They Walk Among Us

Steven was stranded.

As he opened his eyes, he saw and felt nothing but darkness. Darkness surrounding him, lapping at his body. Darkness silently taunting him, as Steven quickly grew frustrated. Not at what was happening, but at the lack of anything happening. It tried his patience to no end, as he couldn't see nor feel anything except for eternal darkness. He tried desperately to find, or at least think of something other than the ridiculous silence and evil atmosphere. It was disgusting. It was horrible.

As he knelt down in despair, the whole world around him started to change. All the darkness was gone, replaced by a most brilliant purple, and he could see stars wheeling overhead. He also felt as if he started to move, and he did. He felt himself travelling very quickly throughout the still changing world, encountering different planets and stars. He felt as if he was being pulled into a void, unable to move, unable to scream. As he flew, he felt himself rapidly aging, only to be turned young again. Every day in this new universe was as long as a life-age on Earth.

He could feel himself straying out of this universe, out of thought and time. Everything around him started to get blurry, and he felt his head and heart getting heavier. Everything was getting brighter, in fact it became so bright that every time he attempted to open his eyes, a burning pain stung it, not unlike even the strongest acid. Steven, however, would not give up. He was going to have to open his eyes.

One more time, he opened them, only to be greeted with the same pain. However, he now did his best to keep his eyes open. Eyes tearing up, he refused to give in to pain. So he screamed. A silent, and painful scream. He felt the bright light go inside his body, into every single part. He then felt everything getting lighter and he himself slowing down.

Steven looked around. He was now able to open his eyes comfortably. But he had now stopped completely. But there was something different about this feeling than how it was just now.

He felt life in him again.

It was not the end.

Suddenly he felt his stomach lurch as he fell into a pitch-black hole in the ground. It was a deep hole, and the moment he fell to the ground, there was a very loud thud. But he didn't feel any pain.

"Welcome back, Steven Reilly." said a loud voice.

Steven looked up. It was the same voice he heard more than a century ago. It was the voice that led him to his death.

"You killed me!" he said, anger flowing through his veins.

"No, all I did was lead you to a friend." it said. After he said that, Steven noticed the same green fire he saw the last time he met the voice. He looked into it and he saw his companions, carrying him into the cave.

"I don't understand..." he said.

"I led you to meet another pony." said the voice, showing Fluttershy in the fire.

"So what am I supposed to do about it?" asked Steven. "If you haven't noticed, I'm dead!"

He felt a dark presence surround him. The voice then started to laugh heartily.

"But I can't allow you to die yet, Steven Reilly." it said. "I cannot give you death until you have completed your mission."

"Mission?" he asked. "The last time you talked about that was about two hundred years ago! How am I supposed to complete whatever mission you're talking about?"

"Two hundred years?" asked the voice, sounding amused. "Did time seem to pass like that in the Void?"

Steven was confused. He had been in the void? That would mean that...

"Yes, Steven Reilly." said the voice. "You have been inside Shadow. It was a painful experience, I'm sure, but a necessary one nonetheless."

Steven looked up. He didn't know what he was supposed to do. But he really wanted to know more about his time in the Void.

"How long have I been dead, then?" he asked.

"On Earth days?" asked the voice. "Only two."

Steven felt as if this was supposed to surprise him, but it didn't. It actually gave him a sense of relief.

"Tell me what I must do." he said.

"It's pretty simple, actually. With your current companions, you have already done half of what you must do."

"I don't understand."

"You don't need to. As I am not allowed to tell you of your mission, I can only tell you a few words of advice."

Steven started thinking. If it was a riddle, he had to be prepared to memorize it.

"Just do what you have already been doing, Steven Reilly. Only then can you stop what havoc the Sun shall wreak upon the world." said the voice.

So it was not another riddle. Steven felt relieved. But the advice was still very vague.

"But what have I been doing?" he asked.

"I cannot tell you that, Steven Reilly." said the voice. "But it is time now for your reawakening in the other world."

"But-"

"Enough, Steven Reilly!"

Steven looked down. There were so many things he didn't understand, so many things he needed to do. The problem was that he did not know what he must do.

"I trust that in time, we shall meet again, Steven Reilly. Now, begone!"

Steven felt a hole open up at the bottom of his hooves, and he quickly fell through. He had started to develop a hatred for pits by then. Not to mention a hatred for falling. For a long time, he fell, and fell. And it didn't seem like he was going to stop.

As he fell, he noticed pictures moving around him. He saw one where he was looking at some rocket, then another one where he was looking at another pony. There was so many of those pictures around him, all of it slowly fading to black as he watched.

Suddenly, he felt as if he was grabbed by an invisible force. He was taken out of the pit, and he was being pushed onto something. That thing refused to give way, but the invisible force kept trying to push him through it, until that thing gave way, leaving Steven in free fall. He was falling down towards the Earth. He tried to scream for help, but no voice came out. He kept on falling, and just before he hit the ground, he felt his presence being drawn into something...

Steven opened his eyes and gasped for air.

As his vision cleared, he saw himself staring into a pair of beautiful pink eyes. He immediately felt a pair of arms tighten themselves around him. Steven couldn't breathe, much less move.

"Rainbow... Dash..." he gasped. "Need... air..."

Rainbow Dash immediately let go.

"Steven! You're alive!" she said.

Steven coughed. Funny how luck worked- the last thing he saw was also the first thing. He took a bit of time to recover from that deadly hug.

"Of course I'm alive." he said. "You think a minor thing like the end of the world would do me in?"

Rainbow Dash started crying and buried her face in Steven's arms.

"I thought I wouldn't ever see you again..." she said, sobbing.

Steven couldn't think of any reply to that, so he put an arm around her and enjoyed his first moments of being alive again.

Far at the back, Steven saw Twilight and Fluttershy standing in front of the rocky wall. They were smiling at him.

"As soon as Fluttershy saw your horn shining blue, she called us all here." said Twilight.

Rainbow Dash let go of him.

"Yeah... But we thought it was weird, since your heart stopped beating just a few hours ago." she said.

Steven carefully stood up, and he found it surprisingly easy to keep his balance and move around, after being dead and all.

He made his way to Fluttershy, who, as timid as she was, backed away.

"Hey, I just wanted to say thank you, Fluttershy, for taking care of me." he said, his voice low and comforting.

Fluttershy blushed and looked away.. She then began to whisper a string of words that cannot be heard by a normal pony's ears.

Steven tilted his head.

"I'm sorry, what was that?."

Fluttershy's head bowed lower, and she started squealing. Steven immediately felt guilty. He turned to look at Twilight, who rolled her eyes and gave him a look that seemed to say: Just leave it.

As Steven walked away, he heard a tiny voice behind him.

"Glad I could help..."

Steven looked back at Fluttershy and laughed. Fluttershy smiled too.

All of a sudden, Steven felt a searing pain on the area around his left eye. He quickly covered it with his hoof.

"Ah..." he said, which was clearly an understatement to the pain that he felt. It seemed to make him relive the moments of when the wolf scratched at that exact spot.

Twilight quickly came to his aid.

"Remove that hoof." she said.

Steven slowly put the hoof covering his eye down. The pain was still very much there, and it was still at its full power.

Twilight's eyes widened as she saw Steven's left eye.

"Oh Celestia..." she said in shock.

"Why? What's wro-AAH!" he screamed, as the pain returned.

Steven fell down on his back, cringing in pain as the the burning he felt increased tenfold.

Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy stood back and watched.

It was the worst pain Steven had ever felt. It even beat the pain back when he was human, when he attempted a failed experiment which involved jumping off the second floor. That was also the first time he had to mend his own bones.

As Steven wriggled and writhed on the floor, Rainbow Dash quickly ran to him.

"What's going on?" she asked Twilight and Fluttershy. There was no answer.

Suddenly, the intensity of the pain increased again. This time, though, it released a shockwave that blew back Rainbow Dash.

"Steven!"

He felt himself rising up to the air and floating there. He felt something come out of his left eye. As that happened, the room immediately turned into a gold color. And as the pain increased, he could do nothing but wait there. It kept on increasing until all of a sudden...

It disappeared.

It was gone as quickly as it had come to him. He fell back down to the floor, feeling fine other than the mild headache that usually accompanied such occasions. As everyone stared at him, Rainbow Dash was the first to react.

"Woah." she said.

Steven felt around his left eye. No more pain was there, but he felt that the area was very rough. There seemed to be some irregularity in his skin. Unless his hooves were lying to him, then...

He quickly ran to find a reflective surface. As luck would have it, there was a large piece of stainless steel on the floor of the cave behind Fluttershy.

He quickly ran to it ("Eep!" squealed Fluttershy) and looked at his reflection. Where before was nothing but fur, he suddenly saw three scars, side by side, drawn vertically across his left eye. It was still glowing. It also remarkably looked like claw marks.

"Woah." he said.

"Are you, um... Feeling okay, sir?" asked a scared voice behind him.

"I'm fine, Fluttershy..." he said, as he turned around. "And please call me Steven."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash quickly ran to him.

"What happened there? How did-"

Steven never got to hear the end of Twilight's question, as two bundles of fur, one white and the other bright yellow, came rolling into view.

"What's going on? We heard a-"

"We heard somethin' th' went BOOM! So we thought we'd come check it out!"

Steven saw two very small ponies straighten up. The white one had flowing, purple and lavender hair, and the bright yellow one had red hair tied with a ribbon at the front.

"I was about to say that, Apple Bloom!" said the white one.

"Well sorry, but ah did say it first, Sweetie Belle." said the other one. Apple Bloom, was it?

Twilight smiled at the little kids and said:

"Don't worry, my little ponies, Steven here was just waking up."

Both fillies quickly came running up to him. Both were staring at his face. Steven smiled uneasily.

"Hey, girls... What's up?" he asked awkwardly.

"Hey, mister! That's a mighty cool scar ya have!" said Apple Bloom.

"Hey, Apple Bloom! Let's check out this guy's cutie mark! Maybe his cutie mark is fighting!" said Sweetie Belle.

"Yeah! Ah saw ya fightin' them wolves, mister. Ah reckon fightin' is yer cutie mark!"

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom went to both his sides and stared at his flank.

"Hey!" he said, misunderstanding the little fillies.

"Um... Mister?" asked Apple Bloom.

"I don't see a cutie mark..." said Sweetie Belle.

Steven looked at Twilight, wanting an explanation. But she, as well as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, were staring in surprise at Steven's flank. Uncomfortable with all these girls staring at his flank, Steven blushed.

"Wow..." said Twilight.

"It's incredible what kids can notice that even we adults did not..." said Fluttershy.

Steven blushed even harder, if that was possible. He waited in awkward silence for the moment to pass, but it didn't seem like it ever would.

"Hey, Scootaloo! This mister here's a blank flank too!" said  Apple Bloom.

Blank Flank? What was that supposed to mean?

Suddenly, a little girl, no more than twelve, came into the large room. She wore a black, strapless shirt, and an orange half-shirt over it. She was also wearing purple tights and a finger-less glove on one hand. She entered the room sadly, looking down and walking slowly. When she entered the room, she kicked a tiny pebble hard across the room, finally hitting Fluttershy at the back of her head.

"Ow... That hurt..." moaned Fluttershy. Twilight put one hoof over her shoulders and rubbed the back of her head.

"What is it?" asked Scootaloo to the other kid ponies.

"This mister here has no cutie mark!" said Apple Bloom.

"Just like us!" said Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo looked away, her face full of anger and frustration.

"Girls, how many times do I have to tell you? Please don't try to comfort me!" she scolded.

As the kids talked, Steven scooted over to Twilight.

"Okay," he said. "I'm gonna need a bit of context here..."

Twilight looked at him, face looking like she had just understood something.

"Well, back in Equestria, we ponies would have symbols on our flank that showed our special talents." she said. "Look at mine."

Steven hesitantly turned to look at Twilight's flank. There was some kind of purple diamond drawn on in.

"My special talent is magic." she said. "And I'm kind of surprised that magic isn't your special talent too!"

"What are you talking about?" said Steven, confused. "I can't do magic! There's no such thing as magic!"

Twilight looked at him, jaw dropping. There was tense silence after what he said.

"No such thing as magic?" she asked, apprehensively. "Rainbow Dash said that you used magic to completely revive me! And even when I doubted it then, I saw you use magic to revive yourself! How could you say that there was no magic?"

"I'm sorry," said Steven. "But both of those times, I was unconscious and didn't know what I was doing and how."

Twilight dwelled on this thought for a moment.

"Hmm..." she said. "It's possible..."

"What's possible?" asked Steven.

"It's possible that the magic you unleashed was totally involuntary." she said. "And considering that you had just turned into a unicorn yourself, completely reviving someone is amazingly mind-blowing. Even I, talented and skilled myself, cannot hope to completely revive someone else, not to mention reviving myself..."

Steven stood there in silence. Did he really revive someone else? He knew that he didn't revive himself, as the voice itself said that it was the one reviving him, but did he really revive Twilight?

"Anyway," said Twilight, "being three of the last ponies in their class to get their cutie marks, they took it upon themselves to do anything, and I mean ANYTHING possible to get them. And since humans don't get cutie marks (Rainbow Dash's disappeared), Scootaloo became really sad and angry at herself for turning into a human. And I think Rainbow Dash feels the same way, too."

He turned to look at Rainbow Dash. She was watching Scootaloo scolding the other two kids sadly, and she appeared to understand what Scootaloo was experiencing.

Steven observed the scene in the middle of the room. Scootaloo was accusing them of mocking her about never being able to get a cutie mark ever again, followed by the other two refuting it loudly. Fluttershy then flew in to try to break up the kids, but she was unable to get them to quiet down.

Rainbow Dash was looking outside of the cave, one hand over her neck, feeling her upper back. It was as if trying to feel something that wasn't there. He knew that Rainbow Dash missed flying, but he didn't know that it ran this deep. As he reflected on these things, he only knew of one solution. He had to reverse everything. And fast.

Twilight caught Steven staring at Rainbow Dash.

"So, you and Rainbow Dash, huh?" she asked with a smirk on her face.

"What are you talking about?" asked Steven, looking at her.

"Never mind." she said. Her expression turned into a look of concern as she saw Rainbow Dash touching her back.

"I think you should go talk to her, Steven." she said.

"Why?" he asked, genuinely confused. "You guys are best friends! I just met her five days ago! What makes you think I can get through to her?"

"Because one, she likes you. Two, she trusts you. And three..." Twilight paused.

"You understand exactly how she is feeling, am I right?"

Steven never really thought about it before. But the lack of his fingers made it impossible for him to write as he was used to, impossible to build and use complex, and sometimes even simple machinery. He became unable to do what he did best. And that really depressed him.

"She really loved flying, huh?" he asked Twilight.

"Yeah. In fact, her dream was to join a popular flying group in Equestria, the Wonderbolts. Now she couldn't fly, so her dreams can't be fulfilled."

Steven let out a dejected sigh.

"But she always seemed so strong, so confident. Who would've guessed that she would be so insecure?"

"People (and ponies) like that usually are, Steven." said Twilight. "You know that as well as I do."

"I guess you're right, Twilight." he said. "I'll go talk to her."

Steven jumped down the platform they were standing on and walked toward Rainbow Dash, who was now crossing her arms and looking out to the forest.

"Hey, Steve." said Rainbow Dash, apparently sensing Steven before he managed to get close.

"Hey, Dash." he replied.

"What do you want?" she asked.

"Well," he said, "you seemed very close to crying, so I thought I'd come check on you."

Rainbow Dash chuckled weakly.

"Ha ha ha, Steven." she said.

"C'mon, just tell me what's going on." he said.

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and sighed.

"It's Scootaloo, Steven. Everything she did, everything she accomplished to achieve her dream became useless. It all became useless in a matter of seconds. And I... I get that."

Steven looked down. He didn't know how to respond. He knew that Rainbow Dash wan't only referring to Scootaloo, but she was talking about herself as well. But for now, he needed to get away from the noisy atmosphere of the cave.

"Come on, Rainbow Dash." he said, walking outside the cave. "Let's go for a walk."

Rainbow Dash followed, and they soon were walking side-by-side through the forest.

Everything was silent. Steven needed to say something to break the atmosphere, and fast.

"I understand too, you know." he said.

"What?" she asked, more of a challenge to explain rather than a question itself.

"You know what I was greatest at before all this? Exploring and Discovering things in outer space." he said. "But all those things needed me to build and use complex machines, which needed me to use my relatively smaller hands and precise fingers. And now that I have lost all them, I cannot do what I do best. I was sad too the moment I realized that."

Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks. As Steven turned around to look at her, he saw that she was incredibly angry.

"Sad? Sad? Sad doesn't even begin to describe what people who had their dreams crushed feel! How could you even hope to understand what we, Scootaloo and I, feel?"

Steven sighed.

"Do you know what my dream was, Dash?" he asked sadly.

Rainbow Dash didn't answer.

"It was to bring my mother back to life." he said. "That's what made me so interested in worlds outside our own in the first place. I looked for some sort of occurrence in space, some sort of alien technology, that could've brought my mother back to life. And when another loved one of mine died, that desire just grew stronger."

Steven just couldn't allow himself to bring up Jaeda right then. Rainbow Dash still remained silent.

"That was when my father came to me." he said. "And he taught me something very important. An important lesson that I still remember to this day."

"He told me that there were things in this world that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind. But we must keep in mind that letting go isn't the end of the world. It's the beginning of a new life." he said. "Nothing lasts forever, Rainbow Dash. Nothing."

At this point, Rainbow Dash suddenly broke down. She sat down on the grass, crying softly. She buried her face in her hands looked down. Steven then knelt down next to her.

Rainbow Dash wiped the tears off her face.

"I'm sorry, Steven. You must think that I'm some sort of loser crybaby now..." she said, still crying.

"Of course not, Rainbow Dash. Everyone cries. Everyone has a weakness, hell, even I do!" he said.

"Yeah, and everyone knows that I'm better than you in everything." she said.

Rainbow Dash then threw her arms around Steven, pressing her face to his neck.

"You're a really cool guy, you know?" she said. "Even cool enough for me."

"Hey, I wouldn't want to compete. 'Cause you'd definitely lose." he joked.

Rainbow Dash then took her face of Steven's neck. Hands still around him, she started to look deeply into Steven's eyes, her beautiful, shining pink eyes locked in gaze with his own.

Time seemed to have slowed down as they looked into each other, and Steven could suddenly notice all sorts of things he didn't earlier. He heard the crunching of dead leaves as they touched the ground, the soft breeze passing through them as they were locked in this deep embrace, the sound of the heartbeats of both him and Dash's... It had all made him feel much more self conscious, but he was unable to look away once their eyes had met.

As they both leaned in closer to each other, Steven remembered the first time they had met. How he had admired her pretty face, her long, soft, rainbow-coloured hair that often beautifully swayed in even the softest winds, the warmth of her breath and the soft touch of her hands. But as they were this close to each other, Steven couldn't help but notice her short, detailed eyelashes, her cute, soft blush, and how lush her lips looked.

They both slowly pulled in closer to each other, closer than they had ever been before. But right when their lips were supposed to meet, right when they were supposed to touch...

Steven looked away.

Rainbow Dash, in surprise, pulled herself back. However, her arms were still wrapped around his neck. She began to blush furiously.

Steven sighed. He closed his eyes. He felt his face getting hot.

"I'm sorry, Dash..." he said in a strangled voice. "That wasn't right..."

Rainbow Dash pulled her hands back.

"It's okay..." she said, looking at the ground. She looked as if she didn't know how to react to what just happened. She fell silent.

"That wasn't right," he said again. "Come on, they'll be wondering where we went."

Steven gently picked up Rainbow Dash, carefully avoiding looking into her eyes. He needn't try hard though, as Rainbow Dash was doing the same thing. As they slowly walked back up the mountain, he felt regret start building up inside him. However, he was not sure if it was because he had stopped the kiss from actually happening, or if it was because he let the kiss actually start building up in the first place.

"Steven?" asked Rainbow Dash, obviously trying to break the tension and awkwardness.

"Please..." said Steven. "After what happened? Call me Steve."

"Okay... Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say thank you... for telling me what you told me..." she said, blushing again.

"No problem." he said.

"Oh, and could you help Scootaloo as well?" she asked. "She needed what you told me just as much as I did."

"Well, of course I'll help." said Steven. "It put me down as well looking at what was supposed to be three best friends fighting and shouting like that."

"Just try not to... You know..." she said, smiling.

"Come on, Dash..." he said. "Seriously?"

Rainbow Dash started laughing loudly. Although the subject of her laughter was not one he cared of, he was relieved that the atmosphere was lighter.

Just when they were about to reach the cave, they ran into Twilight, who looked distressed and panicked.

"What's up, Twi?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Steven! Rainbow Dash!" she said, eyes delirious and voice out of breath. "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Why? What's going on?" asked Steven.

"Come up, quick!" said Twilight, running up the mountain back to the cave. Steven and Rainbow Dash quickly climbed up with her.

There in the cave, Fluttershy was lying on the ground, panting, and the three kids surrounded her, trying to help her up.

"What happened?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Guys..." said Fluttershy, voice also out of breath.

"We may have a problem."