Empire of the Sun

Discord jerked his arm closer to him, “When that thing hit the ground…” At first Horizon didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he recalled the magical blast that sent his Destructive energy crazy.

“That blast,” he nodded, “What about?”

“Can you teleport?”

“I couldn’t before.”

“Try it now.”

Event Horizon teleported behind Discord and then back again.

“Huh, that’s strange.” Discord nodded, “Indeed… you know I’m starting to get awfully suspicious of this Sirius character.” Now he was starting to sound more like his real self. So Discord heard the whole thing.

“I wonder if-” suddenly a thought crossed Event’s mind, but then he stopped, unsure.

“What?” Discord asked, eyeing him. Horizon shook his head,

“Nothing… it’s nothing,” he shook his head, “What are we supposed to do about Sirius?” Discord stared at him for one more second before shrugging, “Not sure, really. Don’t know who he is, where he’s from, what he can do.” He got serious again, “But he’s pretty dangerous.”

Horizon wasn't exactly sure where that comment was coming from. Then a new thought suddenly popped into his head,

“Did you see his cutie mark?” he blurted. Discord shook his head, “Didn't know he had one.”

“It's a blue sun with eight violent rays,” he described, now recalling, and then smiled, “What do you suppose it means?” Discord only shrugged, “It could mean anything in between bad chef and shark whisperer for all I know.” The two continued on chatting, their conversation on Sirius only lasting a short while before they ran out of details to analyze. It took a turn to the current events in Equestria and about the upcoming Equestria Games. Once they realized they had gotten off track, though, they made a conclusion about Sirius. They didn't trust him, and agreed to keep an eye on him.

Once Discord teleported away, Event Horizon went to catch up with Celestia and the others, teleporting to Ponyville and searching actively for them. He did get stares from the residents, but they had seen him already, and seeing as he posed no threat, for now, didn't lead them to do anything about him being there. Eventually he heard familiar laughter coming from a house dressed up like a cupcake. He peaked inside through the open door and found Sirius next to… That pink earth pony. What was her name?

Twilight’s friends had beaten him so bad when he tried to destroy Equestria, that he swore he was losing memory since then. He had heard her name before, but couldn't find it anywhere in his memory.

“Welcome, welcome, welcome,

A fine welcome to you!

Welcome, welcome, welcome,

Say, how do you do?

Welcome, welcome, welcome,

I say, ‘Hip hip, hooray!’

Welcome, welcome, welcome,

To Ponyville today!”

Both Sirius and the pink mare recited the lines in perfect unison and skidded in front of Celestia, Luna, the Saddle Arabia Ambassadors, and Twilight and her friends.

“Wait for it,” Sirius said, containing giggles. The wagon behind them that was playing the music, suddenly blasted everyone with confetti from an oven, but then sprayed all the ponies down with what looked to be batter from a cannon at the top. Covered with sticky cake batter, Sirius started,

“Pinkie… did you put cake in the confetti cannon and confetti in the cake cannon, again?” That's right, it was Pinkie Pie.

She started giggling, “Oops, silly me, that's right!” Every pony that was watching burst into pleasant laughter as they wiped themselves off from the thick, but still delicious, substance. Horizon couldn't help but feel that same envy he was feeling before when watching the ceremony. His old anger started to rise up again, as he thought about leveling the entire place.

        Once again, however, he had a job to do. For the rest of the night Pinkie Pie had them entertained. Sirius wasn't doing anything unusual besides knowing half the stuff the ponies were going to do or say, and truthfully, it didn't look or feel like he was hiding anything more than what he showed he already knew. It got so boring, Horizon had fallen asleep in front of the house next to the front door, and curled up on the floor. Doing so in tired unawareness, he could only think about how much he preferred his tree.

The night went on peacefully, and morning came without an incident. The sleep had cleared his head, a lot, and for once in his life, he felt good about himself. Nopony had woken him in the middle of the night asking him what in Celestia’s name was he doing, parked outside of Pinkie Pie’s place, so he assumed everyone had crashed there, even the Ambassadors.

Applejack was the first one up after Celestia, who somehow always got up on time to raise the Sun. Seeing Celestia made Horizon realize just how terrible it would be to never in your life be able to sleep in. Literally every other pony could, but her. The Spirit of Destruction shivered at the thought of responsibility.

The day was painfully normal. Apparently news hasn't quite gotten out yet that a male alicorn that arrived like a meteor from space was in Ponyville, and surprisingly, he wasn't attracting any attention, as if no pony had noticed him. Horizon followed the group to Applejack’s farm, where they took a tour, and the town hall. The Destruction spirit would have slammed his head against the wall for the opportunity for something exciting to happen.

Soon, the Ambassadors went back to a hotel they were staying at officially, and the group of Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were left, so the group went back to Pinkie Pie's one last time. The Princesses of the Sun and Moon were going to leave, but decided to stay the night with the friends before heading back to Canterlot. So it had already gotten late and by now, Horizon had mixed feelings. He knew for some reason Sirius was suspicious, but the pony came off friendly, honest and caring.

Although maybe his suspicion came from the fact Sirius hadn't revealed anything about himself  other than his name. This fact seemed to restore Event’s faith in his mission. Sirius was really up to something. Or was he? What would he be even up to?

As if on cue, he came into view, approaching Celestia, and mumbling something to her. Then, the Draconequus witnessed something he hadn’t seen in a long time. The Princess blushed, like actually. She had a dainty giggle when he said something else and smiled slightly. Horizon had to stop himself from gasping and got away from the window.

Celestia’s in love?

That can’t possibly be it. There had to be more to that. Suddenly, though, things were beginning to make sense under that theory. The only thing Sirius was up to was trying to find his true Love. Of course, coming from a different world, he would be hesitant to be listing off his alien life. Of course, he would be radiating too much magic, because he just made a long trip between worlds. Could it be that he was actually a genuine, kind hearted soul that came across dimensions to be with Celestia?

When he looked back through the window to get his answer, Sirius and Celestia were staring straight at him.

Uh oh.

The white stallion came up to the window and stared at the Draconequus for what seemed like hours. His face was neutral, and mildly curious, before he just opened it, chuckling,

“You know, if you wanted to join us, yesterday, you could have just come along instead of following us around everywhere for twelve hours.”

“You counted?” he was his only response.

“Just have a good memory,” Sirius said. It was easy to forget that Event Horizon’s energy was now crackling and popping more than ever. The problem was, he had gotten used to it, so he could move physically and ignore it with ease. Unfortunately, all his magic seemed to be nullified like before, again for some reason. As soon as that thought crossed into his mind, he wondered if anypony else with him was having problems. So far nopony has seemed to notice that except him, and Discord sort of implied that he did. However for the time being, he was in an awkward situation.

“Horizon, come on inside,” Sirius now laughed, “I have something important to share anyway, that I want you to hear.” Curious, and relieved to not be dead, Horizon slid through the open window instead of going through the front door.

“What in tarnation is that thing doing here?” Applejack yawned and motioned at Event Horizon. Despite being convinced that he was about to destroy the entire town earlier, apparently him being a threat now was the last thing on her mind.

Earth ponies.

“I'm just—” “—oh my gosh, you're that Even Pie’s son, right?” Pinkie Pie suddenly sprouted up onto his snout. He crossed his eyes to get her in focus, her silly smiling face pretty much filling up his vision, “We’re related!”

“First of all, it's Event Horizon,” he grumbled, unamused, “and second, you have no relative named Even Pie. Trust me, I'm a few thousand years old.” Even though there's no guarantee that I'm actually right.

Sirius clapped his hooves together, “If I could just have everypony’s attention, please.” Everyone did quiet down, and Horizon was thanking the stars he didn't let these ponies talk to him further.

“Listen, as you know… I just arrived to this world yesterday,” he began. Both Twilight and Celestia immediately looked like they were about to say something, but stayed silent. The other ponies were just content with listening.

“Despite this, I… I feel most at home here!” he exclaimed, his voice starting to quiver, “And I just wanted to thank you all, for this wonderful time you gave me!” Now he was starting to tear up. A few seconds passed as Sirius' face melted from a look of shaky gratitude, to just tears.

Resist hugging him.

It didn't help when all the other ponies rushed forward in a group hug, comforting and nuzzling each other. Horizon’s eye twitched, as now he was stressed more than ever. If he didn't join in their little hug pact, he looked suspicious or like a blatant jerk. But, he didn't care much for honesty at this point, so he came forward and stretched his arms across the entire group, putting on the best genuinely happy look he could make. It didn't last long, however, because even though his aura was now so active he felt like he could explode, the warm energies of the ponies seeped into him. For once, it was relaxing, and comforting, and very quickly, turning his fake smile real. Even though they only hugged for a few seconds, Horizon had felt like he had, now… What was that word again? It began with an “F”.

When everypony departed, Sirius still had tears in his eyes.

“I come from a world called Halott,” he sniffled, “It's a lush, beautiful world, bountiful in life, illuminated in precious stones and light.”

Twilight laughed, “Then why'd you come here?” What a good question, Twilight.

“I saw something,” he said, smiling, “That Equestria had that no other place in the universe could.” He was, of course, talking about Celestia. He was a Night in Shining Armor after all. Trying not to let onto the fact that these ponies had just touched his rumored, "to be" heart, Horizon laughed, “Well that was nice and all, but I best get—” he noticed Pinkie Pie staring him down, and stopped.

“... What?”

“You’re hiding something!” she said, leaping to her hooves and getting in front of him, “What is it?!” This was either incredibly ironic, or, an opportunity to let out his genuine feeling of what just happened. Horizon chose irony.

“Not sure what you mean,” he said, laughing nervously, “But I’ll be seeing ‘y’all’ around!” Forgetting he couldn't, he tried to teleport away. Static spiked so high and so quickly, a super sharp tingling feeling bolted all through his nerves, rendering him unable to react properly. Limitless agony stiffened in his bones, racing faster than the speed of sound. For a split second, Horizon’s and Sirius’ eyes met.

Maybe because it was happening too quickly, but Sirius hadn't registered to look shocked yet. However, before the Draconequus could see anymore, a sudden force slammed into him, propelling him out through the front door, back into the sunlight. He hit the ground about two seconds later, and was fully paralyzed for about a millennium.

However, it all calmed down, and Horizon shook himself off. Something told him to meet up with Discord, but what was he going to say? He's a wonderful stallion, with a thing for Celestia? He's touching the hearts of all of Ponyville with his charm, friendly attitude and overall love towards life? Other than his freaky aura, nothing really seemed to be out of the ordinary, and that was also probably just… ordinary of somepony in his situation.

In his brief episode of being flung out of what he knew as “Pinkie Pie’s house”, he hadn't noticed that a group of ponies was starting to gather around him like a dead bird on the road.

“Are you okay?” Actually his head hurt more than ever, and his vision was blurring now.

“Fine,” he said, sitting up, “I'm fine.” He expected the crowd to just go away, but the mint coated mare in front of him, didn't. He rubbed his eyes to get some of the blur out, and it kind of worked. Staring at her and starting to stand now, he asked, “What?” Seemed like he couldn't read ponies' vague facial expressions very well.

“Was it that other white alicorn?” she asked, sounding very suspicious and angry. When he looked around, a few others seemed to be equally as interested in the answer, while, at the same time, others frowned at her tone. Well that was definitely interesting.

“I don't know what you're talking about,” he replied, although he knew they all knew he knew. He just didn't know what else to say. Some of the ponies smirked at him as if he was a part of their hidden cause or something, while others just looked more frustrated.

“We know you know; you were just in Sugarcube Corner!” the mint mare mightily exclaimed, “That white alicorn stallion is there, right?”

“Why don't you go in there and find out for yourself?!” he retorted, “Please address all complaints to:” he paused and summoned a scroll and a pair of reading glasses to read two words on it, before moving it down and glaring at the green unicorn, “Princess Celestia.”

        This time, he managed to teleport back to his domain, safely and unharmed. Well for the most part, anyway. The Spirit of Destruction decided that clocking twelve and a half hours stalking an alien alicorn stallion was enough for a while. Although, something strange was definitely happening; and something was odd about where Sirius said he was from.

Being teleported back to his throne room reminded him of what his old lair showed him. It was a barren world, with a ruins of the civilization it once was home to. The heat could almost be felt through the colors. That didn't match Sirius’ description of Halott at all.

Could it be that the appearance of Sirius and the vision of this world Horizon had just the night before were unrelated?

Or was Sirius lying?

Either scenario was equally disturbing and both raised more questions than any possibly given answers.