Chapter 5

I woke up in a library, not one of the dark musky ones like the empire, but a clean, bright and happy looking one. I took a dislike to this place at once, looking around the library I took in the wooden walls, floor and ceiling without much interest, the place reminded me of a Pixie town I once attacked using only Imps, good times.

“YOU!” a loud voice filled the room and I turned to face the Unicorn who made it, she looked bigger than before but that was before I died... wait.

“I should be dead.” I mused placing a hand to my chin, it remained scarred and blistered from my experiments with dark magic, there are some things that never heal, dark things that eat at your soul in exchange for power.

“What are you doing in my library?” the Unicorn asked tapping one of her hooves on the floor, for what had just transpired she seemed rather placid.

“I am not, well I am but not here.” I grunted, the obvious implications of being in this Unicorns Library darkened my mood.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she cocked her head looking at me from the side like that would help her understand how a burnt and scarred Human in what I quickly identified as my old clothes back from when I was a pickpocket was now standing in what I assumed was her home.

“You are asleep, and have claimed my spirit by severing my connection to my other dungeon hearts.” I grinned and pulled a book from a shelf, it held pictures of a picnic with detailed writing of the event, I skimmed through it taking notes of ponies that this mare found important.

“Dungeon Hearts?” I looked up at her holding her gaze for a while as I slowly clicked my neck.

“For a mental prison this place is rather comfortable, with easy access to your memory...” I pulled another book from the shelf disposing of the ones I just looked through on the floor and in a flash the books vanished.

“You are in my head?!” she asked her rather large eyes going wide as her pupil became small as a pinprick.

“Yes, with nowhere else to go I latched onto the closest thing I could to survive, now when most keepers do this they kill their new host, so what makes you so special that I...” no reason to tell her I can't kill her “Can be here without you dying?” she blinked and taped her hooves on the floor some more aggravating me.

“So you are stuck in my head.” she ignored my question and looked around at the now bare library, she had worked out how to protect her memories in a few seconds, this was going to be hard.

“Yes, until I find a way out or decide to take this body as my own.” why her will was stronger than mine I had no idea, I should be murdering her friends right now in the body of a purple pony!

“Who are you? Where did you come from? What are you? What was that gem?” the world I found myself in started to shrink and become darker as the Unicorn moved closer to me, showing that while she was grasping her new ability to look inside her own mind quickly but not fast enough to have it change on a whim, something all good keepers learned fast so as not to become trapped in there own minds.

“Heras, The Underworld, a Human and that Gem was a focal point to a Dungeon Heart, something that allowed me to create new realms for me to rule.” I turned a slight smile crossing my face as I thought of a plan, the fact that the Unicorn had attacked me alone was interesting, a glimpse into her mind that told of only useful things.

“So with you stuck here, Equestria is safe!” a smile played across her lips as my plan suddenly became clear.

“You think I am the only keeper who know’s of this place? With me gone they will forget about this place for a few months, a year at best.” I looked her over “But they will come, and they will come with a much stronger force than I.” I watched her as she mulled over this new threat to her life.

“If you know a way to stop them.” she glared at me and I let out a chuckle.

“I know a few, you could wait for them and use the magic artifacts you used on me on them, but that relies on them bringing a dungeon heart, and more, ponies?” she nodded “Ponies will get hurt that way, no the best way would be to shatter their empire and make them harmless, a huge undertaking, one that you will surely fail with your limited power.”

“But you think its viable, and you don't seem prone to mixing words, well besides the lies.” she turned and looked at me “You think there is a chance of me being able to defeat the ‘Keepers’? Tell me why.” the conversation was going well but this was the hard part, she would be hard to convince.

“You could take control of some dungeons yourself, use the added power to fight the other keepers and render the underworld harmless.” she looked me over an eyebrow raised.

“And the catch?” this was the hard part

“It will take a lot out of you, you will do and see things that you never thought possible, you will find new things that don't have names and fight things that should not exist, when you have finished and this ‘Equestria’ is safe, you will not return the same mare.” I caught myself holding my breath, something I had no reason to do here.

“There must be other ways.” she finished and I shrugged in response.

“There are not but I understand, also if you could give me something to read or do I would be grateful, I will be residing in here for a while and boredom is not something I am happy with.” she glared at me and shook her head before vanishing, no doubt waking up. I sat at the table in the corner of the room and as I expected her senses were linked here, giving me at least some idea of what was going on.

Twilight groggily opened her eyes as a pink friend of hers bandaged her leg, Pinkie has various cuts and shallow gashes across her body using her natural earth pony magic to limit the bleeding, it turns out the “Keeper” came much closer to hitting her then it seemed.

“TWILIGHT!” the pink mare beamed “you're awake! You were out for a little while there, just after the Elements dropped us onto the floor.” there was a shuffling behind her as she turned to find Applejack putting her hat over her cousin's head with a solemn look upon her face.

“T’aint right... what kinda monster does this!” she slammed a hood down as Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her back saying nothing.

“This gem... he must have been using it as a focal point for whatever magic he was casting... but its not a gem.” Twilight turned to her Unicorn friend who was looking over the now dark orb, now that she could get a closer look she saw it was more of a rock than anything.

“Dumb rock.” the Fashionista dropped it and moved to see her friends. Twilight did not, she got to her hooves and picked up the stone looking at it closely before a faint voice resonated in her head.

“A Keepers most important tool, the Heart stone used by Keepers to channel magic from Dungeon Hearts.” Twilight blinked.

“So there is no getting rid of you then?” she thought back frowning.

“No, so what do you intend to do?” Twilight shook her head and did not respond moving back to her friends who where looking at her intently, besides Fluttershy who was fussing over Pinkie.

“Lets get back to town... Applejack need any hel-”

“No. its fine.” she sighed pulling the body onto her back before Rainbow stopped her and picked up the head, helmet still attached nodding to Applejack with a solemn gaze.

“Well ah guess a little help won't hurt none.” she nods to Twilight and the six start making there way back to town, the forest surprisingly quiet with Twilight taking up the front of the group with the stone circling her head, she wanted to know a bit more about it before she made her judgment.

“What's on yer mind sugarcube?” Applejack turned to Twilight looking to take her mind off of the body draped over her back.

“He was not working alone, whatever he was... there are more of them.” there was a groan from behind Twilight as Pinke stuck her tongue out and kept walking.

“Great more evil mean bad guys from... where are they from?” she looks to Twilight

“Mostly from the realm of Zahalla, some of the Keepers have land in the outplane, a place between your world and Zahalla but they are rare, Keepers are centralized.” Twilight nearly stopped but that might make her friends suspicious, who knew what they might think if they found out about the person in her head, it was odd that he was so open with information like this, did he honestly want to help her?

“I don’t know... but, we have to find a way of stopping them.” she looks out over the town of ponyville, some of the houses burned and broken as the Purple unicorn sighs “Whatever the cost.”