sentence alone. As such, it rather confused Twilight as to why Electra was rooted in place, seeming to all the world as just a statue.

Once the doors were open far enough, the full figure of who was at the entrance became visible. Standing there was a very tall bipedal figure, taller than Josephi, even. His dapper appearance gave a sense of formal relaxation, and his posture belied a jaunty personality. To be completely honest with herself, Twilight found that the person at the door looked quite a lot like Josephi in terms of species.

Finishing her very brief observation, the purple alicorn looked up at the smiling figure still standing outside. “Can I help you, sir?” she asked, still unsure as to what else to say at the time.

“Aah, yes. My name is Mike, and I was looking for Josephi. I was told there was some authority here, so I wondered if you might know of his whereabouts.”

“Well, actually, I d-” Twilight’s speech was once again cut off, this time by the intrusion of a certain pair of princesses.

“Twilight?” Celestia asked. “Who is this?” She and her sister had just come down the stairs to be greeted by the sight of Twilight a few feet away from Mike with Electra still frozen in place off to the side.

“My, my! More of you! This place is a veritable wealth of authority. It seems my stroke of luck continues. My name, since you asked, is-”

“Mike.” The sentence was finished not by the man in question, but rather, by Josephi, who had just walked into the main foyer. The way that Josephi had said it was practically a growl, and the extreme scowl upon his visage made it obvious that he was not pleased with the fact.

“Aah! More of this luck!” Mike said almost giddily as he slightly bounced into a straighter position. “I didn’t even need to get the location from these lovely ladies in the end!” All the while Mike had been speaking, Josephi had been walking slowly closer and closer towards the taller man.

It was at that point that Electra seemingly snapped out of her daze. Against everything that the other ponies in the room would have expected, Electra’s first action was not to start speaking to Mike, or even moving towards him; instead, she was practically crouched down, ears splayed back, and slowly backing herself away from Mike, eyes like saucers. There was the mare who insulted and cursed at extremely-powerful alicorns and made death threats to those stronger than her, backing away from a single person like a filly in front of a manticore. At first, it wasn’t noticeable, but as Electra got closer to the others in the room furthest from Mike, her muttering became clearer.

“Not today. Not today. Not today. Not today. Please, gods above, not today. I don’t want to go like this. Not today . . . “

This only served to confuse the Princesses more. Here was a brand new visitor to the castle, and yet the other two guests immediately act as though the end times were upon them. They didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but everyone in the room had the feeling it would be nothing good.

“Please, my dearest Electra,” Mike said, turning towards her, “There’s no need to worry; you are going to be perfectly fine.” He turned back to the still advancing Josephi. “You, however . . .”

None of the observers were sure when it happened. The action was over in the blink of an eye. Mike was no longer where he had been. Instead, he was directly in front of Josephi, and the sleek black cane he had been holding was completely gone, replaced by a violet, ethereal-looking estoc. Said estoc was currently protruding from the back of Josephi’s body, having been run completely through from the front.

“Shame on you, brother,” Mike started again, calmly continuing his speech as though he didn’t have a person impaled upon his weapon. “Letting down your guard like this. I’d expected better of you. Oh well, we’ve been through this song and dance before. Next time, I expect you to actually try to do something instead of just standing there.”

Josephi was standing stock still in front of Mike, mouth occasionally opening and closing as though to say words, though no sound came out but pained wheezes. He raised his head from looking at the sword currently skewering his body up to his brother. After a moment of working his jaw, he finally managed to get a word out.

“Ouch.”

“Now, now, Josephi,” Mike said, smiling evenly, “that’s not a very good choice of last words.” As he had finished saying it, Mike quickly withdrew the sword from Josephi, pulled back, and swung the estoc fully at his neck. The sword appeared to pass harmlessly through Josephi just before a white rift of intense light appeared behind him. “Ta ta, dearest brother. Tell Hades I said hello!” With that, he pushed Josephi backwards into the rift, his body toppling backwards, shortly followed by his head. “Oops. Don’t want to be too inconsiderate. Here: I’ll cover the ferry cost.” Reaching into his pocket, Mike pulled out a small silver coin and flipped it into the rift after Josephi. Once the coin was through, the rift closed, and the room was back to as it had been, minus one Josephi and plus one large pool of blood on the crystal floor.

That time, it was all of the other inhabitants of the room who stood in shock. Someone had just been murdered in the Castle of Friendship’s antechamber. To Celestia and Luna, it was the first murder on Equestrian soil in over two-thousand years. To Twilight, it was the first time she’d seen another creature die from anything other than old age. Electra was practically hyperventilating, eyes darting from one doorway to another, looking for the fastest possible way out.

“Well,” Mike began, pulling a small white cloth out of his pocket that he started using to wipe off his blade, “I must say that you’ve got your work cut out for you; crystal is a very easy surface to get blood off of.”

“What . . . wh- wh- what HAVE YOU DONE!?” Luna’s horrified shout echoed throughout the entire castle, snapping the other ponies out of their shock.

Mike’s disinterested glance in her direction spoke both volumes and nothing at all. “I stabbed my brother through the heart, then cut off his head before kicking him through a rift to the underworld. I thought that much was obvious.”

The sword, once clean, had disappeared and been replaced with a cane, though it seemed that this transition had happened between blinks. Seeing Celestia advancing slowly towards him with horn lit, Mike decided it was an appropriate time to actually do something.

“Now, now, Celestia, you clearly know what happened to the last person to try and walk at me all ‘menacingly-like’.” Celestia halted her stride, but not her hardened gaze. “Besides, I’m no threat to you; in fact, I won’t do a single thing to any of you. Oh, and that includes you, Electra.” Electra, still backing towards a doorway, froze yet again upon hearing her name. “I told you to calm down, and you haven’t even done that.” His voice took on a tone that was hard to identify. “Besides, if you don’t relax, how will you get to enjoy all the fun you’re going to have with your old friends when they stop by?” With the most recent words, Electra started trembling slightly, still not breaking the eye contact she had with Mike.

Mike, deciding he’d said enough, straightened up and came off of leaning on his cane. “It’s been an absolutely delightful evening, and I do so wish I could stay to chat a bit, but I’m afraid I have some prior arrangements that I must be off to. Celestia, Luna, be sure to send your parents my respects; the last time I saw them, I’d just given them their last anniversary present. Twilight, I’d advise using some bleach. To all, I bid thee antío.”

“No! Stay ri-” Luna’s second outburst was cut off as the air in front of Mike seemed to ripple and shimmer before he simply vanished from sight.

A deathly silence settled over the library, no pony moving at all. Whatever it was that those four had just witnessed, it would take some time to digest.

It had been several hours since Luna’s moon had replaced the sun in the sky, and the quaint town of Ponyville was extremely calm, as though it hadn’t just had the first murder on Equestrian soil in hundreds of years occur within their very town limits. Of course, no one excepting the alicorn princesses and one pegasus knew it had happened, so business continued as usual. Octavia had just finished getting settled in for the night, her house finally warming up after having been empty and unused for the past few days while she was in Canterlot. Following her quick construction of a fire in her fireplace, she headed over to her couch before pulling out the Daring Do book that she’d been in the middle of before she headed to Canterlot, tea in hoof. Not a few pages in, Octavia’s relaxing read was interrupted by the quick staccato of knocks on her cottage door. “Of course,” she thought to herself, “why should I expect relaxation after a busy week? I swear the universe is conspiring against me.” Reaching the door and opening it swiftly, Octavia found herself met with two pillars. Craning her neck upward, it was quite obvious that said pillars were, in fact, attached to someone.

“Mike?” Octavia inquired, “What are you doing here at this hour? I thought you had business to deal with regarding your brother?”

Bending down ever so slightly so as to better look the pony before him in the eye, Mike smiled softly before replying. “Hello, my dear Octavia. I know it is quite late, but I was wondering if you might be willing to entertain some conversation for a bit.”

The musician was rather surprised at the request, but couldn’t find it in her to turn down the request from the man who had been nothing but gentlemanly to her. “Of course, though I hope you don’t mind feeling a bit cramped. These houses weren’t really build with someone of your stature in mind. Please, come in.”

“I must say,” Mike chuckled lightly while dipping his upper body so as to fit in the doorway, “just a few glances and I can already tell that this is a rather homely abode you have here. I do so love antiques.”
“Really? I’ve found only a few others who truly enjoy them like I do, and none of them live in Ponyville, that’s for sure.” Octavia decided to simply move into small talk while grabbing the rest of the tea that she had brewed earlier.

“Alas, some of the most truly beautiful of crafts are often forgotten or ignored, are they not? Shame, really. Oh well, the most one can do is slowly change the minds of the general populace bit by bit, showing others the beautiful side of an art they’ve been ignoring,” Mike lamented, finding the couch to be more suitable for his size than the small chairs.

Having fully settled down after giving Mike a cup of tea, Octavia sat and looked over to tall creature who was so woefully large for the space he currently occupied. “So tell me, Mike, what is it that you wished to discuss?”

“You see,” Mike began, looking Octavia over before fully settling his gaze directly on her eyes, “I find you rather curious. Not only were you the first person to come talk to me in this quaint little town, you did so without trepidation. However, far more curious than that is what you first said to me.”

Octavia briefly racked her brain to remember how she’d originally started the interaction with Mike, though it had only been some hours ago. “Hmm. I believe I said ‘Who are you?’, correct?”

The pale human hummed in agreement around the teacup he currently had his lips pressed to. “Excellent tea, by the way. I must know what kind. Anyways, you are entirely correct. You asked me who I was.”

“And? I would hardly think that makes for a unique talk.”

“You see, Octavia, you asked me who I was, not what I was. Out of all of the places I’ve been to in my travels - towns, cities, countries, continents - you are the first to ask me that in a VERY long time. Far longer than I know you’re probably imagining right now. Of course, to many, this difference in wording may not seem much, but I can guarantee you that for me, it’s been an extremely delightful surprise, and I don’t come across those often.”

“You’re . . . welcome? I guess? I’m afraid I’m drawing a blank as to why this would possibly cause you to seek me out so close to midnight. Not to mention you’d said your business with your brother was rather pressing. Seems quite odd to me.” Octavia took a long sip of her tea, awaiting the response of her late-night guest.

Mike waved a hand dismissively, as though to brush the notion from the air before him. “First, just to avoid it getting in the way later, let’s just say that the matter of my brother has been resolved for the time being. Now, I don’t believe it will stay that way for too long, but it’s given me a bit of time to progress without his interference, though I’m afraid he’d already managed to get the locals involved anyways by the time I got there.”

Octavia absorbed what she’d just heard and nodded to Mike, signalling for him to continue.

“I would really like to make this very brief, but I’m afraid that I’ll need to be thorough in my explanation. First though, I would like to ask some questions, if that’s alright.” Mike looked to Octavia’s face yet again for confirmation before continuing when she nodded for the second time. “Tell me, miss Octavia, let’s say that you were to hear that something terrible happened to a large group of ponies, caused by the actions of another. Now say that you can only be told either who did it or what it was they did, which would you choose?”

Openly joining this game of moral hypotheticals, Octavia was quick to respond. “Why, I’d have to choose the ‘who’ option. However, this could still cause a great deal of confusion. Realistically, I’d want to know why that individual did what they did. What happened and who did it should come secondary to knowing the underlying reasons.”

The amazed, joyous laughter of Mike was an interesting contrast to the conversational atmosphere that the room had had since the beginning of the conversation between the two. Yet again, Octavia was a slight bit confused as to what exactly was going on. It took a short while for Mike to regain his composure before returning eye contact with the grey pony across from him.

“I can’t believe this! Finally! You, miss Octavia, are yet again the first to give me the correct answer in ages! You saw through the question and found the THIRD option. Now, let me say, I entirely agree with you. I find that actions are always justifiable, depending on the reasons for doing so. So many are willing to throw out looking at motivation if the person who did something is some socially pre-defined “good” or “evil”. A hero who kills ten people is almost guaranteed to be acquitted compared to a villain who kills ten people. Why is that? It is entirely because the “hero” is seen by the majority as just that, and likewise for the villain. The general consensus that I’ve found in my travels is that people look at the who first, the what second, and disregard the why. Do you still follow me?”

The cellist hadn’t really thought that far into such a line of philosophy, but Mike had made several points that she couldn’t rightly disagree with, nor did she find herself wanting to. Octavia looked down to her now-empty tea cup before setting it aside on the end table next to her chair. “I most certainly do still follow, though I have many questions as to this line of inquiry. The world we live in isn’t really that turbulent nor have we had issues that stand between right and wrong. I’m rather curious as to where you got these notions from.”

Yet again, Mike was laughing. Unlike previously, however, this laugh seemed a bit harsher, with an almost bitter edge to it. “My dear Octavia, I must ask, how big is the planet upon which we live?”

Octavia wanted to say she knew quite accurately, but the way Mike spoke made her reconsider. “Well, The planet is quite evenly split between land and sea, with the land being made up of one large mass - or continent, if you will - though there’s a bit of a strait separating Equestria proper from the badlands. The Griffon Kingdom is a decent sized area of land on the eastern side of the continent with the Crystal Empire up north. We assume that the dragons migrate to a small island out in the ocean before returning to Equestria following the migration. Other than that, there’s not much to explore but a large, empty ocean.”

Mike gently placed down his tea cup and stood from his spot on the couch before moving forward and crouching in front of his evening host. “What if I told you that everything you knew about the world was a lie, miss Octavia?”

The notion was one that she almost refused to entertain in her head, fearing the migraine it would bring. However, there was still easily a part of her that remained curious. “I’m not rightly sure how I’d feel, to be honest, though I get the sense that you’ll give me insight anyways.”

“Well, I can’t really say that everything you know is a lie - that would be the real lie - but a great deal is out there that you haven’t been told about, be it by your leaders or who it is that makes the maps. I have utmost confidence that you know a good deal of things when it comes to your homeland here, but I can similarly guarantee that you would be amazed of the world beyond those coasts.”

It was not long after Mike had said this that it became evident of a racket being made throughout the surrounding area of town. Shaking her head from its stupor, Octavia moved to the window and parted the curtain to see a large contingent of guards moving from door to door, knocking on the doors of ponies’ houses and questioning the occupants when they answered, many being visibly upset at having been roused so late at night. Letting the curtain fall back to its resting position, Octavia slowly turned around looked up to Mike, who was still crouching where he had been, though now he had his cane in hand an almost mystical, manic glint in his eye. “What . . . what exactly did you do, Mike? Do you have something to do with why I’m about to get a late-night visit from the royal guard?” The cellist sounded almost accusing, though not harshly.

“That I do, dear Octavia. Let’s just say that my manner of dealing with my brother wasn’t exactly to the liking of those princesses you mentioned, made much more troublesome by the fact that they were watching while it happened.”

“Did you hurt somepony? I thought your issue was with your brother!”

“Absolutely not! I harmed absolutely zero ponies in my debacle with my brother, though I wouldn’t call it too much of a debacle, really. Anyways, your princesses did not exactly take a liking to the results, nor execution, of my plan, so I believe they’re trying to find me. Shame, really. I must ask that you remember what you said earlier, miss Octavia. Right now, you alone know the why behind what I did, and I can easily promise that that was no lie. Believe me when I say that a lot of innocents would have died had I not done what I did earlier this evening.”

Octavia was no longer upset after remembering that exact bit of information, but she was still worried about the approaching column of guards. “Can’t you just go tell the princesses what you told me earlier? Save the trouble of such a big incident?”

Mike sighed. “Remember also what I said about people asking who, then what, and not why? Unfortunately, your rulers are much the same, and Josephi had plenty of time to inform them that I was “evil”, so they already believe they have the who, and they saw the what, so there is no need for them to listen to why.” Octavia’s brain was attempting to come to terms with all of the new information provided in the past evening of conversation, so Mike decided to press onwards. “Tell me, miss Octavia Philharmonica,” Mike moved to just inches from her face, “do you want to see the world that so few of your kind have seen before? Do you want to risk life and limb to pursue a one-in-a-lifetime chance? Do you want to stay here, living a life of monotonous repetition? Does the idea of BEING someone and DOING something to impact the world appeal to you more than your dreams of becoming famous for music? I had hoped to give you more ti-”

“Yes!” Octavia said hastily, cutting him off.

“Really?” Mike almost floundered for a bit, not used to being cut off like that. “You didn’t even let me finish. I had this entire dramatic bit about not coming back to give you another chance and everything.”

Octavia was still generally composed, but her eyes sparkled with an unseen intensity. “Mike, do you have any idea of how many times I’ve wished and hoped that there was something beyond the borders of Equestria? The nights I spent as a filly wishing that someday I’d find something other than the world we’re told exists? By the time I took up the cello professionally, I’d given up on that dream, though I can’t say I don’t greatly enjoy my music. I’d give anything to be able to fully live out that dream.”

“Really? Anything? Interesting. Yet again you amaze me, miss Octavia. I must say that it will be quite refreshing to have a new companion on board with the upcoming adventures.” Mike stood up. However, it wasn’t the crouched, bent stand he had done when entering the house. Instead, he stood to full height, though Octavia couldn’t see how. He was clearly too tall for the ceiling, but he didn’t hit his head, nor did he go through it. He was simply . . . there. “Anything you wish to bring, Octavia? I’d like to warn you that you’ll be gone for quite some time.”

At this point the guard contingent was just next door, though the sense of urgency already persisted without the guard factored in. Grabbing her cello and quickly scrawling a note for what few friends she had, Octavia trotted briskly over to Mike. Just as Octavia set down the cello and looked to Mike, there came a knock at the door. “Royal guard! Open up!”

Mike looked down to Octavia with a bright grin spreading across his features, multicoloured eyes shining in the dim light. “Tell me, Octavia, do you enjoy plays?”

Author's Note

Did a blog post on this earlier, but yes, I am back from my little (yeah not so little) hiatus. A year is waaaaaay too long to have let this sit and I think you guys can expect updates a little more frequently. Still working on getting that map done, but it should be pretty great once I've finished. If anyone has questions regarding the suddenness of Octavia's choice, I'll gladly answer them in the comments (there was a reason). Thanks for reading and as always: Onwards!

Prologue

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages . . .”

-William Shakespeare

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m bored”

“What’re ya lookin’ to do?”

“I’m not sure. Mostly waiting for something exciting to happen, I suppose.”

“Wanna stir things up?”

“We could. Which one of us would do it?”

“How ‘bout we flip a coin?”

“We always do that. Besides, it looks like we won’t have to.”

“Man, the timing of that is great! Let’s go!”

“Calm down. Same roles for the first act?”

“Nah. Let’s keep ‘em for the whole play. You remember how the last one turned out.”

“Fine. I do hate our method of transportation, though. My hair is absolutely dreadful afterwards.”

“Can it. If you wanna go some other way, take it up with the big guy. For now, just grab your coat.”

“Right. Off we go. I do hope we get a better audience this time.”

“Audience? I like crowd participation the most.”

Author's Note

Let's see where this takes us! This story has been an idea I've had for over a year, and I decided to finally go and publish it. Leave a comment about what you liked/didn't or what I could do better as the story progresses. Please don't just downvote because you don't like the premise, downvote if I did a bad job writing or something like that. Any grammar, punctuation, or fluency mistakes I missed are welcome to be pointed out in the comments section. Onwards!