A Different Kind of Paradise

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter I: Arrival
Chapter II: Moving in
Chapter III: Welcome
Chapter IV: Catching Their Stride
Chapter V: The Price of Hope
Chapter VI: Justice
Chapter VII: Silently We Wander
Chapter VIII: Hide and Seek
chapter IX: Amends
Chapter X: Study
Chapter XI: King Takes Bishop
Chapter XII: Ascension
Chapter XIII: Treachery
Chapter XIV: Nero vs. Justice - Battle of the Roaring Skies
Chapter XV: Demise
Chapter XVI: Battle for Redemption
Chapter XVII: Happily Ever After
Epilogue

Prologue

“Show me sign of paradise, a place we all would like to go to. Tell me what to sacrifice, so there's a chance for me to want you” –Center of the Universe, Kamelot.

Prologue

The bell rang and Gabriel’s eyes popped open. He normally didn’t sleep in class, but because the substitute had no real lesson, so there was nothing to keep the stout brown-haired student awake. After putting his glasses back on and wiping the drool away from his notebook he put it in his backpack and headed out the door. However he wasn’t going towards the bus lane, or the carpool lane; today he was going to the club he ran.

He began his trek from the third floor to the basement as he felt someone finger-jab him in the back, and heard someone yell “SNEAK ATTACK!”

He turned around, rolled his eyes and sighed, “Michael.”

Sure enough as he turned around he saw his curly-haired friend. Gabriel shook his head at him, and then sighed and said “I take it you’re ready for club.”

“Well yeah!” Michael said enthusiastically. The only thing he enjoyed was the table-top role-playing they did at club was his favorite video game Devil May Cry 4, which dubbed him the nickname “Nero.”

“Come on man, get excited. Today were gonna take down that giant mecha-dwarf with the arm cannon! Aren’t you amped?!?” Nero said enthusiastically.

Gabriel chuckled a little bit, he adjusted his pack as he held a door for Nero and replied “If we have enough people to play, Amanda and Marcus took off early for their date, and Jeanne’s in Ohio for the week.”

The two began their descent into the basement where the benevolent, if not a little eccentric, Professor Rodney allowed them to host their games. As they reached the room they heard something that made Gabriel cringe. He opened the door, and sure enough it was their friend Daniel; as usual he was listening to music way too loud through his earphones as he set up their game.

“Danny. Danny! DAAAAAAAANNNNYY!!!” Gabe screamed to get Daniel’s attention.

At the last call Danny screamed and jumped on the table. He took his earphones out, allowing the intensely loud Kamelot music to be heard clearly. After pausing the music he stuck his fist out and said “hey guys, whatup? Brohoof?”

Nero bumped Danny’s fist but Gabe just rubbed his face and groaned. Not long ago Daniel revealed himself as something called a “brony” an older male fan of the show “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.” While years of abuse did make Danny self-conscious enough to not bring the topic of unicorns and rainbows up in most conversation, when he did Gabriel could not stand it. After letting out an audible sigh Gabe asked “Is anyone else here?”

Danny slowly put his fist down and responded “Sorry, haven’t seen anyone, not even Mr. Rodney.”

That last statement cut Gabe out of his “I’m surrounded by idiots” face and made him give a quick jump and he nervously said “B-but if Mr. Rodney isn’t here we can’t play.”

“We can’t play if we don’t have people Gabe.” Nero said as he balanced an ogre figurine on his nose. He put the mini down and continued “Last I recall Marcus was holding off a lava golem while Jeanne and I were picking the lock on the only exit to the sinking island. If Marcus isn’t here then we are going to learn how to swim in lava the hard way.”

Nero was taking a breath to continue their story further when a door on the far side of the room swung open, each of the three turned to look at it.

After a few seconds Gabe stepped forward and nervously asked “Mr. Rodney?”

No response.

Eventually Danny started towards the mystery room and Nero followed suit. Gabe ran in front of his friends, put his hands out and with a firm voice said “NO!”

Nero rolled his eyes and put Gabriel’s arm down and said “Chill out Gabe, Rodney’s old, for all we know he’s asleep in there. There’s no harm in checking it out right?”

Despite Gabe’s efforts Nero dashed into the room; frustrated, Gabriel ran after him. After a few moments Danny nervously fidgeted with his glasses and followed his friends in. When he got in he saw that Gabe and Nero were staring at something, he turned to look at it.“Whoa.” Was all that could escape his lips.

In the center of the room was a massive device from out of a sci-fi story. It was tall, and at the bottom looked like a computer terminal, but towards the top several strange metal rods branched out in different directions.

Danny noticed the computer panel on the machine, he slowly and cautiously walked over to it and began to type on the keyboard.

Gabriel shook himself out of his trance and walked over to Danny and asked “are you crazy? We have no idea what this thing is.”

“I’m trying to find out. How hard can it be?” Danny responded as he continued to type on the keyboard and occasionally slid the mouse around.

Gabriel was never very patient, especially not with Danny. Once again he groaned and protested to his type-happy friend “You shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Yeah” Nero started to back Gabe up. “And besides, if you wanted to find out what this thing does, you shouldn’t waste your time poking the keyboard; just pull this giant red switch.” He motioned towards a large lever. “Like this” he casually said as he pulled the switch down.

Gabriel and Danny just stared at Nero in shock. Seconds ticked by as Nero slowly realized that he could have just activated a bomb, or something else horrifying and destructive. He slowly took his hand away and smiled sheepishly. He started to slowly move away towards the others and said “See? Nothing to…”

He was interrupted when the machine began to whirr and groan. The three looked as the nexus of metal rods began to emit a strange black aura. The aura was horrifying, it was expanding and it sounded like dozens of disembodied voices were coming out of it, to make things worse tendrils began to extend from it, almost like it was reaching out for something. The three boys began to back away, but before they could run for the door the dark cloud expanded and consumed them.

Gabriel and the others screamed as they fell through the void Rodney’s device dragged them into. At first it was nothing but darkness, but soon they were greeted by a variety of colors as they felt a surge of energy course painfully through their bodies. As the pain began to fade Gabe stared up at a clear blue sky, right before he passed out.

Gabriel had no idea where he was, and he didn’t like it. Wherever he was it was cold, it wasn’t a natural cold though, it felt like it was piercing his soul. He could also feel something else with him, and it was dark and domineering. He tried to move but couldn’t. He then heard a dark, foreboding voice that seemed to come from everywhere “Ahhh, this is very interesting. I feel… free. Free from his grasp.” Gabriel felt the presence amplify itself, as if it was focusing on him. “Well, what do we have here?” The voice began to laugh maniacally as images of something horrible flashed in front of him.

Gabe’s eyes tore open, he was breathing heavily, his nightmare had taken an insurmountable toll on him. He rubbed his sweat-covered forehead with the back of his hand. But when he lifted his arm, he realized that the nightmare had only just begun.

What was once his hand was now a grey monochromatic hoof.

Chapter I: Arrival

Gabriel let out a chilling scream as he jumped to his hooves and began to look himself over, in between panicked gasps he realized that he had become a pony; his coat was grey, except for one spot on his flank that had a dove on it, somehow his glasses stayed on his face, and as far as he could tell his hair was the same. No matter what he looked like though, he had a hard time believing that he had become a pony, and began to tear up.

“Noooooo, NOOOOOOOO!” Gabriel cried as he put his hooves on his head. “Why me God? I don’t want to be a pony, I HATE PONIES!!” He stopped crying and began to giggle like a maniac as he began to nervously toy with his mane. “I-I’m not a pony, this is a dream. A very, very… very bad dream.” He began to fiddle with his tail “I don’t have a tail, or hooves, or a dove on my butt; I’m going to wake up any second now in the hospital, or my room, and wipe the sweat off my brow with my HUMAN hands.” He let out another manic giggle and began to wait, after a few seconds he began to cry again. He felt better when somepony began to pat his shoulder, he looked up at who was comforting him in between sobs and saw a green pony with wings and a short, black, curly mane “Thank you” he said, before jumping back in shock.

“Hey, hey, hey it’s me Gabe.” The green pony said in a familiar voice.

Gabriel’s jaw dropped “Michael?”

Nero laughed and said “Yeah, it’s me. I’m a pony.”

Gabe began to sway back and forth before putting a hoof on his head and groaning. “I can’t believe what’s happening to us. This is the worst possible… wait.” Gabriel interrupted himself as he realized something. “If you’re here, then that means that…” his jaw fell open “God help me.” He said as his pupils shrunk.

I must take your farewell

Carried by destiny

Bound to obey

I must take your farewell

Trails of discovery

Lead me an ocean away

So far away

When the tide is high

I won't dwell or wait no longer

A blue unicorn sang with wild brown hair and glasses sang as his horn glowed and rock music played around him. The serious look that matched the tone of the song melted into a massive smile as the instrumental break began. Gabriel and Nero watched from a short distance away, Gabriel actually stopped whining for long enough to notice that they were in a large, grassy field. “Where’s that music coming from?” Gabriel asked.

Nero laughed before answering “I have no idea. I just woke Danny up, he went all happy-manic, his horn started to spark and all of a sudden there was music.”

I must take your farewell

Trails of discovery

Lead me an ocean away

Daniel’s song concluded, and a short while after it did the music became dark and sinister. As Gabriel approached him and heard the change of notation, he felt the same cold he did in his nightmare. He quickly trotted to him and shook him to get his attention; Daniel shook his head, as if coming out of a trance, he looked at Gabe for about 3 seconds before a giant smile appeared on his face.

“Oh no” Gabriel immediately regretted his actions.

Daniel wrapped his forelegs around Gabe in a hug-like fashion before talking his ear off. “ohmygoshGabeisn’tthisthegreatestthingever?I’maunicorn,Nero’sapegasus,andyou’reanearthpony!Idon’tthinkthiscouldpossiblygetanybetter…”

He was interrupted when Gabriel pushed him off of himself. Danny landed on his back, and promptly began rolling on the grass, the smile never leaving his face.

“I’m in hell” Gabe sighed. “Nero killed me, and I’m in hell.”

He was about to whine some more when something heavy fell on him. He turned his head to see Nero lying on top of him. “It’s not that bad” he started. “Hey look, I can fly… sorta.” He flapped his wings to show off.

Gabriel then noticed something; where there was a dove on his flank, there was a blue rose with lightning coming out of it on his, and he then looked to Danny who had a half-white, half-black record in the shape of a heart. He shook himself and focused on the pegasus who was still on top of him. “GET OFF ME!” He yelled as he tossed Nero off “whoa” he said, surprised by his own strength. “No!” He shook his head, trying to focus. “This is bad; we’re trapped in another world, and not a cool world like Heaven, or the Pokémon world; we’re in the My Little Pony world! This is very bad!”

“Equestria” Danny cut in.

Gabriel leered at Danny and said “what?”

Danny got up and walked towards Gabe, remembering to give him plenty of personal space, and began to lecture his friends about the setting of a little girl’s cartoon. “Now, the world isn’t called Equestria, that’s the name of the country, but still. Now I am a unicorn as you can see by the horn protruding from my brow” he tapped his horn. “Unicorns have a variety of magical abilities, the base is telekinesis, but different unicorns will have different spells based on their special talent.” Even though he was dead on he was blushing due to the nature of his topic.

“Um, teacher I have a question.” Nero said as he put a hoof in the air.

His face now completely red, Danny answered “Umm, yes Nero?”

“What do you mean special talent?” He asked.

Gabriel groaned. “How is any of this relevant?”

Danny stopped blushing, and his smile disappeared as he hung his head. “I… I just thought that because we’re here now…”

“Well we won’t be for long, so it’s pointless talking about all of this irrelevant gibberish.” Gabe interrupted.

Danny opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and slowly laid himself down, curled up and looking away from the others.

Both Nero and Gabe noticed the strange feeling they started to feel when he did that. They couldn’t explain it but it felt like there was something in the air trying to make them depressed to.

Not paying any attention to it, Nero pulled Gabriel to the side and spoke to him so that Danny wouldn’t hear them. “Listen, Gabe; I know you don’t dig any of this happy rainbow unicorn stuff, but I think that because Danny’s the expert on this…”

Gabe made a disgusted face when he heard Nero refer to Danny as an “expert” because he was hopelessly addicted to a little girl’s TV show.

“… I think we should hear him out and y’know… just give this pony thing a chance.” Nero finished.

Gabe just stared at Nero for a few seconds; after a while his eye began to twitch, and he began to give heavy, agitated breaths. “FINE” he spat at Nero, who actually took it as a personal victory. As he went over to reassure Danny he felt that weird aura again; he felt as if something was trying to make him feel sorrow, to make matters worse he could have sworn he heard a voice: A familiar voice. He took in a deep breath and faked a smile, with his hoof he nudged Danny “Hey Danny, I’m sorry about that, I’m just having a bit of a hard time taking all of this in. I didn’t mean to snap buddy.”

Slowly but surely Danny brought his head up, when Gabe saw his face he gasped in shock; when he looked into Danny’s eyes he saw that there was some sort of blue mixing with his normal brown, as if it was trying to replace it.

“So we cool?” Gabe said while smiling sheepishly.

“I… I… yes.” Danny said, still in a down mood. Gabe expected this, for some reason Danny had always been really moody; ecstatic one moment and sullen the next, he knew that all he had to do wait his depression out and he’d be perky and hyper again.

“Do you have any ideas for our next move?” Gabe asked, trying to speed up his friend’s recovery.

“W-well I was th-th, I was th-thi-thi…” Danny paused and lowered his head, ashamed that he couldn’t form the word “thinking.” “Nero should fly up to see where we are.” He forced out.

Gabriel thought that was an awful idea, but fortunately Nero intercepted his criticism by agreeing “Alright; I’m pretty sure I’ve got these bad boys worked out.” He said, flexing his wings. Before Gabe could open his mouth to object Nero took off into the sky, he did waver and stumble at times, but eventually he was going in a perfectly straight line.

Gabe sighed to himself, he decided to cut the crap and talk to Danny sincerely; a real conversation, not just trying to cut him out of his mopey-stage. “What about this show appealed to you so much?”

Danny started blushing again “Well…” He didn’t answer. For a few minutes he just sat there in deep though, his eyes moving; as if searching through different options. “I guess I could say…”

He was cut off when Nero fell on him, knocking him out cold. He casually got up and said “Town; that-a-way.” And pointed, he tried to lead his friends but the moment he took a step he kicked an unconscious Daniel. “Rise and shine Danny boy, I think we found our first stop.”

Danny groaned as he got to his hooves “that’s great buddy.”

Nero and Gabe helped stabilize him. Then Nero explained more on his find as the group started walking “The place we’re going to actually looks like a pretty cool place. I even got the name: Ponyville.”

Hearing this made Danny freeze in his tracks; he began to giggle like a madman, and fainted.

Chapter II: Moving in

Chapter II: Moving In

Each of the gang had a different reaction to walking through the mane setting of the show that many like Danny were addicted to; Nero was actually taking in all of the sights, seeing as this was pretty new to him it did actually meet his eyes well. Daniel was wide-eyed and giddy, every time the passed a noteworthy building from the show he would point it out to his friends, he made sure to keep his voice down so that nopony would accuse him of being a stalker. Gabriel was adamant in his anti-pony clause, no matter who greeted him or how warmly he always just shrugged it all off, even when Danny pointed out the Doctor, who Gabe was a huge fan of back in the human world, Gabriel just rolled his eyes and kept walking.

“Danny, where are you taking us?” A slightly-irritated Gabe asked a bouncing Danny.

“Right….” He stalled as he kept walking, scanning the buildings “here!” He announced as he arrived, the others in tow.

The three looked up and saw just where Danny had taken them, it was a building marked “Bluebook’s realty.” Gabe saw the word “realty” and put a hoof on his face before saying “Danny; please tell me you aren’t thinking of actually getting…”

“A standard 3 bedroom, 1 bath starter dwelling rent’s due the 8th.” The mare known as Bluebook summarized the dwelling she just rented out to Danny, Gabe and Nero. She then turned a lease paper for each of the three to sign.

Danny’s telekinetic magic was severely out of practice, but he managed to lift the quill to sign. “Thank you very much for understanding where we’re coming from, we’ll make sure to pay what we owe.”

“Don’t worry about nothin’, I was in the exact same pickle when I flew the coop.” Bluebook shrugged.

When the lease reached Gabriel he was hesitant; he looked to his friends, why were they so ready to just abandon their home and actually act like the rest of their lives would be here? He understood why Danny, but Nero? Didn’t they believe that they would return eventually?

Eventually Gabe sighed to himself and realized that it might not be a bad idea to have somewhere to rest before they returned to the human world. It took some doing, but he managed to sign the lease. Bluebook took the paper and put it in a file “I can understand why you’d be nervous, move-ins are always a little heavy.” She pulled out a set of keys and handed them to Nero. “Here you go, enjoy.”

As soon as they left Bluebook’s office they all looked at the keys in Nero’s hoof, they looked at them knowing they were much more than little metal sticks: they were symbols of a new beginning, a new horizon, new possibilities, and most of all they…

An extremely loud gasp brought them out of their trance; they turned around to see where it came from only to see a pink blur race off into the distance.

After a few seconds Danny realized what just happened and started laughing.

“What was that?” Nero asked.

Danny gave a smirk and said “Oh you’ll find out, don’t worry.” As he began towards the address they were given. Then he said to himself, as he has made a habit of talking to himself, “and when you do you’ll want to stay here; forEEEEEEEver.”

Chapter III: Welcome

“Epica, Karma, The Fourth Legacy, you really lucked out man.” Nero said as he inspected the shelves lining Danny’s room; somehow each of their rooms had something tailored to each of them. Nero’s room had a sunroof with open able panels so he could take off into the sky at any point, Gabe’s room had its own library that he proceeded to bury himself in, he wanted to get as much information about this place as he could that wasn’t from some giggly fanboy; and Nero was sifting through Danny’s record collection.

Danny chuckled at Nero’s comment as he broke in his new bed “This isn’t luck, this is destiny.” If there was one thing Danny was more fascinated with than ponies it was his concept of fate, that actions were pre-ordained. “This is just further proof that we were supposed to come here and start brand new lives.”

“I guess.” Nero agreed; he hated to admit it but he did like how easy everything was here, plus there was the fact that he could fly. “I wish that Gabe could enjoy it a bit more though.”

“Um, guys.” Gabriel called from down the stairs; most of the house was one story, save for Danny’s room which had its own set of stairs. “Can you come down here?”

Curious, Nero started down the stairs as Danny hopped off of the bed. When they reached the bottom they saw Gabe with a nervous expression on his face “What’s wrong buddy?” Nero asked.

“Well” Gabe began “I was studying when I wanted a drink, so I came out of my room, but before I got to the kitchen I saw that.” Gabe pointed towards the table in the living room, and more importantly the large present sitting on it.

“Where?” Nero asked jokingly “Behind the present?”

Gabe led the others toward the box before scolding Nero “No. It’s just a little off-putting that someone came in here without us knowing and put this here.”

“DEAR GOD!” Nero joked “SOMEONE GAVE US A GIFT AGAINST OUR WILL!! CALL THE POLICE!”

While the others were bickering Danny had figured out who this package was from, but not why she’d be so indirect. He started to undo the ribbon with his magic, but had his horn painfully flicked by Gabe. “Danny, can’t you take this seriously? We have no idea who this is from”

“Well what’d the tag say?” Danny retorted.

Gabe rolled his eyes at Danny’s naivety “There was no name, which worries me. All it said was “open me””

“Well I guess there’s only one thing to do.” Nero said, toying with the ribbons while flying over the box. Well out of reach of Gabe.

“Will you stop?” Gabe said, trying to swat Nero away

“Nm hm” Nero said, using his mouth to pull the ribbon off.

As soon as the ribbon unwound itself the lid flew off, covering the boys in a smokescreen. They all coughed as Nero used his wings to clear the smoke, but when he did they realized just what the present was for. When the smoke cleared the gang saw that they had somehow arrived at the building Danny knew as Twilight’s library.

Gabe and Nero were shocked by the transport and were looking in all directions, all over they saw different ponies mingling.

“Hi there!” A pink curly-haired pony said as she appeared out of nowhere “I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this party for you, and you, and you.”

“What?!” Gabe asked, startled.

“I. Am. Pinkie. Pie. What’s your name?” Pinkie asked, pointing towards each of the three.

“Gabriel”

“Michael, but everyone calls me Nero.”

When Pinkie looked to Danny she got no answer, the others then noticed that he hadn’t moved since they found themselves here, he just stared wide-eyed and grinning into the party; nopony noticing his horn glow brighter and brighter, until his eyes lit up and a huge flash covered the whole party.

Danny then snapped out of his trance as loud rock music started to play. Everypony in the room began to move in like patterns. Danny took a few steps forward and began to sing.

Everypony is here

The feast can soon begin

Vanity we celebrate

My favourite of sins

Chandeliers so grand

That heaven sees the shine

And my friend declares

Everything I look at could be mine

Pinkie Pie then walked up to his side as they began a short dance, mixing itself with the next verse.

It's a miracle

Life till now has been a waste

You have proved to me

By your hoof I'm truly graced

Unbelievable

Gold and glitter blinding me

So adorable

All these mares from my fantasies

He sang with tears in his eyes, eyeing five other ponies that seemed to stand out from the rest: a purple unicorn, a yellow pegasus, a white unicorn, a blue pegasus, and an orange earth pony.

He then appeared in between Nero and Gabe, wrapping his forelegs around them and leading them towards the center of the festivities. Gabe couldn’t help but feel something dark among all of the glee Danny was putting off.

Come with me my little ones

Let's revel for the free

Raise your glass and praise the fact

How easy life can be

Danny then threw the two into the middle of the crowd as several ponies began to circle up as he sang some more.

In the splendour of the night

I've found company

Once again I feel that life's begun

All the wrongs seem to be right

Drowned in ecstasy

Every star is like a newborn sun

Nero and Gabe were stunned as Danny held out the last note. They then realized that everypony around them began stomping their hooves against the floor making a clap-like sound. As the music grew more intense they began to pair off, some random mares even coming towards them, and they began to dance. They didn’t want to fight it, but something was very off about all of this.

After everypony stopped dancing Danny jumped on a table with a mug in hoof and began leading everypony in the final chorus.

In the splendour of the night

I've found company

Once again I feel that life's begun

All the wrongs seem to be right

Drowned in ecstasy

Every star is like a newborn sun

May the life I knew be gone

I accept the deed

But one point we have to modify

If I wish to linger on

In a state of still

Only then I'm yours the day I die

As if that performance wasn’t strange enough, after the song wound down everypony just returned to where they were before; as if nothing happened. Pinkie Pie then bounced out of the crowd and greeted the group again “Oh my gosh that was SO FUN! Next time let’s sing Nights of Aneighbia or OOH, OOH Ghost Opera! Wait…” She then eyed Danny suspiciously. “I never got your name. Tell me, tell me, tell me!” She demanded as she began bouncing uncontrollably.

“Wha…?” Danny was having difficulty taking in what he was hearing, he caught up and answered her. “I-I’m Danny, nice to meet you Pinkie Pie.”

“I know.” Pinkie nodded, prompting a chuckle from Danny. “Hey, since we just sang “A Feast For the Vain.” We should go eat! There’re cupcakes, and muffins, and… y’know what? How about I just show you.” With that she dragged a willing, but surprised Danny into the crowd.

Nero and Gabe were stunned by what happened and took a few moments for everything to sink in. After a short while Nero broke the silence “Well, see ya’”

“What?!” Gabe shot back, surprised.

“This whole party is about us getting acquainted with the people…” he paused, noticing he’d have to change his vernacular “ponies here; we should go around and introduce ourselves. So I repeat: see ya’.”

“WAIT! WE NEED TO STICK TOGETH…” but Nero was already gone. Gabe couldn’t believe it, he and his friends were brought to a party against their will, and one was dragged off into a sea of ponies; technically they had been kidnapped. Yet all Nero and Danny cared about was meeting pretty pink unicorns. He sighed and rubbed his head “Well… it can’t get any worse…”

“Well that was interesting.” A familiar voice shattered Gabriel’s wishful thinking

“Beatrice?!?” Gabriel spun around, hoping to see someone from his past. But instead he saw a purple unicorn with a pink streak going through her purple bangs, “you-you’re not… you’re not Beatrice.” Gabe said as his shoulders drooped.

The unicorn didn’t understand what she just heard, but did her best to respond. “N-no, I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight Sparkle? Gabe thought to himself and I thought Roid Rage was a dumb name. “Right, nice to meet you Twilight.” He turned and started to walk away. She sounds just like her…

“Um, hello?” Twilight interrupted Gabe’s thoughts once again. “You sorta forgot the part where you tell me your name.”

Gabe then remembered where he was and why he was there. “Oh, right…” he started, with a quick hoof to the forehead. “Um, I’m Gabe. Hey wait; what did you say was interesting?”

It took Twilight a moment to remember the reason she came over in the first place, but when she did she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. “Oh, well is that blue unicorn with the glasses a friend of yours?”

Gabe just nodded.

“I don’t know how he charmed the whole party into his little song-and-dance, but I am impressed, and I would like to learn a little bit more about it.”

Gabe pointed to where Pinkie Pie dragged Danny away and said “He’s somewhere over there, why don’t you ask him?”

Twilight began to chuckle before responding. “I saw him with Pinkie Pie, and you’ve known her for a good 4 minutes so you might be able to understand why I don’t want to get caught up in one of her rants.”

This actually did get Gabriel to give a slight chuckle. “Trust me I know how you feel.” Hanging out with Nero and Danny was hardly any different than Pinkie Pie. Gabe looked at Twilight, but more importantly who she reminded him of, and realized Nero was right about doing a little socializing; until they returned to their world of course.

“C’mon, think! Rain-Bow-Dash! You must have heard something.” A cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane was prodding Nero; apparently she didn’t like the concept of somepony not knowing who she was. “I won the best young fliers competition, helped beat Nightmare Moon and Discord. Anything?”

With a blank expression Nero sipped on his punch, and then his eyes widened as he jumped in shock “OH!” He gasped, much to Rainbow’s delight “I got nothin’.” He said, prompting Rainbow Dash to fall over.

Rainbow got up close to Nero and said “You, me, history lesson. The topic: The awesomeness of Rainbow Dash.”

“Alright I guess.” Nero agreed “just as long as there aren’t any tests, or quizzes, or projects, or notes.”

Rainbow laughed at that. “Don’t worry, if you fall behind I’ll get Scootaloo to tutor you.”

“Scoota-who?” Nero tilted his head.

“Just some friend of mah sista’s.” Nero saw an orange earth pony wearing a cowboy hat come up beside Rainbow Dash. “Mind if Ah’ cut in?” She asked Rainbow.

“Go nuts AJ.” Rainbow confirmed as she trotted off.

“Well how-dee stranger, mah name’s Applejack, and who might you be?” She said extending her hoof.

“I’m Michael, but my friends call me Nero.” He foolishly stuck his hoof out, and Applejack shook it until it was ready to fall out. “Yeah, this is going to be fun. Ow.” He said, massaging his shoulder.

Pinkie had lead Danny to the buffet table and “encouraged” the self-conscious unicorn to eat something. They had spent a fair amount of time talking about their tastes in music and baking. Right now Pinkie was leading Danny through the crowd, zipping back and forth repeating “where is she, where is she?”

Danny finished off a muffin before asking “Ok I give up, who are you looking for.”

“Oh nopony special” Pinkie started. “Just this friend of mine who I know you’ll like, but she’s a little sh… THERE SHE IS!” She yelled as she dashed into the sea of ponies.

Seeing an opportunity Danny took out a brownie he had hidden and began to munch on it. He sheepishly smiled when a grey pegasus with a blonde mane and crossed eyes caught him in the act, only to reveal a muffin she had; they toasted their pastries and continued to eat. Danny was wondering who Pinkie left to fetch; but when he heard who, he was in no way prepared.

“Um, hello.” A very soft voice said, Danny turned his head and there she stood: a crème yellow pegasus with long pink hair, it was Fluttershy, his absolute favorite pony.

Upon hearing her sweet, gentle voice Danny did everything in his power to keep himself from letting out the biggest fanboy squee imaginable. It was too much to hold in however, and he fainted.

A splash of punch to the face managed to wake Danny up with a shock.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry.” Danny looked up and saw that it was true; Fluttershy was there, talking to him.

“NO!” Danny jumped to his feet. “It’s alright, everything’s perfect.” He looked deep into Fluttershy’s eyes, love struck: silently praying he wasn’t drooling.

Nervous, Fluttershy tilted her head away, covering her face with hermane. “Oh, um, that’s good to hear?”

Danny suddenly felt something on his back; he turned his head to see Pinkie Pie standing on top of him. “See?” She started “can I pick ‘em or what?”

Fluttershy and Danny each chuckled in response, both blushing.

Gabe wandered through the party, he said hello and introduced himself to anypony who came up to him, but none of that mattered to him; what he wanted was to get his friends, get out, and get home. He was so busy looking for Danny and Nero that he didn’t see the white unicorn right in front of him; he plowed right into her, he was lucky he didn’t topple her over. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. Are you alright?”

The unicorn grunted as she recovered. After tossing her glittery purple mane she spoke “Would you please watch where you’re going? I just had my mane done.” But her attitude changed when she saw who the one who bumped into her was. “Oh, well if it isn’t our guest of honor.”

“Again; I’m sorry, I was just…”

“No worries” the unicorn interrupted. “It was bound to happen sooner or later, look around, Pinkie has this place jam-packed.”

Gabe was mortified; not because of the accident, but because he felt himself start to blush. “S-so we’re good?”

“Actually I am Rarity.” She introduced herself. “And what may I ask, is the name of our newest friend?”

Gabe shook his head “My name’s Gabe, it’s nice to meet you Rarity.”

Rarity giggled to herself before walking away and saying “I know.” Before she left she batted her eyes at Gabe, causing his face to flush red.

Gabe covered his face and groaned. “Why me?” He sighed. Although Gabriel was trying to enjoy himself, his mind was plagued with one concern of his; home. Despite the fact that they had rented a place to stay, it wasn’t their real home, this wasn’t their world. Was there any way to get home? Would saying they’re from a different world get him and his friends institutionalized? He decided to push it to the back of his mind until the party was over, but still.

Eventually the party began to wind down, ponies started to go home and in due time the gang found their way back to each other, with their new friends. “I trust y’all had a good time.” Danny opened as he was reunited with the others.

“You bet” Nero said back, grinning. “SEE YA RAINBOW DASH!” He called as the cyan pegasus waved him goodbye.

“What happened to you Gabe?” Danny asked, turning to his friend.

Gabe’s face turned red before he started to get defensive “Nothing, absolutely nothing.”

“You didn’t meet anypony cool?” Danny innocently pressed.

Gabe couldn’t find the right words, he hated lying, but he hated the concept of him liking ponies even more. Fortunately for him though, he didn’t have to answer.

“Alright boys, party’s over.” Twilight said after letting out a huge yawn. “See you later Gabe.” She waved them out.

As soon as they got out of the library, Nero and Danny began to snicker, Gabe smacked them both upside the head. “Shut up.”

“Nopony cool eh?” Nero asked with a sly tone.

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Gabe yelled as he sped off towards their apartment.

“Gabe and Twilight sitting in her tree….” Nero sang as he flew after him.

Twilight watched from her window, and got a few laughs out of it. She looked to her mess of a house; Pinkie called in quite a few favors to get Twilight to let her have her party here, the mess wasn’t too bad, it could be cleaned up. But there was something beneath the mess that weighed heavier on her thoughts; somehow Danny had charmed the half of Ponyville, and she wanted to find out how. And more importantly, why she felt like she was being watched.

Chapter IV: Catching Their Stride

Chapter IV: Catching their stride

“Where am I?” Gabe asked. He was walking through a large dark space with mist covering the ground. “Wait a minute, I know this place.”

While Gabe was thinking he saw something in front of him; he couldn’t make it out but he knew it was big, and whatever it was opened a pair of soulless, cold blue eyes and began to laugh a dark diabolical laugh.

Gabe woke with a start. He sat up in his bed and looked around his room, he sighed when he remembered that he was a pony. After letting out a huge yawn he managed to crawl out of bed and then made his way to the kitchen for breakfast.

“Hi Gabe! Bye Gabe!” An enthusiastic Danny yelled as he passed Gabe through from the kitchen to the front door.

Gabe shook his head and saw Nero at the counter munching on toast. “Should I…?” He paused.

Nero took a swig of milk before responding “Apparently He and Pinkie Pie were talking about him working at the Sugar Cube Corner bakery.”

“The giant ginger bread house across the street?” Gabe asked.

Nero nodded.

Gabe nodded took in a deep breath and sighed. “Well I guess that does make a little sense.”

There were a few minutes of silence as Gabe got the bread he needed and put it in the toaster. After a while Gabe turned around and asked “what do you think?”

Nero shrugged, looked at his food and answered “Butter in the order you plan on eating it, so it gets a chance to soak in.”

After an audible groan Gabe specified his point, getting more and more irritated. “Not about the toast! I mean what do you think about being trapped in a different world? Away from our friends, our families, our church! What do you think of that?!” He didn’t notice but he was slowly getting into Nero’s face.

A little bit nervous from Gabriel’s growing anxiety, Nero scooted himself and his breakfast down the counter. “Listen” he started. “I know being mailed across the universe was weird, I know you miss our home, I do to; but you have to admit things have been a lot…” He was lost for words.

“What are you saying?” Gabe didn’t like the direction Nero was going in.

Nero picked his hooves up and spun them, looking for the right thing to say. “I… I guess things, could be worse.”

Gabe’s eye began to twitch. The only thing that he couldn’t take more than being stuck in a world of ponies was that his friends were willing to stay there. He was getting close to going ballistic and he wasn’t doing a good job of hiding it. “ARE YOU CRAZY!!?!” He started to scream at Nero, “HOW?!? HOW COULD THIS POSSIBLY GET ANY WORSE?!?”

After he finished blowing off some steam he and Nero heard what sounded like Pinkie Pie from across the street. “Twitch-a-twitch! TWITCH-A-TWITCH!!” What followed was a loud crash and what sounded like Danny let out a loud cry of pain.

Nero and Gabe traded a few nervous glances. Nero broke the silence “Let’s…”

“He’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, he’s been through worse.”

“That was not my fault.” Gabe concluded.

Deciding moving on would be a good idea, Nero launched the last bite of toast into the air and caught it in his mouth. He made his way towards the door and promptly said “see ya’.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa” Gabe stopped Nero. “Again?” He did not like the idea of once again being alone in a town full of ponies.

Nero stopped before getting to the door and replied “Well, yeah. I’m going out job-hunting.”

Gabe just stared with a dumbstruck look on his face. “You serious?”

“C’mon man think” Nero began. “This is a great chance to start new lives, new awesome lives.”

“The only thing we should be starting is finding a way home!” Gabe snapped back. “Why does everyone here think that we’re staying here forever? All of this…” He pointed around the apartment. “All of this is temporary, it will all be gone once we leave, and so will…”

“How?” Nero interrupted.

“What?” Gabe asked.

“How exactly are we going to get back?” Nero complied.

“There is a way!!” Gabe yelled, almost on the brink of tears.

“Maybe.” Nero said with a straight face. “But until then.” On that note he left.

When Gabe got to the door he managed to see a green dot taking into the sky. He then slowly sank back into his apartment, a few seconds passed, and in a sudden fit of rage he grabbed a lamp in between his teeth and threw it against Danny’s door. After the loud crash Gabe felt really good being angry, he suddenly whipped his head around, only to realize there was nothing there. “Man” he started to himself “If I stay in this town too long I’m going to go crazy.”

Why are they so willing to settle? Gabe thought as he flipped through different books relating to Equestrian history and culture. Danny He thought as he looked up. Of course someone who’s been through what he has would want to live somewhere where everyone is so open, and kind, and cu…. THIS IS REDICULOUS! He hit himself with a book to correct his train of thoughts. He then looked at the book, he had learned nothing from it. He had studied up on the history of the land, it was useful to know, but so far no way home. He put his head on his desk and sighed: he felt helpless, alone, abandoned…

Hungry.

Gabe had been reading for so long he missed lunch. His growling stomach reminded him that brain food is no substitute for the real thing. He went to the kitchen to see what was left, when he got a much better idea.

All you gotta do is take a cup of flour

Add it to the mix,

Then you take a little something sweet not sour

Add it to the mix.

Danny and Pinkie Pie happily sang as they rhythmically swayed back and forth making baked goods. Danny would stir batter and pass it off to Pinkie, who would pour it into the trays for Danny to place into the oven.

After the timer was set Danny went to a large bowl to prepare frosting. Pinkie Pie ambushed him and hugged him saying “this. is. GREAT! It’s so cool you got the job. Now we can sing, make cupcakes, and soon I’ll get you into the pranking business.”

“It’s great for me to, thanks for putting in the good word.”

A ringing bell was the tell-tale sign of the front door opening. “I got it!” Pinkie yelled as she zipped towards the front desk. When she got to the front she saw it was her new friend Gabriel coming in. “Ohmygosh Gabe! It’s so cool to see you again! Did you hear that Danny was coming to work here? Is that why you’re here? Or do you…”

“Um Pinkie?” Gabe interrupted. “Can I get a word in?”

Pinkie started laughing when she was keeping a friend/potential customer from speaking/ ordering. “Oh, yeah. How can I help ya’?”

“Well actually, can I speak to Danny?” His stomach growled. “And I’d like a cinnamon roll for the road.”

“Okey dokey loki” Pinkie saluted right before she went back into the kitchen.

After a minute Danny came out of the back holding a bag with his magic. “Gabe!” He said, surprised. “This is…” he paused, looking for the best term. “Unexpected?”

“I was bored, needed a bite to eat. Can you put this on some sort of tab for me?” Gabe was hoping the bakers here were as generous as the realtors.

Danny chuckled. “It’s on me buddy. You wanted to talk about something?”

“Do you have a minute?” Gabe motioned towards the door.

Danny stuck his head in the kitchen and yelled “PINKIE!! I’M TAKING MY BREAK!!”

“OKAY!!!” Pinkie yelled back. “WHY ARE WE YELLING??”

Gabe and Danny made their way outside as Gabe began to eat. “You really like it here don’t you?” He asked between bites.

Danny started to blush, he spent all day in the dream millions of bronies have; but he felt like he was the only one enjoying it, and because he thought he was the only one enjoying it, that it was wrong to. “Well… I’m certainly making the most… I guess I’m just…”

A loud thunderclap interrupted him while making both Gabe and Danny Jump, Gabe made a desperate dive to save his cinnamon roll.

They looked up when they heard two sets of laughter, and a cloud that was floating mere feet from them. Soon Nero stuck his head off of the cloud and said “Hello dummies” While still laughing.

“Michael” Gabe glared.

Rainbow Dash stuck her head out right beside Nero and said “aw, c’mon. That’s a classic prank. All members of the Weather Patrol do it.”

“All members?” Danny repeated. “Does that mean?”

“Mmh hmm” Nero nodded. “I’m going to get paid to do this." He punched the cloud and a bolt of lightning came out and zapped Danny on the horn, he fell over and began twitching. Nero and Rainbow Dash resumed laughing, and laughed even harder when Gabe tried to help Danny up and received some leftover electricity.

Gabe was still glaring when he picked himself up and shook his hooves to wake them back up. His harsh expression melted however, when he saw Nero, Rainbow Dash, and even Danny begin laughing. He started to think to himself; maybe Nero was right about there not being a realistic way home, and maybe adapting to life here could be fu…

His thoughts were interrupted when his head began to hurt with an extreme pain, he cried out in pain as his entire body tensed up, he couldn’t move or even blink, it was a struggle to breathe. His friends dropped their laughter and tried to talk to him, but all he could here was the all-too familiar laughter.

Giving up so soon? A dark and familiar voice echoed in Gabriel’s mind. I understand these clowns, with no hope and no futures they were willing to give up on their old lives. But you, you had so much potential, and with me at your side your future is with the stars. Keep fighting, don’t let go of your goal, and know that we will make our escape. Friend. The last word made Gabe shudder. More maniacal laughter rattled Gabriel as the voice receded.

Gabe’s head still hurt after the voice left. The moment his body un-locked he fell to the ground, and passed out.

Chapter V: The Price of Hope

A torrent of cold water woke Gabe up screaming, his head still hurt.

“Oh my God, are you O.K.? Nero that’s enough water.” Danny shook Gabe awake and cut off the stream being used to wake him up. “What happened to you?”

Gabe shook his head, and after shaking off most of the water he replied. “I… I don’t know. Everything just locked up and I heard a voice.”

Nero jumped off of his cloud, and with a cocked brow asked “You heard a voice? I doubt that’s natural; even for ponies. Danny is that natural for ponies?”

Danny shook his head.

Gabe groaned as he got up, he didn’t want to dwell on what just happened. “I’m just tired from…” He looked around, knowing that saying he was a being from a different universe would probably get him institutionalized, he chose his words carefully. “The “move.” I just need some fresh air.” With that he turned away and began walking.

“Voices?” Nero asked Danny.

“This transition has been rougher on him more than you or I.” Danny responded. He knew Gabe wasn’t happy here, and wished he had a way to help him enjoy this place.

Nero sighed. “Hey” he remembered something. “Wasn’t he like this after Beatri…”

“Let’s not bring that back up.” Danny interrupted. “Well, my break just ended. See ya’ Nero.” He went back to Sugar Cube Corner.

Nero looked to where Gabe had walked off to, sighed, and then flew back to re-charge some thunder clouds.

The warm smiles of the ponies Gabe passed were nice, but they didn’t help his headache, or the fact that he was hearing voices. “Like I said, I’m going crazy.”

He was interrupted by a slight chuckling above him. Gabe looked up and saw an all-too familiar purple unicorn sitting on a balcony. She saw that he had noticed and apologized. “Oh, sorry. That just brings back memories.”

Gabe just stared with a cocked head, not understanding.

After a brief chuckle Twilight went back into her tree house. “Hold on, I’ll let you in.” After a few seconds the door opened. “Come in.” Twilight welcomed.

The library looked nice, even without the party decorations. Gabe couldn’t help but admire how neat it looked in less than a day. “You sure got this place picked up fast.”

“Thanks.” Twilight said “Pinkie and Spike helped out, so it was a breeze.”

Hearing that made Gabe chuckle “I can’t believe Pinkie Pie does something other than bounce around and eat sweets.”

“Hey” Twilight defended her friend. “She’s really dependable and pretty smart when you get to know her.”

After a few moments of silence Twilight, with a look of curiosity on her face, broke the silence. “Um, Gabe; when we first met you mentioned somepony. I believe her name was Beatrice?”

Gabe jumped at hearing that name. “It-it’s a long story; you wouldn’t want to hear it.”

Using her magic, Twilight pulled up two cushions. “Humor me.”

Gabe took in a deep breath, it had been a while since he re-lived this memory. “Back at my home, I fell in love. This gir…” He suddenly remembered some of the more defined points of this world’s vernacular. “Mare, this mare was perfect in every way.”

“Aw.” Twilight cooed at Gabe’s story.

“Too bad I wasn’t.” Gabe continued before letting out a heavy sigh. “I messed up, I was an idiot and she left me.”

Twilight gasped.

“I did everything to become a better person, to undo my mistake. But when I went to make it up to her…” He paused, a tear forming in his eye. “It was too late.”

Twilight put her hoof on Gabe’s shoulder and began to comfort him. “I learned that it’s never too late to make up a mistake, and if she won’t understand than she’s not a real friend.”

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!!” Gabe threw Twilight’s hoof off of his shoulder, now crying. “She was in an accident! And now I’ll never see her again!” He wiped his face, and much softer he said “I would do anything, anything in this world or the next, to see her again.”

A few moments of silence passed. Twilight was stunned and Gabe was sullen. After a while a young voice ran through the library. “Whoa, that’s heavy.” They turned around to see a small purple reptilian humanoid with a tail and mo-hawk like spines on his head.

Gabe screamed at the sight of the monster and jumped behind Twilight. “WHAT IS THAT!?”

In response to Gabriel’s freak-out, Twilight jumped in shock. “Gabe, calm down. That’s spike, he’s my number one assistant.”

“O.k.?” Gabe said slowly as he approached. “Nice to meet you Spike.” His voice still wavering a little. A shiver up his spine took his mind off of the short scaly being in front of him. “What was that?”

Twilight was still chuckling at Gabe’s first reaction to seeing a baby dragon, she realized exactly what he was talking about. “Wait, how did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Gabe asked, looking around, trying to find whatever was giving him chills.

Spike made his way towards the kitchen as he replied. “Some weird energy thingy somepony named “Danny” coated this place with.”

“I’m sorry Spike, I tried to get over the spell he used, but the fact that this place is coated in raw magic makes it too hard to resist.” Twilight defended herself. She turned her attention to Gabe. “Did Danny mention anything about the spell he used.”

“Sorry.” Gabe shook his head. He gasped in shock as he saw several books fly past him.

“Well” Twilight sighed “I guess its back to the books.”

Spike groaned. “I’ll make snacks. Gabe, you sticking around?”

After hearing the question Gabe hesitated: what did he have to gain by staying? He then looked at Twilight, and saw what Beatrice was like; he sighed to himself and said “yes.”

The sun eventually set, and the sky turned dark as the hours passed from day to night. But Gabriel didn’t care; he was enjoying his time with Twilight. Soon Twilight put her head in the book she was using and began closing and opening it repeatedly. “We’ve been through every book in this library looking for details: twice. We have nothing.”

“I suppose it’s for the best.” Gabe began, yawning. “I think it’s best if we both turn in soon.”

“Yeah.” Twilight agreed. “Besides, maybe tomorrow I can send a message to Canterlot asking for some additional books on this topic.”

“Canterlot?” Gabe asked, shocked that she had connections in the captiol of equestrian, home to the solar princesses.

“Well yeah.” Twilight said in response. “Being the pupil of the princess does have some advantages.”

Gabe was still dumbfounded. “Princess?”

“Yeah, I remember when I sent letters to her every week, but y’know; times change.” Twilight bragged.

After a few seconds of silence Gabe began giggling like a maniac and that laughing enthusiastically. He then bolted out of the library.

Spike slowly closed the door and said “I think you broke him.”

Back at their apartment: Danny rested on the couch as Nero prepared himself a sandwich. Each of them perked their heads up when they heard what they swore was Gabriel’s voice: but it was giggling. Soon enough Gabe crashed through the door, giggling like a madman. Neither Danny nor Nero had ever seen him so happy. “GUYS!!” Gabe shouted with enthusiasm. “Guess what I just found out!”

“Lightning is a great way to cook grilled cheese?” Nero guessed, only to receive awkward glances from both Gabe and Danny; he shrugged it off and took a bite from his grilled cheese sandwich.

“No” Gabe responded with an air of euphoria, his eyes filled with tears of joy. “I just learned that Twilight has connections with Princess Celestia, one of the most powerful ponies of all of Equestria!”

Danny got up and moved to the kitchen as he replied “Well, duh. That’s one of the major kicks of the show.”

Gabe started laughing; at first it was joyful giggling, but then it seemed almost dark. “Danny, maybe you don’t understand: she’s been ruling for thousands of years, she must have found evidence of different universes, like ours!”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Nero approached Gabe, hanging on every word. Neither of them heard Danny say something soft and weak.

“I’m saying that we can get Twilight to contact the princess, and we would have our ticket back home!”

“What?!” Danny said; louder than last time, but still to catch any of their attentions.

Gabe started to make his way towards the door. “C’mon guys! The sooner we explain all of this to Twilight, the sooner we get back home!” He opened the door. “Things are finally looking…”

“NO!!!!!” Danny screamed at the top of his lungs, catching the attention of both Nero and Gabriel. He was crying as he mustered out what he wanted to say. “Y-y-you can’t seriously be thinking of leaving, can you? Please Gabe; just think, maybe God wanted this for us. To start brand new lives and live them to the fullest, with nothing from our pasts slowing us down.”

Gabe just stared dumbfounded.

“This place is a new beginning. Gabe, you were so happy this afternoon, what changed?” Tears were flowing from his eyes, he had found happiness here, and would die before giving it up.

Gabe began breathing heavily, he had had it; he was sick of being a pony, sick of this town, sick of these voices, and sick of Danny. He ran up to Danny and with a hoof he beat him in the face, Danny fell back and cried in pain. “You have always been so pathetic. So content on giving up your life, is that your best excuse? Well let me let you in on a little secret Danny; no! it’s not a secret because everyone already knows, here’s the thing. YOU HAVE NO LIFE!! As far back as I’ve known you, you’ve always been a weak little bitch, always about to keel over and start crying. Whose fault do you think it is for all of those people beating on you and calling you gay? IT’S YOUR’S! Maybe if you had been a man and faced your problems instead of always running away to your little fantasy land, you might have actually had something to live for, something worth going back for. But no. Your plan is to stay in pony-land because you can’t face your problems. Looking back, this is probably why all of your old friends left you; not to protect their reputations, but because they couldn’t stand your whining! I’m really surprised you’ve had the willpower not to live up to all of your old suicide threa-AAHH!” He yelled as his hoof stepped on something sharp. He looked down to see he had cut the bottom of his hoof: on a shattered pair of glasses. He realized that those were Danny’s glasses, realizing what he had just done he looked up to the face the glasses belonged on and reeled in terror.

Danny had a black eye and was crying intensely.

Gabe panicked, he had just screamed at one of his best friends, reminding him of all of the demons he wanted to escape, he needed to think of something quick. “Dan…”

He was quickly cut off when Danny let out a loud cry of pain and a cold force flew him against the wall next to the door. When he opened his eyes he saw Danny running past him, bawling audibly. He reached his hoof out to try and stop him, to apologize.

But Danny was already gone.

“No. No, no, no, no, no!” Gabe repeated to himself as he got to his hooves; but when he got to the door, all he saw was the night sky and a blue dot getting smaller and smaller. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Nero with his mouth agape, when Nero saw that Gabe was looking at him he closed his mouth and slowly backed into the hall.

Gabe had just done something that might have cost him one, maybe two of his friends.

Now he wanted to cry.

Chapter VI: Justice

Something was very wrong. Gabe didn’t understand it; he had walked through these halls on the way to club hundreds of times, why did they seem so weird? Why was everything so hazy? Where was everyone? Wasn’t he…

“Gabe you’re here!” A familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. Gabe looked up and was surprised to see his friend Marcus.

“Marcus?” Gabe asked confused. He looked around, and realized that he had made his way to the club room in the basement. “How did I get here?” He pondered, again to be interrupted by Marcus.

“C’mon! Let’s go meet the others.” Marcus grabbed Gabe and pulled him, it actually hurt his arm.

Sure enough, each of Gabe’s old friends were there: Marcus, Amanda, Jeanne, and Nero. “Nero?” Gabe said to himself, his head began to hurt; something about this didn’t make sense, but what?

“We missed you Gabe.”

“That was awesome what you did!”

“You’re the coolest.”

His friends’ praise was just making Gabe’s head hurt more. “Wait.” He said, his voice trembling.

“I can’t wait to play you’re amazing game Gabe.”

“Will you teach me to be as cool as you?”

“STOP!” Gabe screamed. Immediately all of his friends stopped. “I… I need some air. I don’t feel good.”

“But…” Jeanne began, pulling Gabe back. Only to be thrown off.

“I said leave me alone!” Gabe was feeling a mix of scared and angry. “What’s wrong with you?”

There was nothing but silence for a few moments. Gabe turned to leave when he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks. “Gabey? What’s wrong?”

Gabe was stunned by what he just heard. “It can’t be. No one called me that except for…” He turned around and realized that the weirdest thing was yet to come. All of Gabe’s friends had parted to reveal someone Gabe never expected to see again. “Beatrice.” He concluded, dumbstruck.

It couldn’t be her, but everything matched perfectly: Her blonde hair, her blue eyes, her slender figure, her flower bracelet. Gabe wanted to believe it, but knew it was impossible. He stood in shock as Beatrice moved towards him and ran her fingers through his hair like she used to. “It’s so good to see you again.”

Soon after Beatrice started stroking Gabe’s hair, he grabbed her arm to stop her. “You’re not Beatrice.” He said.

Beatrice pulled back her hand, offended. “Of course it’s me. Don’t you remember?”

“I remember putting flowers on Beatrice’s grave.” Gabe said, glaring at the doppelganger.

“I came back.” The fake Beatrice reached out for Gabe’s hand. “I came back because I love you, and I know you love me.”

“Who are you?” Gabe asked, pulling his hand away. He began to notice that the room they were in started to look distorted somehow.

“You said you loved me.” Beatrice said, advancing towards Gabe.

Gabe began backing away, but when he reached what should have been the door he just found a solid wall.

“Gabe what’s wrong with you?” Beatrice began to tear up, and become irritated at the same time. “Why don’t you love me? You’re supposed to love me!”

“Get away from me!” Gabe yelled in fear, swinging his arm at the fake Beatrice.

Eventually the Beatrice clone became infuriated and ran forward, pinning Gabe to the wall. “I SAID LOVE…”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!!” A familiar dark voice echoed. Gabe looked to the corner that was covered in darkness where the shout came from; from it emerged someone he was amazed he forgot about. It was Danny, but he wasn’t wearing his glasses, and his eyes were glowing with an eerie icy blue. “That will suffice Beatrice.”

The pseudo Beatrice, now horrified, released his grip on Gabe and slowly retreated. After an evil chuckle the fake Danny began walking towards Gabe, every step he made was unsettling in every way. His soulless eyes never leaving Gabe’s he said “good help is so hard to find. Of course I don’t have to tell you that.” His chuckling grew into a light laugh, despite its soft volume, it was still disturbing. “Don’t you miss all of this? What would you do to have another one of these days?”

“Danny?” Gabe asked, frightened. “DANNY!” He gasped as a flood of memories rushed into his head: he remembered the machine, waking up, the party, and he jumped in shock when he saw himself raging from Danny’s point of view. “Danny” he said, dismayed, after his memories recollected. He looked at the imposter standing next to him and stated a realization. “This is a dream, I’m not really a human, I’m still in Equestria.” He sighed after the last part.

The fake Danny began his manic chuckle before he began. “A dream? This is no mere dream. But since you’ve figured it out.” His voice got even darker. “I might as well pull back the curtain,” the room began rumbling. “And show you the picture!” He began to laugh like a maniac and glow with an ominous light as the walls, floor and ceiling began to crumble.

Gabe desperately dodged, hoping not to be hit by any of the debris from the destruction of the familiar game room. He eventually fell to the ground and covered his head. When the rumbling and psychotic laughter stopped, and Gabe looked up, he reeled in horror at what he saw.

Where the dream Danny stood was now a massive demonic beast. The monster was at least 9 feet tall, with two white feathered wings, it was covered in white fur and wore tattered violet tunic from the waist down, his arms and chest were well built, and he had long spikes on his forearms. Finally; his head was that of a vicious wolf, with the same cold blue eyes. He chuckled, revealing his fangs and with the sly, dark voice that had been haunting Gabe for too long, said “hello, friend.”

Gabriel screamed in horror at what he was looking at, he tried to back away; but again found nothing but solid wall. He looked around to see he was in a large, dark circular room with a blue mist covering the ground. “Who, or wh-what are you?!”

The monster began walking towards Gabe with a steady stride, when the torn cloth around his legs parted with each step it was revealed that his legs were lupine as well. When he reached Gabe he offered him a clawed hand to help him up. After another chuckle he said “My name” he paused as a horribly twisted grin came across his face. “Is Justice. And I want to help you.”

Gabe did nothing but push himself further against the wall. “Y-you.” He stammered “Y-you’re the voice I’ve been hearing.”

Realizing Gabriel wasn’t interested in his kindness; Justice put his hand away and responded “true, I have been trying to get in contact with you, but until now I’ve had little success.”

“What are you?” Gabe asked, still frightened. “Are you some monster from this world?”

“In a way.” Justice replied. “Perhaps I should start at the beginning.” For effect, he snapped his fingers and the scene changed, not with an earthquake like last time, but everything just spun around and during the spin became their destination.

What Gabe saw made his chest ache; it was Danny, on the ground, holding his gut as an army of other students stood around laughing at him. This was before he got glasses, so there was nothing keeping his tears from falling straight to the ground.

The image continued, but the echoing sound of mocking laughter was muted. Justice stepped in, laughing, and began his story. “Daniel has always been pathetic. So naïve, so full of moronic ideals, thought that everybody would love him because he was this young, well-spirited kid. It was fun to watch his dream burn.” On cue the whole scene burst into flames for the next transition. “Do you know how it feels to watch as all of the ideals you held in your heart are destroyed by the heartlessness of others? What it feels like to have your world of fantasy and wild hopes taken away from you? To feel alone in the world without any one to turn to?”

The flames subsided and Gabriel and Justice were right outside a small washroom with Danny staring into a large mirror with a dark scowl on his face. “Daniel does” Justice whispered into Gabe’s ear. “And he knows what it means to feel pain.”

Danny began to breathe shallowly and convulse slightly, shrugging his shoulders and clenching his fists.

“He knows what it’s like to lose what means most to him.” Justice continued. “He knows what it means to be alone in a cold, dark world.”

Danny grabbed his head and yelled in pain. “He knows that when you experience all of that, it drives you insane!” Justice continued, his voice becoming more and more excited from watching Danny’s predicament.

With anger in his eyes, Danny glared at the reflection of himself with his hand tightly balled into a fist. “And it gives you a lust for revenge!” Justice concluded as Danny threw his fist foreword at the mirror.

A few moments of silence passed before Danny pulled his fist away from the undamaged mirror, collapsed onto the sink and began to sob.

Gabe’s heart sunk as he watched Danny collapse, he had been through so much, and Gabe respected none of that. Justice’s snickering pulled Gabe out of his thoughts.

“It’s too bad that he was far too weak to exact the vengeance he desired.”

Gabe looked on as a blue mist started to come off of the crying Danny.

“And if he couldn’t express his anger...” Justice started as the mist began to take shape.

Gabe watched as Danny cringed in pain as more and more mist came out of his back and took form. The torso took shape, two arms spread themselves wide, a canine head solidified and two huge wings ripped from its back. The cloud solidified to form Justice, his eyes flashed as he sneered at Gabriel before he finished his sentence. “He made something that could.” The entire location changed again as once again Justice laughed like a psychopath. But instead of fire or earthquakes, everything began to melt away, most noticeably when the floor beneath Danny turned into a semi-liquid state and Danny sunk through.

Gabe dove down to try to help the dream Danny, but when he reached the floor he found himself back in the room Justice introduced himself in. He turned around and saw Justice; he was sitting in an elaborate throne in the center of the room. “You” Gabe started. “Y-you’re the darkness in Danny’s heart?”

“Correct my friend.” Justice started with a smirk. “All of his anger, hatred, jealousy and pride; he thought that by focusing these emotions into me, he would be immune to their influence.” He chuckled again before getting off of his throne. “The best laid plans; amirite? At first I was just a creature of his imagination, but the unique energy of this world has given me a true means of existence.”

Gabe just stared, still in shock over what was happening. “But…” He began. “You said you tried to contact me before, what was so different about…? Oh.” He answered his own question.

Justice’s laugh added insult to injury. “Indeed. By reminding him of his old pains, you awoke the darkness in his heart; and in this special case, brought it back from the edge of oblivion.”

“Well that’s… just… perfect.” Gabe said, struggling not to swear; dismayed by the fact that his actions had done far more damage than he could have anticipated. A few moments passed, he looked up at the monster and after shaking his head asked. “What do you want?”

“I want what my name suggests.” Justice replied immediately. “I want justice. I want to make humanity suffer for their sins. To make them pay for their greed and arrogance. But first things first…” He paused, both eyes on Gabriel. “I need to get out of here.”

Gabe’s eyes shifted back and forth, not quite sure what Justice meant. “…And where is…? Um, what?”

“Although I have separated from Danny’s mental manipulation, I am still confined to the inner reaches of the darkness of his mind.” Justice answered. “So I need you to help release me.”

Gabe was thinking about what Justice was saying, putting the pieces together. “I don’t like where this is going.”

Justice started laughing at Gabriel, he stopped before continuing. “It’ll be easy. Just do what you did this evening, make Danny burn. As he suffers, he will grow weak, and I will become stronger. Soon with enough of it I will be free.”

Gabe just scoffed at Justice; hurting Danny was the second biggest mistake he had ever made, and seeing that it unleashed a demon did nothing to help. Now this freak wanted him to do it again, consciously. “Why would I help you?! You just told me you want to hurt people for no reason! Give me one good reason I’d ever want to do anything for you.”

Justice just stared at Gabe; soon a fanged grin creeped across his face, and he licked his lips with a long pointed tongue. “Because I have a way to give you what you want more than anything: I can get you home.”

Those five words made Gabriel stop in his tracks. He then shook his head, realizing he was dealing with a monster that was nothing more than hatred and rage incarnate. “How can I trust you?” Gabe accused.

“I have been nothing but brutally honest so far, why would I lie now?” Justice snapped back.

“How would you return us? Did Danny imagine you had the power to warp between worlds?” Gabe continued his interrogation.

Justice tsk’ed his teeth as he wagged his finger back and forth. “No, no, no. That kind of information carries a heavy cost.” He tapped his finger against his chin. “Hmm. As does freedom, perhaps we could trade these two items as they are of equal value.”

Gabe let out a sigh, looked to the ground and shook his head. His choice was clear. “No.” He said flatly. “I’m not going to abuse my friend so that you can murder innocent people! So the answer is NO!”

Not surprised by the response, Justice just inspected his claws and sighed. “I see” he began “you just don’t understand the stakes.”

Now Gabe was scared, he had expected a much bigger reaction from Justice. He imagined something made of purified cruelty would react with a bit more anger, what was Justice really thinking? “S-stakes?” He stuttered.

Justice looked up; showing Gabe his twisted smile and horrifying blue eyes. Suddenly he was gone and Gabe heard “you see my friend” Gabe looked around desperately, but saw nothing. But suddenly from right behind him came Justice’s voice again “if you don’t side with me.” Gabe suddenly felt what must have been Justice’s clawed hand grabbing the back of his neck, he felt himself be lifted into the air, Gabe’s struggles were useless against Justice’s demonic grip. He stopped struggling for long enough for Justice to finish his thought. “You will remain a pony” a short pause. “FOREVER!!”

At that word Gabe screamed at the top of his lungs as his whole body was filled with excruciating pain, he had felt this pain before and realized exactly what Justice was doing to him: Justice was polymorphing him into a pony. As his bones contracted to a smaller frame and his limbs all turned to equine legs, tears of pain came rolling from Gabe’s eyes as even they began to change. Feeling how painful this transformation was Gabe realized why he had blacked out the last time; and that since Justice controlled this dream world, would not grant Gabe that privilege. When the nightmarish transformation ended Gabe just whimpered as he was dropped to the ground.

If Gabe had the strength to move he would have jumped when Justice’s wolf-like foot stomped in front of him. He saw Justice reach down and place an extremely sharp claw under his chin and lifted up his head to force him to look into his eyes. “I know you will accept my offer because you’re a human. And I know that humans will do anything, especially if it means hurting others, to get what they want.” Justice took his hand away, causing Gabe’s head to hit the ground with a thud.

Gabe realized that the ground beneath him was slowly melting, and that he was sinking through it. With what little strength he had he started to struggle, and saw Justice take his seat back on his throne, snickering at Gabe’s predicament. “I know what’s in your heart boy.” He spat the last word. “Nothing but the profound, you claim to be faithful and pure-hearted but in you is what’s in all humans: anger, greed, and fraud.”

At the last word, Gabe was finally pulled into the semi-liquid floor. He was surrounded by nothing but darkness as Justice’s horrifying laugh echoed from every direction.

Gabe screamed as he awoke, immediately sitting up in his bed, panting and covered in sweat. He looked outside at the night sky, and after catching his breath said “what have I done?”

Chapter VII: Silently We Wander

Danny had no idea where he was, and he didn’t care. All Danny knew is that he hadn’t stopped moving, or crying, ever since he ran away from his apartment in Ponyville. All his life he was beaten around by others, for so long he had no one to turn to; even when he thought he had found a circle of friends it was all just a cruel trap set up by its founder.

Discovering My Little Pony hurt him as much as it gave him hope; it hurt him because he feared that these perfect friendships were something that would only be in a scripted setting, never to be known in reality. Pity that even when My Little Pony was his reality he still couldn’t experience the perfect friendship he saw every time he turned on his new favorite show.

Usually when he felt bad he wanted to stay depressed, because he knew that usually there was no point in expressing joy or hope, because he knew how stupid it made him look. But here he did truly want to feel good, but he couldn’t. He found what he thought would be paradise; only to see that Gabe was right, he could never escape his problems.

Too weak to carry on he fell over, he tried to get up but couldn’t. He just sighed and dropped his head to the ground. He felt worse than he had ever before; and as he closed his eyes he wished that either this would be the last time he felt this kind of pain, or that this would be the last time he would ever close them.

Danny’s eyes slowly flittered open as the sun’s light became too much to ignore. He turned over and wrapped his hooves around the closest spare pillow and tried to go back to sleep. It took Danny a few seconds to realize he was in a bed as opposed to a random spot in the equestrian wilderness. His eyes tore open as he jumped in shock screaming, unfortunately his hoof got tangled in one of the sheets and he fell onto the floor. “Ow” escaped his lips softly as he rubbed his head, slowly getting to his hooves.

He began to look around; the room he was in was vaguely familiar. No; he knew this room perfectly, the birdhouses hanging from the ceiling, the flowers decorating the mantle over the mini-fireplace, the butterfly bedspread. He was in Fluttershy’s house.

Suddenly the door flew open and Fluttershy came through, with a taste of panic she yelled “OHMYGOSH! WHAT’S WRONG?! ARE YOU O.K.?!”

Having been snapped out of the shock of realizing he was actually in his favorite pony’s home by that very pony’s frantic outburst Danny screamed. “AHH!”

Frightened by having another pony scream in her face Fluttershy screamed in shock. “AHHH!”

“AHH!”

“WAIT!” Danny yelled, breaking the cycle. “Why am I in your house?”

Fluttershy shook her head, brushing of her shock and gasped “oh” before explaining. “When I went to give my little friends breakfast and I this little swallowtail was acting weird.” Fluttershy gave a beckoning motion and an above-average sized swallowtail butterfly flew in and landed on Danny’s nose.

Danny was ecstatic to see this one little butterfly for some reason. “I can’t believe it! You followed me all the way here?”

Fluttershy giggled at the scene before she continued. “This little friend of yours got my attention and led me out to the woods where I found you unconscious with a black eye; what happened?”

Danny looked away; he didn’t want to talk about what he had been through. He had never been very good about vocalizing his problems, mostly because whenever he did try to hatch things out with someone he thought he could trust he would be quickly shot down and berated further. He didn’t understand why he was having trouble talking to Fluttershy though, he knew that there was no way she’d laugh at him or blame him. He wanted more than anything to be able to talk to her, but something deep in his mind was keeping his mouth shut.

He was brought out of his train of thought when he realized Fluttershy was giving him a hug. Danny began to tear up as he returned the hug.

“It’s O.K. Danny” Fluttershy said, comforting Danny. “I’m here for you.”

“I just don’t want to be alone anymore.” Danny said in between sobs.

Fluttershy was a bit confused about what Danny meant. “Anymore? But you have your friends; Michael and Gabriel seem like great friends.”

“It’s not about that.” Danny retorted. “It’s about the fact that I’ve never had anypony I could really talk to about the things I felt; the fact that even amongst ponies that said they were my friends I was still alone, a freak among nerds.”

Slowly but surely Fluttershy understood where Danny’s pain came from; why at the party he was so reserved and self-conscious. He was scared, he didn’t want to look bad; but because of what he must have been through he was worried anything he did would look bad. She thought about her own past; about how when she fell nopony supported her, and so not to fall she never tried to fly. Looks like pinkie really knew what she was talking about that night. “Thank you” she said softly to herself.

“For what?” Danny asked.

Fluttershy didn’t know she said that out loud, so she improvised. “For being able to confide in me.”

Eventually the two had to cut off their embrace; secretly Danny wanted to steal a kiss from Fluttershy, but thought it would be a bit inappropriate. Fluttershy then made her way to the dresser and grabbed a small first aid kit. “As much as I appreciate your honesty, that doesn’t explain why you were alone in the woods with a black eye.” She took out a cotton ball, put some medicine on it and gently dabbed it on Danny’s bruise.

A light sigh escaped Danny; as much as Gabe hurt him, he didn’t want to throw him under the carriage. “Coming here was my escape; escape from my past, escape from those who wanted to hurt me. I was lucky that Gabe and Nero decided to come with me. But somepony from where I used to live decide he wanted one last laugh.”

“That’s horrible!” Fluttershy cried. “Who was it?! I’ll tear ‘em to shreds!”

Fortunately for Danny this was “Putting Your Hoof Down” Flutterrage and not “Best Night Ever” Flutterrage, so he was less frightened. “That won’t be necessary” Danny defended his imaginary assailant. “He’s gone and soon his memories will be; that was my past, and this” he slowed down, gazing into Fluttershy’s eyes again. “This is my future.”

“Let’s make it a bright one.” Fluttershy said as she held Danny’s hoof and gazed lovingly into his eyes as well.

Danny blushed as he thought about his next move. Eventually he decided to do the right thing. “Let’s” he said as he pulled his hoof away slowly. “How about as payment for your kindness I make us some breakfast?” He offered.

“O…O.K.” Fluttershy accepted his offer.

Danny then nodded his head and then left, the door slowly closed after he left.

“Shoot!” Fluttershy said to herself after the door shut. “Oh well, maybe next time.” She invited the butterfly to rest upon her mane as she went downstairs.

Chapter VIII: Hide and Seek

“Last one” Nero said to himself as he popped the last cloud from his division. The agenda called for clear skies, usually the easiest weather to achieve; by extent leaving the weather patrol with plenty of down time. As much as Nero loved goofing off, there was something important to take care of.

Finding Danny.

As soon as his sector was completely clear he immediately dashed off in the direction he last saw Danny go. Nero knew he had to find Danny and get him and Gabe to make up; not just for Danny, but for Gabe. Ever since what happened last night Gabe’s been depressed, and when he saw him this morning was super stressed out for some reason. Unfortunately a new friend was about to get in his way.

“Sweet moves Nero; I’m starting to wonder if you’re trying to one-up me.” Rainbow Dash congratulated post- hovering in Nero’s path.

Nero gasped in shock as he had to “grind” to a halt. He chuckled before trying to excuse himself “heh, yeah thanks RD, but if you don’t mind I have to get around.”

As Nero tried to fly past Rainbow Dash she quickly moved back in front of him. “What’s the rush? Got a hot date?” Rainbow teased.

“Please” Nero began to plead. “It doesn’t concern you.”

Nero tried to fly around again but Rainbow quickly got in his way again, several attempts by Nero later he just took off in the other direction, followed closely behind by Rainbow Dash.

In the skies above Ponyville a green and black streak was followed closely behind by a rainbow colored one; unfortunately for the green streak the rainbow one was gaining fast. Nero was aware that he had no hope of outflying the pony who proclaimed herself the fastest flyer in Equestria, with good reason, but as any of his friends knows; Nero never gives up.

When Rainbow almost reached Nero he resorted to quickly ducking down, falling towards the surface while Dash sped ahead. After Nero reached the ground he ran on hoof through the marked; he tried to pass under as many tents and overhangs, as well as pas through as many crowds as he could.

“Hey!” An irritated cyan pegasus yelled as she soared in circles over the market “that’s cheating!”

Nero chuckled to himself as he hid under a lime stand; as much as he trusted Rainbow Dash he didn’t want her involved, this was an issue in between Danny and Gabe. As for the concept of him “cheating” he always enjoyed changing the game ever-so slightly to his favor, he was glad that this time it was slightly justified. Right now Nero was trying to find a way to dodge Dash, his plotting was interrupted by an all-too familiar voice.

“Hey” Rainbow Dash whispered. “Who’re we hiding from?”

Nero screamed as he immediately launched himself into the air; toppling the lime stand and angering the lime salescolt. Once again it wasn’t long before Rainbow Dash closed the distance. She pulled up beside Nero and yelled “c’mon! What’s the big deal?!”

“It’s nothing!” Nero screamed as the duo wove in and out of alleys and around buildings. “Leave me alone!”

Rainbow Dash had had enough, she decided that this game had gone on long enough. With one push she latched on to Nero and wrapped herself around his torso, disabling his wings. As they tumbled towards the ground Rainbow caused them to start rolling. After they had landed and lost all of their momentum Rainbow Dash pinned Nero to the ground and started “look, I don’t know what’s going on but if it means risking your life and using limes as camouflage, then I think it’s a big deal. Something happened, what?”

“Look” Nero responded. “Something bad happened and I need to find Danny.” The last thing Nero wanted to do was throw Gabe under the bus; he felt bad enough, and didn’t need anything else bringing him down.

“That’s it?” Rainbow Dash helped Nero up just to shove him. “I wasted my best moves and peeked under 7 carts for that?”

Nero was surprised he didn’t expect this reaction. “It’s kinda personal what happened so I didn’t want anyo- pony getting involved.”

Rainbow looked away and nodded a little, she decided she’d be able to respect that; but then something caught her eye and she tried to withhold a snicker. “Tell ya’ what Nero, I’ll help you find Danny boy, and then I’ll scram. Sound good?”

“Ok” Nero thought that sounded reasonable and a second set of eyes would help.

Rainbow pointed her hoof and said “found ‘m”

Sure enough when Nero turned round he saw Danny, he was walking with the crème pegasus from the party; Flutterbug? He had forgotten her name. “DANNY!” He was excited to see him again, so excited he dashed forward and plowed into him.

“Oh fu-“was Danny’s short reaction to Nero’s flying tackle hug attack. He replied to this with a light chuckle and patted Nero on the back. “I take it you missed me.”

“Gabe and I were just scared, after…” He looked in between Butterfly and Rainbow Dash. “What happened.” He looked to Rainbow “Ok; remember our deal, see ya’”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and flew off.

“Hey Fluttershy…” Danny started, only to be interrupted by Nero.

“FLUTTERSHY!! That was her name!” He smacked his forehead with his hoof.

Danny and Fluttershy just watched and shook that outburst off. “Um” Danny continued. “Yeah, Fluttershy, thanks for the help. But can I have a moment to catch up with Nero?”

“Ok” Fluttershy replied. “I need to buy some bird seed anyway. Bye Danny.” Deciding to go out on a limb, kissed Danny on the cheek before trotting off.

After Danny was done blushing to death, Nero grabbed him and said “let’s go make things right.” As he lead him back to their apartment.

chapter IX: Amends

Chapter IX: Amends

Gabe reluctantly looked up into the mirror, and sure enough he saw himself as a human; he couldn’t help but lift his hoof, and see his human reflection lift the same hand, and like the last time reached out and touched it. Unlike the last times however the moment he touched the image of him turned into the psychotic laughing image of Justice; forcing Gabriel to pull away in shock, and then collapse on the sink and begin crying.

Gabe felt terrible. He had hurt a friend who had been through too much already, he alienated himself in front of the most trusting person he had ever known, and apparently managed to allow a hideous demonic creature to revive from the brink of oblivion. His week had gone from bad, to worse, to better and back to bad. He wanted to fix this but didn’t know how. What if apologizing to Danny wasn’t enough? What if just seeing him made his condition worse? He wasn’t even sure if this Justice thing was 100% real, but he was too Christian to let some wolf-headed maniac be his only reason for making up his wrongdoings to a friend.

That’s when Gabe knew what he had to do; he dashed out of the bathroom and skidded through the living room. He wasn’t going to overthink it, he was going to find Danny and set things right if it was the death of him. He grabbed the knob, threw the door open and bolted through; nothing would stop him from setting things right.

Gabe’s eyes fluttered open as his living room came into view, he didn’t know why but he had a pounding headache. He muttered “wha…” as he contemplated how this happened, soon enough he got his answer.

“Feeling better?” He heard Danny ask from beside him.

Gabe looked up and sure enough it was Danny, with Pinkie Pie-like speeds he leapt up and threw his arms around Danny; sobbing a little. “Danny! I’m so glad you’re back! What happened?”

“Before or after you charged out of the front door like a bull and knocked both of you out cold?” Nero joked as he put some ice in a plastic bag; he walked over and tossed it to Gabe.

Gabe rolled his eyes as he pressed the bag against his head. “Before.”

This prompted Nero to begin laughing; the blushing Danny simply pushed him down. Unfortunately for him that didn’t keep him from laughing. “Well, after a nice romp through the… wherever, Fluttershy fixed me up and helped me back here.”

Gabe was relieved to hear Danny was O.K., something the clicked in his mind. “Fix… OH!” He ran off to his room; he came back with a small black case in his mouth, he tossed it to Danny who caught it with his magic. Danny opened the case and saw it was his glasses, in one piece. “I got Rarity to fix them.” Gabe explained. “And it looks like your eye is doing better, so I have 2 out of three down.”

Danny slipped the glasses on and shook his head to clear his mane out of his face. He sighed before he began “as you know; I never forgave Lars, Nate, or even Noah for the way they treated me. The reason being that they never seemed to regret what they did; but from what Nero told me you truly feel sorry for what happened, and because of that I forgive you.”

In a twist of events as Danny was preparing to brohoof Gabe to seal the deal he felt Gabe wrap himself around him, sobbing. When Danny saw this he started to cry to; never once had anyone who hurt him do anything to reconcile. Before long Danny, in tears, hugged Gabe back.

Even Nero decided he wanted to join the fun, and with that all three friends had embraced one another, the wounds of yesterday healed and nothing but a bright future on their minds.

“What a load of crap!” Justice’s voice roared as an apple smashed into a large screen that showed the image of the three reconciling. The beast was sitting in his throne room, watching everything transpire. He picked another apple and held it against his forehead. “Oh well” he said to himself, “it’s not my fault if Gabriel wants to keep lying to himself. I just need the right tool to allow the real Gabriel to come through.” As if to demonstrate to an imaginary audience he used his clawed finger to peel the ripe red apple in his fingers to reveal that the rotten and malformed inside. He then turned the apple around and started carving into it. “And I know just how to do that.” He started laughing as he examined his work, the eight-pointed star he had carved into the apple.

Chapter X: Study

“Well that is quite the story, and Fluttershy and Gabe did back you up. But you do know you’re only 8 minutes late right?” The yellow baker pony Carrot Cake replied to Danny’s excuse for coming in late. “You take this job way too seriously; this is a bakery, not the Royal Bank.” He chuckled.

“Thank you sir, understood.” Danny nodded. He took jobs very seriously.

Pinkie Pie listened in on Danny’s story and after Mr. Cake walked out of the room she walked up to him and started up conversation. “I can’t believe some meany-pants came here just to bully you, who was it anyway?”

“Doesn’t matter now, he’s gone.” Danny replied. He was nervous; the last the he wanted to do was get Gabe in trouble, but he hated having to keep lying to all of his newest friends.

“I guess I understand.” Pinkie said, much to Danny’s surprise.

“Wait, what?” He asked, confused.

Pinkie was happy to explain, mostly because she loved to talk. “Well a while ago this meany-mean griffon who was mean and nasty and a bully but after everything it didn’t matter because she was just scared about losing her friend, but then she lost her friend and left and we all forgot about it.”

Danny was starting to understand why Gabe was always cross with him. He knew exactly what Pinkie was talking about, but if he didn’t because of the show he would have been lost in her words. Deciding that it would be best to leave it at that, Danny nodded in conformation “exactly.”

“Great!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “Now let’s get baking. We need 4 vanilla cupcakes, 1 and a half red velvet cakes, and 9 sugar cookies.”

“That’s an unusual order.” Danny noticed while gathering the necessary tins.

“Oh, it’s not an order.” Pinkie replied, causing Danny to tilt his head like a dog listening to the Indiana Jones theme being played on a saxophone. “That’s to cover all the sweets I ate last night before the Cakes notice.”

The two laughed at that before working to hide Pinkie’s gluttony.

Twilight heard a knock on her door and pulled herself away from her work to answer it. “Yes? WHOA!” She responded to opening the door and being greeted by a Gabriel, with a blooded bandage on his neck. “What happened?”

“Let me put it to you this way, when Rarity says “Don’t move” DON’T MOVE!” Gabe joked in response.

Twilight held back a snicker and asked “Why were you helping Rarity?”

“Long story.” Gabe gave a brief answer. “So what have you been up to?”

Twilight nervously chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “Oh, nothing special.”

“She’s been studying that stupid “Danny” guy’s magic all night.” Spike called from on top of a ladder. “Twilight I thought you learned about this with that whole time travel mess.”

“Time. Travel. Mess?” Gabe gaped at Twilight.

“Long story.” Twilight mimicked Gabe. “Maybe I do need a break.” Twilight’s tune changed from embarrassed to fatigue.

Gabe chuckled and made for the kitchen. “I’ll grab us a snack.” And with that he left.

Gabe put some water on for tea when he heard a voice that made his blood run cold. “How sweet, you certainly aim to impress don’t you Gabriel?”

Hoping it wasn’t true Gabe turned around and saw exactly what he was afraid of; Justice. After seeing this he screamed and backed against the stove.

Twilight stuck her head in and frantically asked “What’s wrong?!”

Gabe looked back between the two before he realized that Twilight couldn’t see Justice. He panicked and replied “I… I burned myself, no big deal.”

“OK” Twilight gave Gabe a quizzical look before going back into the main room of the library.

Gabe closed the door and turned to Justice. “What are you doing here?! You said you were trapped in Danny’s mind!”

“And I am” Justice sneered as he faded through the wall behind him. Moments later Gabe turned around to see Justice continue as he came up through the stove. “But what was it that has your love so fascinated?”

Gabe’s grey face turned red when Justice referred to Twilight as his love, but he shook that off when he answered him. “She said Danny’s magic was coating the area.” Gabe’s eyes widened when he came to a conclusion “does that mean that…?”

“You are the smart one aren’t you?” Justice interrupted. “The magical gift that Danny has allows him to branch his mind out and connect it with the hearts and minds of others, but in the process extends the width of my prison.”

“That explains it; Twilight said that it wasn’t a mind control spell, because Danny wasn’t controlling anypony, he was just making it so they thought like he did.”

Justice began to laugh.

“What’s so funny? I thought that’s how it worked.” Gabe was half curious, and half intimidated.

With a sinister grin Justice Replied “you said “anypony”.”

Gabe just stared with his head cocked to the side until he put together exactly what Justice meant. “I-I-I meant anybody!”

“Interesting” Justice continued to sneer “You continue to lie to yourself, as well as your friends. You claim to hate it here; and yet you conform to its ways and engage romantically with its inhabitants.”

Gabe hated having this thing pry his mind, and got defensive. “It’s not like that! It’s… It’s…”

“It’s like what?” Justice asked mockingly. “I’m all ears.”

Gabe just stared, his tongue caught.

Justice began to laugh “come now, I thought that what mattered to you most was getting home. Does doing favors for meaningless friends advance your brilliant plan? Don’t just stare at me boy, explain.”

Gabe couldn’t say anything, he was caught. He knew that Justice was right, and nothing he could say would change that. Either he spoke and had his words turned against him, or not speak and be mocked for being unable to form a comeback. A sinister chuckle from Justice brought him out of his trance. Gabe just glared at the beast.

“I’ll give you more time to think it over.” Justice said as he turned away from Gabe. “In the meantime keep in mind that what I said about Daniel’s magic was 100% legitimate. Do what you will with that knowledge.” He looked back and chuckled. “I’m sure someone as smart as you will put it to good use.” He started to laugh as the teapot began whistling.

Gabe was shocked by the teapot and looked to it after he jumped, but when he looked back Justice had vanished: however his laughter had not. He put his hoof to his forehead and groaned, before realizing that there was a teapot whistling itself blue 2 feet from him.

“This is exactly what I needed.” Twilight sighed as she drank down her tea. “I don’t know why I’m obsessing with this. It can handle not knowing something, just not when it’s in my house 24/7: I swear I’ve been hearing that song in my dreams.”

Spike started laughing at Twilight’s last statement. “What dreams?” He said with a mouthful of amethyst. “You haven’t slept in two days.”

“I pass out from time to time.” Twilight said smugly.

Spike and Gabe looked at each other, and began laughing.

Do what you will, put it to good use. Justice’s words echoed, causing Gabe to stop laughing. He could tell Twilight, but why did Justice tell him? Was it so that he would trust him? Or was it some odd scheme of his?

Twilight noticed that Gabe was stressing over something and put her hoof on his. “Is something wrong?”

At that moment Gabe’s train of thoughts was broken, but more importantly his mind was made up. “I was just thinking about this whole spell thing.”

“What about it?” Twilight asked, secretly bubbling enthusiasm.

“I was just remembering something like this happening back home, and how it worked.” Gabe replied.

Suddenly a notebook and quill began hovering in front of Twilight as her eyes grew to the size of saucers.

“I don’t remember all of the details but it involved something about the user spreading their way of thinking and allowing it to influence others.” Gabe explained somewhat sheeply, afraid that this would sound nonsensical, his fears were being confirmed when Twilight just stared at him blankly.

Just as Gabe was thinking that Justice played him like a banjo Twilight grabbed his face and began talking his ear of in excitement. “Ohmygoshthatmakesperfectsenseit’sjustlikeStarSwirltheBearded’stheoryofmentalexpansionempathy! Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” She quieted down and let out a huge sigh of relief, and blushed at the fact that she just became Pinkie Pie with a horn. “I mean; you were a big help. Now that I know what I’m dealing with I can better break it down to its base magical roots. Thank you.” She looked deep into Gabe’s eyes.

Not expecting such a reaction Gabe just chuckled and said “no problem, I’m always happy to help.” He met Twilight’s gaze. They just sat there, their eyes locked for what could have been eternity.

“UGHH!” Spike groaned after he had had enough of the two staring at each other. “Are you two gonna kiss or memorize each other’s eye colors?”

That made the two snap out of their romantic staring contest and blush cherry red. “I’m so sorry” Twilight started. “Spike’s been a little cranky ever since he got that bucket stuck on his head.” Her horn began to glow.

“Wha…?” Spike was confused. “I never got a…” He was interrupted when a bucket glowing with a pink aura slammed on his head. “HEY!” His voice echoed from inside the impromptu helmet.

“Well I should be going anyway.” Gabe said.

“I should have all of this mess sorted out by tomorrow.” Twilight responded. “Maybe you could stop by to see the finished product” she started blushing again. “And I’ll try to get rid of Spike.”

“I can hear you! OW!” Spike quipped, only to have a wooden spoon smack the bucket.

“Until next time” Gabe excused himself.

“I’ll be waiting, Gabey.” Twilight said her farewell; the last word causing Gabe to almost trip on himself, but soon pick himself up and walk out with a nervous smile on his face.

After Gabe got a fair distance away from Twilight’s house he, Twilight, and Justice all said the same thing in unison. “Could this day get any more perfect?”

Chapter XI: King Takes Bishop

“Gabe, this is the greatest date ever.” A light-skinned girl with purple bangs said as she held Gabe’s hands and took in the sights. Currently she and Gabriel were riding a gondola down a canal in Venice with a lovely picnic spread in between them. The buildings surrounding the canal had beautiful lights decorating them, and their reflection on the water was awe inspiring.

Gabe took the girl’s hands in her own and replied “you know I would do anything to make you happy right?”

“And that’s why I love you.” The girl responded as she embraced Gabe and gently nuzzled him “Gabey.” She finished. That’s when she noticed a change in Gabe’s behavior.

Gabe heartlessly pushed his lover away, and then stood up on the boat and at the top of his lungs yelled “JUSTICE!” He started turning in every direction. “Where are you?! I’m sick of your mind games!”

Sure enough the ice-cold voice ran through the air. “You’re no fun Gabriel.” Justice had appeared at the bow of the gondola and took the place of the rower.

Gabe just glared.

“Isn’t this what you want Gabriel?” Justice asked; motioning towards the surroundings, and then the girl. “And the best part is that it’s only a fragment of what I offer, I can make you the king of this world; after I’m done with it of course.”

“I don’t care about what you offer” Gabe snapped back “I just want you to leave me alone!”

Justice just chuckled and shook his head. “Humans” he began “always thinking about what they want; or more precisely, what they think they want.”

Gabe was somewhat taken back by this. “What do you mean?”

“I am mostly referring to the fact that you continue to lie: lie to your friends and worse yet lie to yourself.”

“Wrong.” Gabe was offended by Justice’s last quip and wouldn’t take it lying down. “I don’t lie. Not because I’m afraid of the consequences, but because I don’t need to lie to get ahead! I have what I have and I will continue to get what I want by playing it strait. You claim to have figured out humanity, but you only see its dark side because that’s all you want to see; to justify your anger and hatred. And that is why I will never help you!”

Justice just laughed. After he finished he countered Gabe’s speech with his own. “Can you see me?”

“See you?” That remark confused Gabe more than anything Danny or Pinkie Pie could say any day.

“From on top your high horse of course! You don’t care about right or wrong, you just want to make yourself look noble; or is it not a matter of looking the part? Perhaps you’re trying to feel noble, like you’re above the influence of the darkness of the real world.”

“I’m not trying to prove anything Justice, not to my friends or to myself?” Gabe lashed back.

Justice loved this argument, and to play the part kept it going. “Your “friends?” Are you referring to that obnoxious, self-absorbed heretic that for some reason you’re choosing over a kingdom at your feet? What exactly do you see in Daniel; and more importantly, why are you working so hard to protect him?”

Gabe had officially had it with Justice. “Danny is my friend! And that’s all I could ask from him, I don’t care if he’s flawed because he’s a good person. Unlike you! Who keeps trying to trick and tempt me into your little deals, unable to get it through his thick skull that his goals are insane and that you’re an ass! You’re wrong: about me, about Danny, about everything. And maybe instead of telling others how they feel and what they want you should just back the fuck off and realize that you’re never getting free.” After he finished Gabe fell back into his seat and started panting.

After listening to Gabe go on Justice just looked back at him with a satisfied smirk on his face. “I suppose you’re right my friend.” He began to draw the long pole used for rowing out of the water, to reveal a wicked spear tip on the end. “But don’t worry.” He menacingly brought the point up, Gabe recoiling in fear. “When you do change your mind and come back to me.” He brought the spear down; not into Gabe, but rather the gondola itself. Water then began to pour into the hull and take the boat down, starting with Justice’s end. “I won’t hold any of this against you.” With that he laughed his usual maniacal laugh as he was pulled into the water.

Gabe was next, he looked around but there were no docks in sight. He had no choice but to hold his breath as the murky water that housed Justice pulled him in.

Like all the other times Justice had interfered with his dreams he woke with a start; but after a few deep breaths Gabe was able to calm himself quite easily. He thought it was strange that Justice would just take everything Gabe said to him; he wasn’t quite sure if that was a good or bad thing. Mostly he was just glad that after this nightmare there was nothing to be worried about; all of his friends were happy, and more importantly safe. He turned and opened the curtains on his window; as he gazed to the moon he wondered if he could recreate that date Justice made, it did seem like the kind of thing Twilight would enjoy.

Spike tried in vain to shut out all of the noise Twilight was making downstairs, but it seemed each time he covered his head with his pillow it only got louder. After a while he groaned audibly and stormed over to the edge. “TWILIGHT!” He yelled, hoping it would be enough to get her attention.

“Shoot!” The frustrated purple mare said, before responding to her friend. “What is it? I almost had it that time.”

“You almost had it 8 times ago!” The sleep-deprived dragon snapped. “Can’t you just wait until morning?”

“And lose all of the progress I made so far?” Twilight asked, horrified that Spike would ever make such a suggestion. “No. Not while I have so much going for me.” She turned back to her experiments, working even harder to make up for the time spent talking with Spike.

“Well is one of those things a set of earmuffs?” Spike asked sarcastically. Sure enough a few seconds later a set of earphones flew at Spike; clapping over his ears, and the bar that was connecting the two covering his eyes. “Oh ha, ha” Spike sarcastically chuckled as he adjusted the earphones. It might have been a little unorthodox, but he was glad to be able to shut out Twilight’s manic mechanizations.

Twilight didn’t look back to see if Spike took her earphones and went to bed, she just listened and hoped for the absence of whining. Not that anything Spike could say could actually get her to stop. She was so close to understanding Danny’s spell and being able to break down how to use it herself, but there was only one thing stopping her; one last aspect of the enchantment seemed to be actively resisting her experiments, as if it didn’t want to be poked. She assumed this to be the direct link to Danny’s thought process that was trying to reject outside influence, but Twilight’d show it.

Twilight was about to tap into this bizarre mental current and break it free from Danny and make it raw so as to make it a basic spell that any unicorn could cast, so to do that she was going to use an extremely powerful spell that was originally designed to counter mind control. She applied the needed focus, which in this case was a charmed ring, to her horn and began to focus on this segment of magic. She almost lost the focus when she was tempted to jump up and down giggling when she saw that it was working. “Just… a little… more. Please o please o please.” She chanted as the magic began to break down. All of a sudden something gave away and the spell ceased, the backlash caused Twilight to recoil, and give a look of horror when she saw she had lost all of her progress. “NO!” She stomped her hoof at her failure and prepared to try again, but something interrupted her.

Twilight hadn’t noticed before but the entire floor was covered in an odd blue mist. “What the…? That’s not supposed to happen.” Suddenly a chill ran up her spine, as something called her to turn around.

When Twilight looked behind her she was terrified. The mist began to rise up in a column.

This even odder shape slowly rose out of the mist, and eventually stopped when it was about nine feet tall. Then two large flaps unwrapped from around the mass and took a position behind it, as if to resemble a pair of massive wings. Then two more appendages slowly separated from the shape and made themselves to look like a pair of arms. Then the entire lower half seemed to spread apart and flow. Finally a shape took form in between its shoulders; the head seemed somewhat wolf shaped and where its eyes would be two glowing blue circles gazed out. The entire thing began to stretch and groan as if it had just awoken from a deep sleep, its voice low and cold.

Twilight just stood there and stared at what just formed in front of her in a mix of fear and curiosity, when the shape’s blue eyes met hers she brought herself to speak. “Wh-wha-what are you?”

Even though the shape’s face was a barely defined mass of mist, Twilight knew that it gave a devilish grin. After chuckling to itself, the figure began to stride towards Twilight. Twilight was unable to do anything but stare back, frozen in fear. The shape bent downwards, almost eye level with Twilight; and in its cold cruel voice answered her. “My name” it paused to give a terrifying leer at the petrified unicorn. “Is Justice. and you” it wrapped its incorporeal hand around Twilight’s horn. “Are going to help me.”

Twilight felt a painful sensation unlike anything else flow through her horn, and into her very mind. In response to this she gave out a blood-curdling scream that was surpassed any, even Fluttershy, before it.

The cry of pain and fear even pierced the earphones secured around Spike’s head and shook him from his state of sleep. Horrified by what he just heard he tore out of bed and dashed downstairs, just to see his worst fear confirmed: Twilight was lying on the floor unconscious. Scared beyond imagining he went over and kneeled by his guardian’s side.

“T-T-Twilight?” He said, in tears, trying to shake Twilight awake. “Twilight this isn’t funny wake up!”

Nothing.

Spike stood up and then reeled in shock, tears pouring down his face. He then bolted for the door and ran outside and started screaming “HELP!! PLEASE, SOMEPONY HELP! HELP!”

Gabe was in the kitchen making eating some of the muffins Danny brought home, hoping something in his belly would help him get to sleep when he heard a familiar voice from outside. “Is that?” He approached the window and listened closer, trying to put a face to the voice. “It is!” He opened the door and ran towards it, and just as he suspected it was Spike, running around franticly, crying. “Spike what’s wrong?!” He asked as he stopped short of the dragon.

“Gabe, you have to help me!” Spike fell to the ground and clung to Gabe’s leg.

Gabe was becoming more and more frightened. “What is it? What happened?”

Spike could barely sob out the words. “I-it’s Twilight!”

“TWILIGHT!?!” Gabe gasped as his eyes widened in fear.

Chapter XII: Ascension

When some think of a hospital’s emergency room; they may picture frightened doctors hurriedly pushing gurneys containing bleeding, screaming patients back and forth, the sound of sirens, sobbing families, and AEDs carrying through the halls. This was far from the truth, especially here at Ponyville Hospital: but for Gabe, it might as well have been.

After being shook from his nightmare in the middle of the night Gabe had learned that Twilight had fallen comatose. Neither he nor Spike knew what was wrong, but they were scared, so they rushed her to the hospital. Right now the doctors asked for the two to step out while they run diagnosis.

Gabe turned his head to look at Spike. No doubt the young dragon was taking this far worse than he was, Gabe may have had feelings for Twilight, but to Spike she was almost like a mother. He and Gabe may have started things off on the wrong foot, but they had to be there for each other. Gabe put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder and gently rubbed it. “She’ll be O.K.” Gabe started to assure his friend. “From what you two have told me she’s been through much worse.” He forced a small laugh, hoping to brighten the dragon’s spirit, but to no avail.

Spike looked just as grim and afraid as the moment Gabe found him. He had stopped crying, but that did not mean he was still frightened. “This is my fault.” He said, shocking Gabe.

“Don’t say that!” Gabe said, horrified that Spike would ever think something like that.

“It is though!” Spike replied, sobbing. “I should have been helping her with her experiment, not making fun of her! If I was there, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” He started to cry again. “And if this is something bad, and something happens to her, I…” He began to bawl as he pressed himself against Gabe.

Gabe put his foreleg around the dragon and began to cry to. He though everything was going so well, he thought he could finally get over his desire to go home and see his family and friends again, but then this had to happen; and if this was life here he might as well have stayed back home.

“Um…” A voice caused the two to look up. A female white pony wearing a nurse’s cap over her pink hair was looking at them. “You two were the ones with the unicorn Twilight Sparkle yes?”

“YES!” Spike jumped off of the chair and ran towards the nurse. “Is she O.K.?”

The nurse sighed and said “you two should follow me.” She opened the door the two boys were waiting outside of and waited until they got through.

Inside Twilight was lying on a hospital bed, still unconscious; she had been placed in a hospital gown and was connected to a monitor that displayed her vital signs. Despite everything being so calm, the two still felt scared for her. “What’s wrong with her?” Gabe asked the nurse.

“I think my colleague can answer that.” The nurse answered, shortly before leaving.

An orange unicorn in typical doctor garb that was in the room looking at a clipboard earlier stepped forward and explained his thesis. “It seems that we have some mental manipulative magic backlash; a rare condition that only occurs when a unicorn um…” he fumbled, looking for the best word. “Botches, a spell pertaining to mind control and the like; the raw energies take control of the unicorn who attempted to cast the spell, and since there is no master to give the command the victim does nothing, hence the comatose state.”

Hearing all of this did little to assure Gabe and Spike; even though now they knew what was wrong, they had no idea how to fix it. The silence as the two stared at the unmoving body of their beloved unicorn was deafening, finally Gabe asked the question they were both thinking. “How do we fix it?”

“That’s just it.” The doctor replied, his voice taking a turn for the worse. “Usually something like this can be dispelled with certain counterspells, but this rare case has resisted each and every one.”

“Danny’s magic!” Spike shouted. “Don’t you remember Gabe? Both you and Twilight said that it wasn’t normal mind control! And Twilight probably got some of it stuck in her doing all of that research!”

“You’re saying you know what kind of magic caused this?” The doctor eavesdropped in.

“Sorta” Gabe replied. “We don’t know all of the details, but it has something to do with a unique power a friend of mine has.”

“Why that’s wonderful!” The doctor exclaimed. “If you can bring him here we might be able to get to the bottom of things.”

For the first time all night Gabe was in high spirits. He turned to spike to tell him to wait here, only to see him halfway out the door.

“I’ll be back before you know it.” Spike waved before blowing a raspberry and running out the door.

A short chuckle from the doctor caught Gabe’s attention. “Well I guess the only thing we can do now is wait.” As if on cue another nurse ran in and began whispering into the doctor’s ear. “Oh my.” He said. “I have something urgent to attend to, when that dragon gets back with whoever he sent out for come and find me alright?”

Gabe nodded to confirm.

Not a moment after, the two medical ponies ran out of the room.

After the door shut Gabe turned to the pony lying in the bed. He solemnly trotted over next to her, lifted up one of her unmoving hooves and held it firmly between his. “We’re gonna fix this.” He said in a serious tone. “Don’t you worry.” He took their collected hooves and pressed it against his forehead.

Seconds of this ticked by, but Gabe didn’t care. All he cared about was lying in that bed, waiting to be awakened. Soon though Gabe picked his head up and asked “what do you want?”

Sure enough; Justice was standing right behind him. “You’re getting good at this.” He replied slyly and stepped forward, to be beside Gabe. He looked at Twilight’s body and sighed “how unfortunate.”

“Get out of here.” Gabe snarled at the demon. “You have no place here.”

Upon hearing this Justice gave a soft chuckle. “Do I now?” He asked. “As far as I can tell I’m the one you need here.”

“Go away.” Gabe wasn’t interested in anything Justice had to say.

“Just think for a moment.” Justice began to reason with Gabe. “Twilight couldn’t figure out Danny’s magic in 49 hours of strait studying, and she’s the best this whole damn country’s got. What hope do these doctors have?”

Now it was Gabe’s turn to laugh, it started out slow but turned into a real mocking laugh. “So that’s your game.” He looked up at Justice, just to shake his head in disapproval. “You want me to free you so you’ll release Twilight. You’re real slick you know that.”

“Hm, I hadn’t thought of that.” Justice played it cool, unable to keep a straight face.

Gabe was starting to boil over with anger again “you” he snarled. “You did this to her. You knew how I felt, and that’s why you did it. I always knew you were a psycho but to do this is unbelievable! All of that time I put up with you thinking that you were just some annoyance that would eventually grow up! But I was wrong, you’re a freak that I should have had extinguished right from the start! How could you even do this you… you… YOU MONSTER!!!”

Those last words shook the hospital room. Justice never flinched or moved once. Soon he began to laugh and before Gabe could respond said “those were some pretty fierce insults. But that’s just my opinion, what do you think Daniel?” He asked while looking over Gabe.

Gabe felt like he had just been hit by a meteor, he slowly turned around, filled with dread, and saw that Justice’s words were true; Danny was standing in the doorway with a horrified look on his face.

“I did this?” He asked, shaking. “I-I hurt Twilight?” He started to back away, his eyes brimming with tears.

Gabe let go of Twilight and motioned towards his friend. “Danny; no, you misheard me. Please just listen.”

“You said I was a monster, a freak.” Danny shuddered, backing away from Gabe even quicker now. “I hurt Twilight because I can’t control myself.”

“Danny STOP!” Gabe cried, trying to get through to Danny before it was too late. “You have to listen to me!”

Just like the first time Danny cried out and a huge wave of icy-cold force blew Gabe against the wall and knocked around some of the hospital equipment. When he spoke again his voice was fluctuating with Justice’s, much to Gabe’s horror. “I knew this would happen! I always ruin EVERYTHING! I just wanted things to be nice for once, but I had to hurt people and lose control AGAIN!” He yelled in pain as he put his hooves on his head.

“If you don’t stop now things are going to get a lot worse!” Gabe yelled.

“SHUT UP!!” Danny yelled. “I am sick of you always trying to control me and everyone else!” He then scraped the ground like a bull and charged forward at Gabe, his eyes burning with anger. But right before he hit Gabe saw his eyes change and heard him softly say “no.” His anger melted to fear as he forcefully pulled himself up and instead of goring Gabe, leapt onto a table and smashed through a window.

Gabe pulled himself and looked out of the broken window and saw Danny running away from the hospital and into the woods. All the while a cloud of blue mist surrounding him. “NO!” Gabe screamed, he then pulled himself onto the window frame, jumped out, and ran into the woods after him.

Gabe hadn’t caught up to Danny yet, but his trail was easy to follow; a swath of destruction followed behind Danny’s path. “DANNY!!” Gabe cried, hoping that his friend would have the strength to fight the darkness in his heart.

Soon after Gabe started hearing voices, he was horrified to hear whose voices, but was glad he was getting close. When he came to a freshly-cleared clearing he took one look and with eyes the size of dinner plates said “God in Heaven help us.”

Danny was in the center of a vortex that showed everyone who had ever slighted him before; each one mocking him with their own calling cards that haunted Danny’s psyche, causing Danny to curl on the ground and cry. The sound of their laughter and taunts were maddening, enough to make even the boldest man shudder, the twisted faces of the figures from Danny’s life would undoubtedly haunt Gabe’s nightmares if Justice didn’t.

But of course there was the one voice that stood out above the rest. “You’ve fought for long enough Daniel, I thought it was long ago that you gave up; willing to do anything for the pain to stop.”

Danny could only give a blank, broken expression as he spoke. His voice was monotonous, as if he was in a deep trance “gave up, stop the pain.”

Gabe realized he was doing nothing when he should have been stopping this insanity. He ran into the clearing, passing through the wall of phantoms to snap Danny out of his trance. Justice noticed this.

“Look what we have here Daniel.” Justice forced Danny to look at Gabe. “The one who hates you more than anyone else; of course it’s only fair, you did take his life away from him.”

Gabe rushed forward, grabbed, and shook Danny. “THAT’S NOT TRUE!” He yelled, hoping to drown out Justice’s maddening choir. “Danny you have to stop!”

Danny snapped out of his trance, but not for the better. “Stop, please.” He began to cry and struggle from Gabe’s grip. “Please I’m so sorry; I didn’t know this would happen, not to you!”

“Yes, YES!” Justice gleamed with excitement. He was getting stronger, and Gabe could feel it.

Frightened, Gabe wrapped his hooves around the frantic Danny and did anything he could to bring him out of his nightmare. “When Beatrice died, and I felt alone, you were the only one who took it seriously, you helped me face my demons now let me help you face yours.”

“Face the demons.” Danny said, he had stopped squirming, but was still shaking. His shaking got worse when he began to breathe heavily and soon yelled at the top of his lungs.

Gabe held on through the ordeal and to his joy saw that all of the phantoms, even Justice himself were beginning to fade away, soon enough all of the voices were gone and they were the only ones left. Danny stayed motionless as Gabe began to cheer “Danny! You did it! I always knew you had it in you!”

Danny still hadn’t moved, and that scared Gabe. “Danny? Danny we won! Be happy!”

All Danny did in response to that was begin to cry. But soon after his glasses fell off of his face, and he looked up, his eyes still closed. And after one last sob said “No, we didn’t.” He opened his eyes and Gabe screamed when he saw that they were the same frigid blue hue as Justice’s. “I’m so sorry Gabe.” Not a second after he said that he cried out in pain as his body began to convulse.

Danny’s back began to tear itself apart as two massive wings tore their way through. Gabe could only reel in horror as Danny’s torso and limbs began to expand, the bones giving off sick cracks as they moved about and grew to different sizes and his torso and arms becoming humanoid and the muscles becoming toned; all the while Danny screaming in agony, his voice becoming more and more like Justice’s. Danny’s blue coat faded to a sick bleach-white as two sets of wicked claws tore through his hooves, rending the skin; along with the spikes that went up each forearm. His back legs began to bend and twist as a set of lupine claws ripped out of those hooves, and snap the leg at its new ankle point; just before these wicked paws stomped on the ground for emphasis. When Danny’s scream had become a dark growl his head began to go through the sick metamorphosis; his face flattening as his snout grew longer, his teeth being replaced with vicious wolf jaws. When the last detail was complete the beast just stood there, its head dropped down and its arms drooping by its sides.

Gabe was paralyzed, speechless, horrified beyond all comprehension at the nightmarish transformation he just witnessed.

Gabe nearly soiled himself when the huge beast began to laugh Justice’s signature laugh. He opened his eyes and with a soul-piercing gaze, leered at Gabe with a sickening grin. He then raised his arms and repositioned his feet as he spoke his first words in reality, taking care to pause after each one. “I. Am. UNLEASHED!!” His laughter sent chills up Gabe’s spine as it echoed through the night sky. Gabe trembled in terror as Justice focused his attention back onto him “and it’s all thanks to you.”

“NO!” Gabe finally managed to force through. “What have you done?! Where’s Danny?!”

Justice just laughed a dry cackle before responding. “Are you still going on about that? Forget it” he seemed to take pleasure in saying the next few words. “Danny doesn’t exist anymore.”

This rocked Gabe to the core. “Doesn’t exist?” He choked out, terrified.

“Just an old memory waiting to fade away” Justice confirmed. “In the end it was either going to be him, or me; but fortunately you chose the one that would help you more.”

“I didn’t choose.” Gabe said, actually arguing with the beast that was towering over him. “I didn’t want this.”

“Oh” Justice slapped his forehead. “Where are my manners? We had a deal.” He said. He then snapped his fingers in a dramatic fashion. “There” he stated. “Now Twilight’s all better.”

“Weren’t you listening to me!?” Gabe yelled, now officially over his fear. “I don’t want this! I don’t want one friend if I have to lose another!”

“Don’t worry I was listening.” Justice mocked as he turned away from Gabe. “I was listening to the Gabriel that wants people to look up to him and see him as noble, but what I’m really hearing is the Gabriel that sees the truth; to get ahead, sacrifices must be made.” As if to make a point, or to be disgusting, Justice licked his lips. “Well I must be off now” Justice began to excuse himself. “My end of the deal isn’t satisfied yet.”

Gabe charged forward and grabbed Justice’s leg. “You’re not going anywhere until you give me Danny back!”

With that Justice grabbed Gabe, and flung him against a tree. “Listen here boy!” He was tired of Gabe’s self-righteous act. “Tomorrow at sundown I will have everything I need to return us to the human world and rule it side by side; and when I do, I expect the you who first awakened me to be the one who crosses through the threshold with me. Am I clear?” The nightmarish glare Justice had on his face could send Death himself running in sheer soul-breaking terror.

Gabe just stared, battered and frightened.

“Good” Justice said smugly. He prepared to take off into the night sky. “Don’t worry” he looked back and said “I’m sure you’ll make an excellent ruler of our utopia.” With that he spread his wings and flew into the night, his demonic silhouette soon disappearing into the dark, starless, moonless sky.

Gabe got up and limped to where he last saw Danny. He gently grabbed his friend’s glasses, one of the lenses had a crack across of it; a reminder of how this entire mess was started by his hoof. He began to sob as tears started to flow; he then lifted his head and screamed as loud as he could into the night.

Chapter XIII: Treachery

Justice, an insane monster that had nothing but contempt for the human race and wished nothing more than to watch it burn to the ground, had been released; and was now terrorizing the Canterlot science labs. How did Gabe know this? In his latest nightmare he was seeing everything through Justice’s eyes.

Gabe was forced to watch as Justice ripped through dozens of innocent scientists. Any attempt to flee was met with Justice creating a massive chain of spikes impaling them and blocking off the exit; and it was when the ponies were clustered the true horror began, Justice took in a deep breath and then all of the ponies in front of him were consumed by a huge wave of fire.

Justice only laughed as about a dozen ponies burned to death.

Gabe would have done anything to be able to turn away, but for some reason his vision and every other sense was linked directly to Justice. He had no idea how or why, but hated every moment off it.

After Justice finished laughing to the tune of a series of ponies screaming in pain and begging for mercy, he spoke out loud “you can come out now.”

Nothing, aside from the flames the lab was dead quiet.

Justice charged over to a cabinet and punched the handle in and yelled “I SAID COME OUT!” Hiding inside the cabinet was one last scientist; he was a unicorn with a white coat with spiky blue hair. Justice grabbed his neck and pulled him close. “WHERE IS THE WORM?” Justice yelled.

The scientist began to struggle and plead “please don’t kill me, I have a family!”

Justice took his hand off of the unicorn’s neck and grabbed his head. “Well won’t they be sad when they find out that your skull’s been crushed into powder.” He interrogated, applying pressure to the poor pony’s skull.

The unicorn in Justice’s grasp began to yell in pain.

“You know what” Justice mocked. “I don’t even need you; I can easily tear this lab apart, until I find The Worm. Oh well, goodbye Port.”

“Nononononono I’ll talk! I’LL TALK!” Port screamed, afraid for his life.

Justice let go and Port fell to the floor. “Now was that so hard?” Justice snickered to add insult to injury.

Port just sobbed as he picked himself up. “It’s this way.” He began to guide Justice to another section of the lab. “Please” Port started “please put this to good use, my family has been working on The Worm for generations. Please respect what 130 years of Voyages took to create.”

“It will be used to purge a distant world of evil.” Justice replied “does that count?”

The two arrived at a framed crayon drawing on one of the walls. “I have no idea what you mean, but despite the work my ancestors put into this, it’s still incomplete.” He said as he opened the frame, revealing a keyhole. “Do you have the key to finish it?” He took a key from his pocket, entered it into the lock, and turned it. A section of wall close to him and Justice moved back and began to slide away.

“I have something much better.” Justice replied as he stared awestruck at the doorway and the brilliant light coming from the other side, a demonic smile across his lips. He began to laugh maniacally as he reached out and grabbed the source of the light.

The light faded, as well as everything else. All Gabe saw was darkness, all he heard was nothingness.

Something then broke the silence, it was someone crying, and Gabe knew who it was. It was Danny.

“Are you still crying?” Justice’s voice echoed through the void. “I thought I told you to shut up!”

Unsurprisingly, that didn’t help. “Why are you doing this?” Danny yelled from somewhere in the darkness.

“I’m doing this because you were too much of a pussy to do it yourself!” The void somehow shook as Justice’s anger coursed through it. “You constantly dreamed of respect, power, and vengeance and yet something kept stopping you. You were so afraid of consequences that you denied yourself and let wicked, arrogant assholes dominate your life. But now I will succeed where you never even endeavored, because I will purge the human world of its greed and arrogance; those with wicked hearts will be brought to justice!” There was a slight pause. “My only regret is that you will not be around to see it.” Justice tried to hold his laughter back, but couldn’t help but laugh like a psychopath.

“I thought you were my friend.” Danny said weakly.

Justice sighed, taking pleasure in his next words. “You made all the wrong friends Daniel.”

All Danny could do was weep to himself. Bound by the darkness with nothing left to fight for, he had given up.

Like all of the other times Gabe’s eyes ripped open with a start, his nightmares shaking him. But unlike all of the other times, soon after he woke up he began to laugh. It started as a chuckle but turned into full-scale laughter; he thought about everything he had just seen and heard and couldn’t help but let a twisted grin creep across his face.

The day passed uneventfully. Mostly because Gabe didn’t care about the day, Justice had promised him the evening, and that’s what Gabe was waiting for. Late in the afternoon, just before twilight; Gabe heard it.

“Are you ready?” Justice’s voice echoed through his mind.

Gabe sneered in response.

Justice must have felt the good vibes and responded with a laugh. “Good, I am located in the ancient castle deep within the Everfree forest, here is the way.”

In an instant Gabe had received all of the information on where to go. As if he had the memory of traversing the path from the start.

“See you soon.” Justice bid his farewell.

The path to the castle Justice named was clear of any disruption. Justice obviously wanted to give Gabe a smooth trip. As he came upon the castle, or the ruins of a castle, he realized the risk of everything he was doing, had done, and was about to do. But he didn’t care, he knew what he wanted, and was thankful Justice had shown him.

The twisted, crumbled halls of the ruined castle seemed more dangerous than the forest that was known for its wicked beasts and unnatural plant life. It looked as though it could crumble at any moment; most of the best passageways were already blocked of by rubble. Eventually Gabe found the chamber he was looking for; the room obviously had some importance due to its size and pillars, towards the back there was a risen dais with a stone pedestal upon it. And atop the pedestal was a blue circle with a water-like texture, the portal was being fueled by two energy beams coming from two spheres that had four perfectly cut gems in each of them. Gabe was actually impressed by the display and, awestruck, began to move towards it as if in a trance.

A loud thud brought Gabe out of his trance. He turned around to see the giant diabolical figure behind him, Justice. Since the last time they met Justice found himself some violet cloth to rip apart and wrap around his waist like a makeshift tunic. “Does it not impress you?” Justice asked, motioning towards the gateway.

“What is it?” Gabe asked in response.

Justice laughed before replying. “This was supposed to be Equestria’s next big thing. They were trying to find a way to view into, and even visit, other worlds; but they were missing one crucial thing.”

“I’m listening.” Gabe was interested in what Justice had to say.

“They were focusing so hard on the keys by which to access other worlds, they forgot about the lock.” Justice said, obviously full of himself “we are the lock. Since we are not from this world, we give of the precise energy that can connect us home given the right ingredients.”

“Those crystals are the ingredients, the teeth in the key.” Gabe put the pieces together.

“Correct my friend.” Justice took his place beside Gabe as they each turned to face the portal, their ticket home. Justice sighed, but it was a different kind of sigh, a sigh of relief. “I am glad you changed your tune, I’d feel awful if I didn’t live up to my end of the deal.” He closed his eyes and put a hand on his chest before continuing. “And besides, when I’m done with the human world they won’t look to me as a ruler, they will look to someone else; you Gabriel. You will be their hero, their king, and I your humble executioner.” He opened his eyes and saw that Gabe wasn’t there anymore. “What?” He heard something from the front of the room and turned to see what it was.

The portal was shut down, and Gabe was standing defiantly in front of it with a clear gem in his teeth. Sure enough when Justice looked to the orbs that held the others one of them only showed three. After recovering from the shock of seeing everything in front of him, Justice just laughed; this was a comical laugh with a hint of fear. “That’s very funny Gabriel, now give that back so I may replace it into the sphere and we may return to the human world.”

Gabe just glared as he let his mouth open and the gem roll out and clatter onto the floor.

After seeing this Justice screamed. “Have you gone insane!?!” He yelled. “If that crystal takes anymore damage we’ll be trapped here forever!” He started towards the gem on the ground, interrupted when Gabe put his hoof on it.

“No” Gabe started, his gaze burning a hole in Justice. “You’ll be trapped” he began to put weight onto the hoof the crystal was under, causing it to crack, and by extent causing Justice to panic. “I’ll be home.” He put all of his weight onto the gem, causing it to shatter.

“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Justice cried, he lunged forward, knocking Gabe out of the way and began to collect the shards in his hands. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” He looked up, and saw that every other gem, and the two magic spheres holding them together break apart and shatter into dust. He looked at his hands and saw that the fragments of crystal he was holding had turned into dust. Almost on the verge of tears, he put his hands on his head and slowly put his head on the floor.

Gabe picked himself up; he looked to the broken demon and quietly began to make his way out of the old room. Right when he was at the entrance he felt the urge to look back, he did everything he could to fight it, but in the end ultimately turned around, and immediately regretted it.

What he turned back to was the most absolutely horrifying thing he has ever seen in his life.

Justice was roaring at him with blind fury, his mouth wide open with his dreadful fangs exposed. Past his roaring maw were his eyes; usually exhuming cold hatred now showed nothing but rage and insanity. The roar itself was maddening in pitch, and loud enough to shake the entire castle if not all of Equestria.

Gabe’s pupils shrunk as he watched the horror unfold in front of him. “I’m gonna die.” He sobbed softly to himself, feeling glad he went all day without drinking anything.

“YOU HAVE ROBBED ME OF MY ONLY CHANCE TO RETURN AND REAP MY VENGANCE!!” Justice hollered, towering over Gabe. Soon after he began to giggle in a manic fashion and said “well if I can’t have your world, I’ll just take this one!” He raised his clawed hand high into the air. “And I’ll start WITH YOU!”

Gabe closed his eyes and prepared himself.

Justice brought down his claw with terrifying momentum, upon impact the floor cracked beneath the intense amount of force. But Justice’s wicked smile faded when the dust cleared and he saw that the floor was all he hit. “HOW?!” He yelled, confused.

The response being a swift kick to the back of the head, upon recovering Justice looked up and saw exactly how Gabe survived.

Nero was carrying Gabe in his arms. He had flown in at high speeds, with enough timing to snatch Gabe out of the way of Justice’s wrath. “You” Justice started, shocked. “You conspired against me!?!”

“It wasn’t that hard” Gabe replied. “You were so focused on the darkness in my heart you let it blind you to the truth. You blame me for taking away your chance to rule, but you should be blaming yourself for trusting me.”

“Nicely said man” Nero complimented Gabe’s speech. “Now get out of here.”

Gabe nodded shortly before running out of the room.

Justice was infuriated; first his plan was ruined, and then he was outmaneuvered and badmouthed by the pony who had freed him, just to have him turn tail and run away. “Oh no you don’t!” Justice cried as he began for the door, only to have a series of quick kicks to the face. He staggered back and saw Nero blocking the door, dropped down into a fighting stance. “You’re joking.” Justice laughed, seeing the little green pony in front of him.

Nero chuckled at Justice’s pride. “Nope. You want Gabe, you go through me.”

Justice shook his head with a smug grin on his face before continuing to berate Nero. “Michael” he began “you’re a video game obsessed idiot who couldn’t pay attention to a siren. You standing against me would be like a roach standing against a steamroller armed with pesticide. I could kill you in ten seconds fl…” He was interrupted by another flurry of blows to his face and gut. He quickly recovered and glared at his pitiful assailant.

Nero landed on the floor right in front of Justice and smirked at the monster he had one upped twice now. “If you think you can” he started. “Then just try it.”

“You will regret this you roach.” Justice snorted, preparing himself.

“My name” Nero began to correct Justice as he pumped his wings. “Is Nero.”

Chapter XIV: Nero vs. Justice - Battle of the Roaring Skies

Chapter XIV: Nero VS. Justice - Battle of the Roaring Skies

“Now is your last chance you roach.” Justice tried to threaten Nero, the pony who had continually disrespected him. “You can turn around and run away, or you can have me murder you.”

“Yo dawg, you funny.” Nero laughed in response, causing Justice to become further angered.

He then dashed ahead with quick speed, Justice was prepared this time and threw an earth-shattering punch at where Nero was headed. Nero barely dodged the incoming assault as Justice grinned and remarked “You should have run.”

Nero took this opportunity to rebound off of where he was standing straight at Justice’s arm, then again rebounded to gain the necessary momentum to deliver a powerful blow to Justice’s jaw.

From what Gabe had told him Nero had a slight edge if he kept his speed up, Justice could punch through walls, but threw all of his strength into each blow. Doing this meant that he would be unable to recover easily if he missed his mark. Exploiting this weakness was the only way Nero could survive and do any damage.

Justice howled with fury as he picked both of his arms up and attempted to smash Nero. Nero effortlessly slid to one side and yelled “table hopper!”

“What?!” Justice had no idea what that meant. Blinded by anger he began recklessly pummeling at Nero.

Nero quickly evaded each of these punches in a similar manner to before, right up until when he saw an opening. When the punch came down he slid back, then dashed forward and kicked Justice in the face via wing-powered backflip. The blow actually managed to stagger Justice. Nero kept the momentum going as he quickly went as high as he could, then changed direction and with a devastating axe kick, toppled the great beast.

Justice was able to disrupt Nero’s landing by sweeping his arms as he got up. “I have HAD IT!” He roared. He took in a deep breath and let out a torrent of fire.

This Nero was unprepared for; the room they were in was bigger than most, but there still was little room to keep out of the flame’s reach. He was able to prevent himself from getting caught in the fire, but was at risk of being cornered. He got an idea.

Eventually Justice ran out of breath and had to cut off the flames. When he looked around and saw nothing but charred stone he began to laugh. “That’s one pest down.” He chuckled. He began to walk toward the door but then realized something, shouldn’t there be a corpse?

A massive chunk of stone to the head answered that question. “Looking for me?”

Justice turned and saw Nero, while Justice’s view was obscured by his own flames Nero hid behind one of the pillars that decorated the chamber, apparently the same pillars were so worn that it was a simple task for Nero to use them as his personal projectile.

“You little fu…” Justice was interrupted by yet another chunk of stone to the face. Enraged, he dove at Nero with his arms outstretched, but yet again the green pegasus was too quick for him and Justice rammed into the wall at high speeds; the ancient building’s groan not distracting the two from their fight. Justice slammed his arm into the floor and not a second later spikes began to tear their way through the wall and floor.

Nero saw this attack and did nothing. He just stood still and stared at the chain of spikes coming to impale him, focusing. Right before he was skewered he saw an opening and took off with blazing speeds and perfect accuracy, flying straight through a gap in the spikes. Narrowly avoiding being cut to ribbons, he came out and with all of his strength and momentum punched Justice right in the forehead.

Despite being outmaneuvered for the umpteenth time by his adversary, Justice was pleased. He quickly recovered and grabbed the speeding Nero by his tail and slammed him into the floor. He then pulled Nero to within arm’s reach and grabbed his body and, laughing, pinned the helpless pegasus against the closest wall.

“Looks like I win roach.” Justice was trying to add insult to injury, but for some reason Nero had stopped struggling and his ears were twitching as he was trying to listen to something. Justice began to listen in to see what could be so important; when he found what it was he and Nero locked eyes, each with a look of fear on their face.

The castle was crumbling underneath them.

No sooner than they had realized it, something had given way below them, causing the room they were in to fall; with them inside.

The sudden jerk of the castle caused Justice to let go of Nero, who immediately flew off. Unfortunately the room they were in began to roll down the side of the ruins it was resting upon; noticing that he wouldn’t be able to fight Justice in this environment, carefully watched the windows and door for the best possible moment, and with lightning precision, flew out of the room.

Justice wasn’t so lucky; he couldn’t quickly adapt to the changing environment and became disoriented. He was constantly being knocked around by the spinning room and was unable to exit it before it crashed onto the ruins below.

Nero watched the whole spectacle as the ancient throne room landed and demolished itself and about everything beneath it. He landed on a small bit of wall that had managed to survive the havoc. For probably the first time in his life he wore a serious face as he glared at the rubble, not flinching as Justice’s massive fist emerged from the rubble.

Justice groaned as he pulled himself out of the debris of what used to be a set of ancient ruins. He looked up when he heard Nero begin to gloat.

“I really thought you’d be tougher Justice.” He mocked from atop his high horse.

“WHAT?!” Justice roared at the top of his lungs, infuriated by the fact that this puny pony in front of him was actually mocking his strength.

“You heard me.” Nero grinned. “How can you expect to bring down all of human civilization, when you couldn’t even beat me in a fistfight? I mean they have guns, tanks, bombs and what do I have? A pair of wings and a handful of rocks; and according to you I’m just a roach, I’d hate to see what something as big as a butterfly could do.”

It was a miracle Justice’s teeth didn’t fracture with the force he was grinding them with. He was boiling over with rage; today he had been betrayed, beaten, humiliated and insulted. All he wanted was to rip Nero into little tiny pieces and smoke them. He began to wade through the rubble as fast as he could, doing his best not to trip or get caught to avoid further embarrassment. “Get over here!” He yelled at the still smug Nero. “Let me show you exactly how I’m going to burn down the human world.”

Nero began to flap his wings and slowly hover above the ground. “I don’t think so.” He remarked, gaining a fair bit of distance from the demon hulking towards him.

“You WHAT?!” Justice couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Nero actually just turned away from him.

“I’ve already proven that I’m better than you.” Nero turned back just to give Justice a cocky look with the intent to make his blood boil. “So I don’t need to fight you anymore.” With that he took off.

Justice cleared all of the rubble from around him and screamed into the air “YOU ROACH!! GET BACK HERE AND FIGHT ME!!!” Before letting off a blast of fire into the air.

After Nero reached a considerable altitude he began to cruise; he was lucky the building came apart when it did, or else Justice would have crushed him and all of his and Gabe’s planning would have been for naught, now there was only one thing left.

Nero’s eyes popped open when he saw something shift in the clouds. It was time. He closed his eyes and extended himself outward towards the clouds he had connected with over the last few days, he gave them strength, and now they’ll return the favor. At a moment’s notice Nero stopped dead in his tracks, no sooner than he did Justice ripped through the air in front of him; roaring with fury and thirsting for blood.

When he saw that he had missed he turned to face Nero, playing his botched dive attempt off as a dramatic entrance. “Did you miss me?”

“I don’t think anything would miss a mug like that.” Nero quipped.

“I think I’ve heard enough of you being an idiot roach.” Justice glared. “Now get ready to die.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?” Nero always wanted to use this line. “Killing me because of the way I t-t-t-talk?”

Unable to stand it any longer Justice flung himself at Nero, his claws ready to slice into him.

Nero saw this and dove at Justice to, but at the last moment pulled up, kicked the back of his head, and took off in the other direction.

Getting real tired of being hit in the head, Justice turned around and began to pursue Nero through the sky.

Nero made sure to keep an eye on his pursuer, and came to a horrifying realization: Justice was gaining on him. While it was happening rather slowly the gap between Nero and Justice was closing, soon Nero would have to contend with the killing machine on his tail.

Justice noticed this to, but didn’t feel like waiting. He charged some fire in his mouth and spat streaks out at Nero.

Nero saw these and ducked out of the way of each of them. He was surprised when each of the streaks exploded in the air in front of him. He had to swerve out of the way of the fiery blasts, realizing that’s exactly what Justice wanted. Not even looking back to see how close he had gotten, Nero closed his wings and began to fall. As Nero went down he looked up and saw that he was a hair away from being mauled.

Justice was shocked, he had victory in his grasp, and then Nero decided to take a dive. He watched as Nero stopped himself, spread his wings and started flying again. Infuriated, Justice pursued from a much higher vantage point. Making sure to launch a steady stream of fireballs.

Nero wasn’t expecting this much of a challenge; he knew Justice was a homicidal powerhouse, but now he was dealing with a game of speed, and unfortunately for Nero; it seemed that was a game he was only second best at. Not only would he have to stay ahead of Justice, but avoid his burning attacks. He let out a sigh and pulled up until he was higher than Justice’s position. Not long after he heard a streak of flame coming his way.

Justice just watched in amazement as Nero was caught in a massive explosion. He started to laugh as his body fell into a cloud. Justice dove underneath the massive cloud, hoping to catch his foe’s corpse; however noting came out. He looked in all directions, but there was nothing there. “Cheeky bastard” he sneered to himself as he flew into the cloud. He began to fly through it, intent on finding and slaughtering Nero. “Little roach, little roach, let me come in. Not by the hair on your chinny-chin-chin?” Justice recited. “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!” He roared as he began to blow fire in every direction.

The fire evaporated as much of the cloud as it could, but that did little except create a clear pocket for Justice to float in. “No need to be so violent.” Nero’s made himself known.

Justice turned around and saw the green pony, once again glaring at him intently. “Oh wait, yes there is.” Nero finished.

Justice had just realized where he was and began to panic. “No.” He barely pushed through his lips.

A malevolent grin crossed Nero’s face as Justice realized he had just fallen for his trap. “Hello dummy.” He said as he readied his back leg.

Justice just stared, his eyes wide with fear.

“Aw, c’mon. It’s a classic prank. All members of the Weather Patrol do it.” Nero finished as he struck his leg into the wall of the cloud pocket.

As it did lightning came from all sides and coursed into Justice, his shrill cry of pain was ear-splitting. Eventually his scream ended as his entire body became numb and he lost all feeling of everything, including his wings.

Unable to move, Justice began to plummet. He was helpless to do anything but watch as he fell through the air, trying in vain to regain control of his body to keep from crashing on the ground below. He couldn’t even close his eyes to brace himself. But just as he thought things couldn’t get any worse, he remembered where he was.

“You’re not getting off that easy!” Nero yelled as he intercepted the falling demon. After slamming into him he started to beat Justice mercilessly. If Justice could feel anything he’d feel about a dozen punches to his face and jaw.

After a while the blows did start to leave an impact, and Justice wouldn’t have it. However when he tried to throw a punch it had barely any strength behind it and all it succeeded in doing was causing him to spin out of control. Because of his training with Rainbow Dash, Nero was able to stay on and continue pommeling him.

After beating Justice for a short time Nero looked down and then gave Justice a smirk, then flew off.

Justice gave a sigh of relief before he felt something on his back, and heard Nero’s voice. “When you called me a roach you called yourself a steamroller.” Justice felt something on his wings. “Well I got news for you” Nero began to pull on Justice’s wings with tremendous strength. “STEAMROLLERS CAN’T FLY!” With that he tore the wings out of their sockets, the skin didn’t tear but the bones had separated, leaving Justice’s wings a limp accessory.

Justice howled in pain as Nero flew off for real this time. He had finally regained feeling in his body. The first thing he did was feel his useless wings and then look down. When he saw what waited below him he screamed, and then braced himself right before crashing into a large structure in Canterlot city; the impact of this massive creature sent shockwaves all over the city and rocked all of its buildings and everyone in it.

The rich ponies of Canterlot turned to the source of the tremor. They just stared as the watched the dust settle. They had no idea what was going on, all they knew was that something just plummeted out of the sky and smashed into Canterlot castle.

Chapter XV: Demise

The hulking beast Justice just lied unconscious in the crater he left after falling from over a mile high in the air. He survived the impact, but was knocked out cold.

Two ponies moved through the settling cloud of dust that was stirred when Justice smashed into the sacred hall they were in. It was Nero and Gabe; the two approached the edge of the crater and stared at the beast that had stolen their friend from them and threatened not only his existence, but the lives of everypony in Equestria.

As they watched the demon’s motionless body exude minimal signs of life Gabe was the first to open his mouth. “I’ll admit it.” He said, a little uneasy. “I had my doubts.”

In response to this Nero actually started to laugh. “Am I supposed to be offended? I had no idea what I was doing half the time; sure we planned out all of this stuff, but in the end it was a little shrimp, or should I say roach?” He poked fun at himself. “Against a psycho that would make Lars look like Mother Teresa, I don’t know how I won; but I’m glad I did.” His look of happiness and confidence melted away soon after however.

Gabe noticed this and tried to comfort his friend. “We’ll save him, don’t worry.”

“Danny was the greatest friend I’ve ever had.” Nero said solemnly. “No matter what I did, how stupid I acted, Danny never once said anything.” A single tear rolled down his cheek. “But I feel so awful, knowing I’ve never once repaid him for that. The fact that while he stuck up for me and put up with my stupidity, I’ve never once helped him.”

“This will be your repayment Nero.” Gabe said as he put a hoof on Nero’s shoulder. “By letting you be yourself, unafraid of consequences, Danny helped you fight the darkness of doubt in your heart. Now by brining Justice to his downfall you are helping Danny fight the darkness in his heart, and seal it away permanently.”

“Aw, how touching.” An all-too familiar voice caused the two to look back into the crater. “I think I might cry.”

Justice was awake.

Nero and Gabe were unnerved by the demon’s revival. It was hard not to look nervous as he pulled himself from the fractured marble floor. Even though he was clearly sore from his ordeal, which just made him all the more menacing to see how easily he could pick himself back up. “Your speech may have been touching.” Justice started. “But it is all for naught.” He began to growl and cry out in pain as his wings reconnected with the joints on Justice’s back with a sickening popping sound.

Upon hearing Justice realign his wings Nero gave a disgusted face, while Gabe had to put his hoof over his mouth to keep himself from throwing up.

After briefly chuckling at this sight Justice continued. “Michael, I admit I underestimated your strength and cunning, but in the end all you could do was dislocate my joints and put me down for a cat-nap. Face it; you have nothing that can defeat me.” After he finished his smug look melted away as he began to leer at Gabe, anger and hatred filling his eyes. “I will take this world, and I will start with the one who betrayed me.”

“Not if we have something to say about it!” A familiar voice cried out from the side.

Curious and surprised, Justice turned to the side. When he saw what it was his eyes widened with fear.

It was Twilight Sparkle, and five of her friends; Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. Each one of them were wearing a golden necklace with a gem resembling their cutie mark; an apple, a diamond, a lightning bold, a butterfly, and a balloon respectively. But Twilight was wearing a diadem with an eight pointed star gem.

“No way!” Justice cried in fear. “Those are…” He cut himself off with a gasp and looked around at where he was. The pristine marble floor and pillars, the stained glass depicting famous scenes from Equestrian history; he was in the hall of the elements, the resting place of the Elements of Harmony, Equestria’s most powerful magical weapon.

Justice was terrified. He knew that the elements purged the darkness from Princess Luna’s heart and petrified Discord, Justice dreaded the thought of what they would do to him. “No. Y-y-you can’t!” Justice pleaded.

“You stole our friend and are threatening our world, why shouldn’t we?!” Fluttershy yelled.

“Not to mention that poor excuse for a tunic is atrocious.” Rarity added, but it wasn’t received well as she received a series of blank stares from everyone in the room. “What?” She asked in response to this reaction. “I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking it.”

Twilight shook her head to re-focus on the task at hand. “Justice” she started “you will not endanger any of my friends. My friends and I will put an end to your scheme now, with our strength and the Elements of Harmony you will fall!” With that her eyes began to glow white as she started to radiate with power, soon she and all of her friends began floating upright their eyes closed as their elements began to glow.

“N-no!” Justice stammered. “There must be something I can do!” He tried to breathe fire at the six, but the flames simply vanished before reaching the target. He then turned his attention to Gabe “if I’m going down” he growled “YOU’RE COMING WITH ME!” He tried to pummel Gabe with his fist, but found that he was being cut off by a semi-translucent wall of light. He turned to see that the wall was closing him in with the Element bearers. Justice felt his heart sink, he was helpless. He fell to his knees and closed his eyes.

The formation of the six elements fired a massive rainbow into the air. The rainbow arced up and came down on Justice, enveloping him in a blinding light.

Nero and Gabe watched as Justice gritted his teeth to prepare for the element’s fury, but eventually it proved too much to handle and he cried out in agony. Shortly after this the light proved to be too much and Gabe and Nero had to shield their eyes to protect them.

Gabe was relieved to see that this nightmare was about to end. Once the Elements finished their work they could all go home and act like none of this ever happened. He saw that the light was beginning to fade and looked to where Danny would be; the moment he did his jaw hit the floor.

Each of the element bearers slowly levitated to the ground after the Elements finished. Like Gabe, they all gasped in horror when they looked before them.

Justice was still kneeling in the crater, completely unaffected by the blast of the Elements.

Each of the ponies backed away; a stunned, horrified look on each of their faces.

Slowly, Justice opened one eye and looked around. Surprised to see he was still in the hall of the elements he raised one clawed hand and waved it in front of his own face. After he was done he began to chuckle with disbelief, but then began to laugh like a madman. He stood up and yelled “I’M ALIVE!”

Justice’s laughter caused everypony to tremble with fear. Their entire plan was to lure Justice to the hall of the Elements in order to destroy him and release Danny, but now that that didn’t work, they had no idea what to do next.

“I don’t know how, but the Elements of Harmony didn’t work!” Justice continued to laugh. “Does this mean that I am greater than Discord or Nightmare Moon? That I am destined to rule this world?” He turned to Gabe with a twisted smile on his face. “You should have sided with me when you had the chance Gabriel. For it seems that your betrayal has been for nothing. It’s a shame that you went back on our deal, you would have been a great ruler.”

That last statement caused all of the ponies, save for Nero, to gasp in shock. Justice noticed this and his jaw dropped.

“You didn’t tell them?” Justice asked Gabe with disbelief. “You didn’t tell them that all of this is your fault!?” As Justice continued he got more excited, and by extent louder. “That you were the one who unleashed the darkness in Daniel’s heart with the promise of becoming a king?” He went over to Gabe and picked him up to look him in the eye. “If you didn’t tell them what really happened then what did you tell them? What lie did you spew in order to coerce your so-called friends into partaking in your treachery?”

“He… He didn’t have to say anything.” Fluttershy said softly, tears gathering in her eyes. “Danny said that a bully from their old town came and hurt him. When Gabe told us about you Justice, I asked about that night and he confirmed.” She began to sob.

“Aw” Justice sarcastically cooed. “Danny lied to protect his friend. But Gabriel” Justice turned back to the grey pony in his clutches. “Who did you lie to protect? Certainly it wasn’t Daniel; the mane 6 would have beaten me for his sake and dealt with you later. You lied to protect your own ego.”

Gabe could only stare in fear, his scheme had fallen apart and now he faced Justice’s fury with nopony to save him at the last moment this time.

After a brief chuckle Justice looked to the side and smiled to himself. “It makes sense” he began. “The Elements had no power over me, because you tried to orchestrate their power with fraud. Instead of facing your demons you lied to others in order to have your problems solved for you. Amazing” he chuckled. “You sold the greatest friend you’ve ever had out to the darkness of his heart, then betrayed the one who offered you power and prestige, only to have your scheme fail and allow me access to my new throne that much quicker. Gabriel” Justice wanted to make sure he had the trembling pony’s attention. “I want you to reflect on that as you slowly starve to death in the wasteland that was once paradise, the only fate worse being the one you assigned to your close friend Daniel.” He then threw Gabe at the six Element bearers and with a twisted grin shouted at the group “there he is! The one who cost you everything! It is because of him everyone you love will perish, and everything you have ever known will burn.” He turned away and began to walk out of the room. “Be sure to thank him after I leave, just make sure to leave him alive so he may face his real punishment.” He started laughing his signature psychotic laugh as he left, not long after the sounds of destruction and ponies screaming rang through the air.

Gabe looked up at the six mares that he deceived, receiving a mix of tears, anger and looks of disappointment. Twilight refused to make eye contact and turned away in disgust. Fluttershy started crying and ran off. Applejack threw her hat on the ground and walked off. Pinkie’s mane deflated like a balloon and with her head hanging low she walked away. Rainbow Dash glared angrily as she shook her head and walked off.

Gabe realized they were right to feel the way they did. It was because of him they would lose everything. He put his hooves over his head and began to cry.

“PUT MY SISTER DOWN!” The white alicorn revered as Princess Celestia roared at the top of her lungs. She and her sister Luna have been fighting Justice to protect their throne, their country, and their subjects. Right now Justice had overpowered Princess Luna and was holding her by the throat.

“Alright.” Justice obliged with a smirk, he carelessly tossed Luna to the side and focused on Celestia. “To be honest I was expecting more of a challenge from the two of you.”

Princess Luna’s coughing caught Justice’s and Celestia’s attention. “I suppose we haven’t been training as much as we should have been Justice, but then again you are quite the admirable opponent.”

Justice smirked at this flattery while Celestia just gaped at what her sister was saying. After a while Justice shook his head in shock. “WAIT!” He ran over to Luna to interrogate her. “How did you know my name?”

Luna chuckled before answering. “You trespassed in my realm of dreaming; as such I have been watching you for quite some time.” Luna smirked. She gasped softly before continuing “and by extent I have also been watching the one who will defeat you.”

“The one who will defeat me?” Justice scoffed. “Who exactly is this twat that’s prophesized to defeat a beast that’s been around for all of two days?”

Luna shook her head and laughed before responding. “Maybe I should rephrase that” she grinned. “I’ve been watching him since he walked in.”

Shocked by this Justice immediately turned to the door, what he saw made him cringe with fear.

Standing in the doorway was Gabriel, in human form. He was barefoot wearing jeans and a brown t-shirt. “Are you ready to finish this Justice?” He asked, with nothing but hatred in his eyes. “I know I am.”

Chapter XVI: Battle for Redemption

Justice stood awestruck, trembling at the sight of Gabe in his human form. “H-how?!” He managed to choke out. “This is impossible! You!” He was lost for words.

Gabe smiled in response. “I suppose you had a hand in it.” Gabe reached into his back pocket and pulled out Danny’s broken glasses and thought back to a few minutes beforehand.

Gabe was defeated; Justice had resisted the Elements of Harmony and turned all of his friends against him. He had just started crying when the sound of somepony clearing their throat got his attention. Before he could get a chance to look up however he felt himself being levitated by magic.

“Well you’re not going to get anything done getting all dirty now are you?” Rarity asked in her usual tone, almost as if she didn’t realize it was the end of the world.

“Rarity?” Gabe was confused.

“Everypony listen up!” Rarity called the attention of the other five element bearers and Nero. “I know you may be upset, and it’s perfectly understandable why. But none of us have ever given up before, and I certainly won’t let any of us give up now.”

Twilight never turned around, she just sat there and scoffed. “I don’t quite know if you’ve been paying attention, but there is nothing we can do. The Elements of Harmony did nothing, and it’s all because of Gabe." She then sniffled and wiped her face.

“What’s yer point Twi?” Applejack said, picking her hat off of the ground and repositioning it on her head. “When Discord turned us all evil, y’all didn’t give up on us then, in fact if ah recall y’all just fought harder.”

Twilight turned around to face Applejack, but only to scold her. “Exactly! Discord did that to you, it was Gabe’s choice to hand our world over to that thing.” She made her way over to Gabe with nothing but anger and hatred in her eyes. “And then, despite everything he said about being so sorry with the things he’s done wrong in his life, lied to us.”

“Says who?” Rarity asked with a raised brow.

“You heard what Justice said!” Twilight barked back. “Gabe sold Danny out, he sold us all out.” She turned her burning gaze back to Gabe who could only cringe at the sight.

“That was probably just Justice trying to get us to turn against him; you can’t seriously put his word over the word of your friend can you?”

“You know what?” Twilight quipped. “You’re right; Gabe, what did happen?” She asked with a look that was a mix of pride and anger.

At first Gabe looked nervous, but then sighed and shook his head. “This is my fault, not all of it like Justice believes and wants you to believe; but I started all of this, and after I saw what was developing I tried to take the easy way out. But now I see I should have done something to fix this; not for me, not even for Danny, but because it was the right thing to do.”

After Gabe finished Twilight did look moved a little, but was soon distracted when she saw that her Element was glowing.

When they looked around they saw that all of the Elements of Harmony were glowing. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked, confused.

Gabe looked just as confused, but then grinned. “I think I know, but you’re going to have to trust me.”

Gabe opened his eyes as he finished, unclenching Danny’s glasses. “I had the girls use the Elements again, but this time” he paused. “This time they used it on me.”

“A-a-and the Elements turned you human again?” Justice stuttered. “But that makes no sense! You were stronger as a pony!” He screamed; feeling a mixture of fear, anger and confusion.

Gabe shook his head and chuckled. “It’s not about what form I take Justice: it’s about the trust my friends put in me, the strength I hold in my heart, the cause I stand for” as he spoke he began to glow a white light. “And right now more than anything it’s about me undoing my mistake; for me, for Danny and for EVERYPONY!” He cried out as his body was consumed in a flash of bright light, causing even Princess Celestia to shield her eyes.

When the light faded and Justice, Luna, and Celestia looked to where Gabe was the sight they saw was nothing short of miraculous. Gabe had become much more than human.

6 thin, clean white wings were coming from his back, his shirt had been replaced by a short-sleeved long white coat with three tails that flowed behind him, the open coat not only showed off not only his fit chiseled body, but the original symbol of the Elements of Harmony upon his chest.

As Justice’s jaw dropped Gabe just smirked and pocketed Danny’s glasses.

Justice’s breathing increased as he changed from shocked to enraged, his dreams of conquest were within grasp and he refused to be made a fool of again. “You can’t stop me” he started, seething with rage. “NOTHING CAN!!!”

“You’re wrong Justice.” Gabe smirked. “And I’m going to enjoy proving it.” On that note he charged forward, Justice doing the same.

The two’s fists collided and a shockwave went in every direction. Even the princesses were knocked off of their hooves. Locked in a stalemate Justice and Gabe just pushed harder, hoping to break the other’s stance. But soon Gabe’s chest began to glow purple as the emblem of the Elements of Harmony changed to a purple eight-pointed star. “What the hell is this?” Justice asked, straining to keep his footing against Gabe’s enhanced strength.

Gabe locked eyes with Justice and just smiled, then disappeared with a flash.

The amount of force on Justice’s was pushing before Gabe vanished caused him to fly forward and collapse. When he started to pick himself up Gabe re-appeared in another flash right in front of him and kicked him in the face. The kick sent Justice flying back, upon crashing Justice picked himself up quickly and scanned the room; Gabe was gone. All he could see were the princesses, idly sitting and eating popcorn. Justice took a defensive stance and waited for Gabe to re-appear.

He wasn’t prepared for this.

In several rapid flashes Gabe warped in and out of existence, each time delivering a powerful blow to the monstrosity. When the assault stopped Justice was flailing about trying to intercept his attacker to no avail. After a few seconds of silence Justice panted before crying out “WHERE ARE YOU!? COME OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!”

The response Justice got was a blue balloon coming through the floor. Soon many balloons of different colors were surrounding him. Confused, Justice struck one with the back of his hand, only to have it explode in a blast that sent him flying back; straight into the other balloons. A chain of explosions caused Justice to fly into one balloon after the other, each one detonating on contact and sending the helpless demon flying.

After the last explosion Gabe reappeared, the star on his chest becoming an orange apple. He grabbed Justice’s foot, brought him in close and punched him in the face with force enough to split the continent in half. Still holding the demon’s canine paw Gabe spun around and flung Justice into the wall on the other side of the room, amazingly the wall didn’t shatter with the force Justice hit it with. As Justice began to fall, Gabe quickly intercepted and punched him up through the ceiling and high into the night sky. Gabe quickly took off after him.

When Justice stopped spinning he was able to right himself and keep himself aloft. He panicked when he saw Gabriel flying up to him, still angry and still powerful. “WAIT!” He desperately cried, holding his hands in front of him. “Please, just-just hear me out friend.”

Gabe hovered at Justice’s level and scowled at him. “What?” he spat out at the creature.

“This power, it’s amazing.” Justice wasted no time flattering his assailant. “Can you imagine the possibilities? What we could do with this?”

“All I’m thinking about is killing you, saving this world, and getting back my friend.”

“But if we work together, we can return to your world. Rule it as gods!”

Gabe scoffed at how desperate Justice was acting. “They already have a god. And I thought I made myself clear, I’m happy here now. I’ve found a new purpose, new friends, and a new life. I’m sorry for what our families and friends must be going through, and I’ll never forget what I left there. But Danny was right; this is a new beginning, a new world of possibilities.”

“B-b-but Gabriel my friend” he paused for effect. “I can reunite you with Beatrice.” Justice continued to plead. “Didn’t you say you’d do anything in this world or the next to see her again? If we just work together, and put this silly argument aside, I know we can do it!”

Gabe shook his head as his chest began to glow red as the apple took the form of a red lightning bolt. “Justice” he started with a somber voice. “You don’t get it. I’ve moved on, forgiven myself for cheating on her, for betraying her. I learned from my mistake, and became better for it. But you Justice” storm clouds began to roll in overhead. “You held on to the anger, hoping it would make you stronger, but all it did was make you an enemy.”

Thunder began to boom from the clouds as red lightning circulated through them. Horrified, Justice took note of this. “No! Not again!”

After he said that bolts of red lightning ripped from the clouds and descended to where the two floated in mid-air. Justice cringed at the sight, but soon found he wasn’t being electrocuted again. But when he looked up he wished it was the same as before.

Gabe was glowing red as electricity cackled all over his body. He formed two massive spheres of energy in his hands and clapped them together, the massive electric blast sent Justice flying across the Canterlot skies into a tall tower.

The impact of Justice’s battered and fried husk caused the tower to begin collapsing. Gabe smiled, knowing he was one step closer to his goal. But his thoughts were interrupted when a massive segment of wall came sailing at him. Quick maneuvering on his part saved him from the oncoming rubble. Knowing he had no time to lose, Gabe took off towards where his “friend” was waiting.

More and more pieces of debris came flying at Gabe. The first two were easily dodged by flying out of its path, but the next one Gabe turned upside down mid-flight and ran across; leaping off of it to gain the momentum to smash the final and largest piece through the center. Keeping the energy from the blow going, Gabe kept going and flew fist-first into Justice, knocking him against the far wall.

The roof was completely gone, the walls were in pieces and the floor was cracking up; but that didn’t stop the two from their fight to the death. Gabe lunged at Justice, but this time Justice was able to evade the oncoming blow. Knowing he couldn’t stay still for long Justice sprang up and took to the offense; he rushed to Gabe and prepared a series of devastating punches, each of which to no surprise Gabe avoided.

Seeing what he thought was an opening Gabe threw a punch aimed at Justice’s jaw, but Justice had learned from his encounter with Nero and intercepted Gabe’s fist. Shocked, and unwilling to let Justice have any control over the fight, Gabe countered Justice’s attempt by pulling him in close and then kicking him in the gut with both legs.

This blow sent Justice reeling; he flew into one of the few standing walls, just to feel it give away. Within seconds he was riding a chunk of wall down towards Canterlot. As he was trying to gain control of his fall Gabe dove at him, effectively shattering the slab of wall Justice was trying to ride. As the two fell Gabe grabbed Justice and threw him into the walls of the tower, before Justice could recover Gabe grabbed his head and ground it into the wall; Justice’s face causing the damaged tower to crumble and collapse further.

Although Justice was able to remain intact, the pain of his muzzle grinding against a concrete building as he fell to the ground was excruciating. He couldn’t see why but soon he noticed that Gabe had let go, he didn’t give it a second thought before he propelled himself from the wall and tried to regain his balance; then he realized why Gabe let go. Pieces of the building were coming down left and right, it took all of Justice’s effort not to be flattened. As he dodged more large chunks of debris he noticed Gabe was in the same predicament: Justice got a nasty idea.

Making sure to weave his way in and out of the falling pieces of demolished building Justice quickly approached the preoccupied Gabe from behind. When he was close enough Justice grabbed Gabe and flung him into the side of the tower, took a deep breath in, and blew a torrent of fire at the surprised human.

Justice didn’t let the stream of flames up for a good minute before he was out of breath; even then he just let out an even bigger burst just to make sure the job was done. He snickered as the flames subsided; but his pride soon melted into shock.

Surrounding an unharmed Gabe was a massive diamond-shaped barrier. As Gabe unfolded himself and passed right through the shield it was revealed his chest bore the symbol of a gem. He then swung his arm, the diamond following his motions, shattered the magically-fashioned gem into Justice’s skull. The impact causing Justice to fall even faster, with more force right into the square below: the square already being cleared due to the panic of the tower’s destruction.

With a deja-vu sense beating in his head, Justice pried himself from the crater he left in the stone and got to his knees as Gabe effortlessly drifted to the ground nearby. The bruised and tired Justice spat before leering at Gabe “why are you fighting me?” He asked.

“I thought I made this clear.” Gabe started. “I’m fighting to save this world.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Justice snapped. “Why are you fighting?!”

“To save the ponies I put in danger and to make up for what I did!” Gabe yelled in response.

In response Justice simple chuckled, finally getting to his paws. “Don’t you see? This isn’t for them! This is all for you! You feel bad about what you did and now you’re trying to get rid of the thing that’s living proof that you screwed up!”

“Are you even trying anymore?” Gabe scoffed. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Justice shook his head. “You can’t deny it. You’re just trying to cover up your mistake, and look noble in the process. You may seem all benevolent and wise, but you’re a fraud, a hypocrite. You claim to stand for the light, but you have barely any idea what the light is. It’s not what you believe in; it’s what you use as a tool to promote yourself; you sing of grace and forgiveness, but all you give is anger and intolerance! ”

“That’s enough Justice.” Gabe seethed.

“What are you going to do?” Justice mocked. “Lash out at me like you lashed at Daniel time and time again when he refused to accept what you preached?” He started to laugh but was interrupted when a crow landed on his shoulder. When Justice looked at his newest avian friend it cawed in his face and flew towards Gabe. What Justice saw next made him reel in horror; the emblem on Gabe’s chest had changed to a pink butterfly and there was a massive swarm of birds piling behind him.

“Actually” Gabe started to answer Justice’s question. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.” The look in his eyes was enough to stop even the most resilient beast’s heart. He raised his hand in the air, and snapped his fingers.

At that instant all of the birds that had gathered behind him flew at Justice. He swung desperately but there were too many and they were each too small to land a decent hit. He could barely keep his footing against the ornithoid onslaught. He couldn’t see, could barely breathe, and had no way to defend himself.

When the constant fluttering and flapping stopped and the wind and tiny impacts came to an end Justice thought it was safe to open his eyes again. He thought wrong. The first thing Justice saw was Gabe, still enraged, more specifically his fist coming at him with the force of a train.

This single punch sent Justice flying across the square into another building. Before Justice could recover Gabe had quickly flown over to him and grabbed him by his neck and brought him close. “This is for Twilight!” He said before smashing Justice’s head into the wall behind him. “This is for all of the ponies you killed!” He repeated the process, this time causing cracks to appear in the wall. “And this is for every time you made Danny doubt himself or caused him any sort of pain.” He whispered before putting Justice down, taking a few steps back, and with a running start kicked Justice in the face; sending him clear through the damaged wall.

The room in which the two now found themselves was some sort of elaborate ballroom. Justice, who was beaten severely, had difficulty sitting up to face his opponent. Gabe on the other hand had strength to spare; he causally stepped through the hole he made as the butterfly on his chest changed back to the original symbol of the Elements.

“Coward.” Justice leered at Gabe before falling onto his hands and knees and coughing up some blood.

Gabe shook his head, Justice was just being pathetic, trying to salvage any sort of pride if he ever had any. “Alright, I’ll humor you. How am I a coward? The one who admitted his mistake and is confronting his demons?”

Justice managed to push himself onto his knees before continuing. “You fight me not with your own strength” he almost fell over again when he coughed some more. “But rather, you fight me with the powers and abilities stolen from your so-called friends.”

“This strength was given to me because they believe in me.” Gabe stated, sure of himself and his cause.

“They were afraid!” Justice yelled. “Afraid of losing what mattered most to them! And you! You took advantage of that fear! You knew they would never say no to your hare-brained idea. So you forced them to give you the strength to defeat me and play the hero. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it 1,000 times, you’re a liar. But you can’t fool me, you can’t fool yourself, and you can’t fool Daniel!”

“I don’t have to fool anybody Justice!” Gabe shouted back, he was tired of Justice trying to make him out to be the bad guy. “I’m doing what is right! And that’s all th…” He was interrupted when the emblem of the Elements on his chest began to glow.

Justice cringed at the sight, he feared the worst.

Gabe saw Justice’s fear and smirked, but then felt an odd sensation that pulled him out of his confident state. When he looked down his heart almost stopped: the symbol of the Elements was fading away. No sooner than they did he noticed his wings were peeling apart and drifting away like ash. “No!” He screamed in terror. “NO! NO! NO! What’s going on?!”

Justice noticed this and was just as surprised as Gabe, but soon he started to laugh. “Amazing.” He grinned as he got to his paws with no problem. “It seems that while you don’t listen to reason, the Elements of Harmony did. They would rather watch their world burn then serve the will of someone like you.”

“This can’t be happening! I don’t understand! Wait!” Gabe pleaded as he fell on his rear and began to back away.

Justice slowly approached the now powerless Gabe with a wicked grin. He made sure to take his time, allow the hopelessness to really sink in to the one who had caused him so much grief. When Gabe tried to escape through the hole he made with Justice’s face, Justice plunged his fist into the ground and caused several spikes to rip through the ground and block the exit.

Gabe was horrified, his source of strength had left him and now he was trapped. It wasn’t long before Justice grabbed his neck and lifted him to face level. “You’ve always disgusted me Gabriel. Your talk of hope and faith; I have never once felt what it meant to be loved, to have something to live for and people like you take all of that for granted. You go around making sure everyone can see things your way, and you break anyone who tries to see things from a different point of view.”

“It’s not like that.” Gabe choked out while he pitifully struggled to break Justice’s grip.

“Well I see it that way.” Justice growled. “And so does Daniel.”

“NO!” Gabe cried out.

“But where’s your hope now Gabriel? Do you finally grasp the big picture? That in the real world, whether it be one of pony or man, you don’t get ahead by hoping; you get ahead by breaking those who stand in your way with force. Daniel and I both learned that the hard way.”

“You’re wrong!” Gabe yelled, on the verge of tears from Justice breaking him. “Hope is real! It’s what pushes us to fight against impossible odds. Even if you kill me someone will fight, and if one pony fights, more will be inspired to fight you. Then you will fall.”

“Oh Gabriel.” Justice grinned. “So deluded ‘till the end, once I murder those princesses nopony will want to fight; they’ll all just want to run, to survive. And I will happily break their illusions of security, and watch their hopes shatter along with their bones.”

Justice then pinned Gabe against the wall and wrapped both of his hands around his throat. Gabe kicked and struggled in vain as his throat was crushed and he lost the ability to breathe, his gasps for air drowned out by Justice’s mocking.

“So as you can see, there is no hope; not for you, not for this world, and not for Daniel, the one you personally condemned!” Using his thumbs, Justice forced Gabe to look him in the eye as he finished. “I was hoping to watch you slowly starve as you wandered the ashes of this destroyed land, but I’m more than satisfied with sending you to Hell myself.”

As Gabe was forced to stare at Justice’s sadistic grin he felt the last bit of life leave him. Everything he could see became blurred, he couldn’t feel anything, and soon everything went black.

He was dead.

Gabe was terrified; he found himself in nothing but total darkness; there was nothing in every direction. He couldn’t even look down and see himself. He tried running, but as there was nothing he couldn’t tell if he wasn’t moving or just lost in the void. No matter how hard he tried nothing ever changed, just a thick black darkness as far as he could see.

Eventually he gave up. He fell to his knees and began to cry. He cried as loud and hard as he could, punching whatever he was kneeling on. “I’m so sorry!” He cried into the darkness, hoping someone would hear him.

But there was no response.

Gabe had lost, he had failed his friends, and now he would have to bear that for all of eternity as he wandered this empty darkness. He fell on his side and cried some more.

“Don’t give up!”

Hearing that made Gabe jump up in surprise; he didn’t say it, and he was alone in this void. Wasn’t he?

Then he saw something, a light. At first it was small, but quickly grew as it got closer. Gabe recognized it instantly and when he did tears filled his eyes. “DANNY!” He shouted as he picked himself up and ran towards him.

When they finally reached one another Gabe was thoroughly crying as he wrapped his arms around his friend. “I’m so sorry, this is all my fault. Please forgive me.”

Danny returned the hug, but soon broke it to talk to Gabe. “Please don’t give up now, Justice is weak I can feel it. You just have to keep fighting!”

“I-I can’t” Gabe sobbed, falling to his knees. “The Elements left me; I have nothing to fight with.” He then felt himself being lifted up.

“Fuck the elements!” Danny said as he lifted Gabe to his feet. “Do you think those stupid rocks are what matter? No. It’s the spirit of those who wield them, the fact that they had something worth fighting for and would do anything to fight for it. I don’t know how you lost their power, but I don’t care. You’re way too strong to let something like that stop you.”

Hearing Danny’s speech just made Gabe cry more. “But Justice is right. Without that power I’m nothing.” He turned away, ashamed he caused this and was unable to fix it.

“If the Elements of Harmony won’t give you their power” Danny put a hand on Gabe’s shoulder. “Then take mine.”

When Gabe turned back he saw Danny glow brightly. The light then came off in streams and flow into Gabe’s chest. The moment they did he felt rejuvenated, and the darkness began to let up. But his attention went back to Danny as he groaned and began to stagger.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “But that’s all I can do. Go, finish this, for everyone.” The moment he finished he fell forward; Gabe reached out to catch him, but the moment Danny touched him he burst into a silvery glittering dust.

Gabe started crying again as the darkness melted away further. “I’LL GET YOU OUT OF HERE DANNY!” He yelled before sobbing. “I’LL GET YOU OUT OF HERE NO MATTER WHAT!”

Justice laughed as Gabe’s limbs just dropped to his side, his empty eyes a sign of his victory. He knew that he had won, but as a sign of respect he closed both of Gabe’s eyes. Justice then let go of Gabe’s neck and let him drop to the floor.

Suddenly both of Gabe’s eyes ripped open, glowing with a powerful light. “WHAT?!?” Justice yelled in shock, only to be blasted all the way to the other side of the ballroom by a powerful burst of light, when he recovered he saw Gabe standing over him again; his wings had returned and on his chest a half-white half-black heart shaped record lingered for a moment before changing back into the symbol of the Elements of Harmony. “Bu-b-but I killed you! How is this p-possible?!” Justice stammered in fear as he tried to back away.

“Justice” Gabe started. “Not only did you hurt my friends and kill several ponies, but you tried to take away our hope, to make us feel helpless and alone.” One by one the elements came out of his chest, as brilliant spheres, each bearing the symbol of their bearer. They merged together over Gabe into a large bright mass. Then each of Gabe’s wings turned into a beam of light and joined the mass above him. “And that” Gabe started as the mass above him took form. “IS BEYOND FORGIVNESS!”

Justice just watched in horror as the mass of light transformed into a giant dove, its coo shook the building and rattled the windows, everypony all over Canterlot heard it, and turned to where the noise was coming from. Justice returned his gaze to Gabe as he finished his speech. “Oh and Justice, I was never your friend.”

At that the massive dove dove at Justice, it wasn’t fast but the impact was still devastating. The moment it made contact Justice began to scream in agony, the scream soon turning into a shrill cry as his silhouette began to fade. The shriek stopped for a moment as Justice asked. “What’s going to happen to me?” Right before he faded.

The bird of light didn’t stop though. It smashed right through the wall and flew out into the gardens. It then flew over the city, sprinkling a glittering stardust over everything it passed over. Whatever damage was caused by Justice instantly healed as the stardust touched it, everypony just watched in awe as the dove flew around the city many times, and then out towards the Everfree forest, where it seemed to disappear.

But none of that mattered to Gabe.

Gently floating before him in a gentle beam of light was Danny, unconscious and once again a pony. Gabe ran towards him and once he reached him, carefully grabbed him and slowly went down to his knees. “Hey.” Gabe said softly as he gently shook Danny, trying to wake him up. “We won. For real this time, you can wake up.” Gabe started to cry as Danny remained motionless. “Danny? Danny please!” Suddenly he remembered something, he reached into his back pocket and grabbed Danny’s glasses and proceeded to put them on him. Once he did Danny stirred a little.

“Danny?!” Gabe gasped.

In response Danny’s eyes slowly opened. He looked up at Gabe and with tears in his eyes threw his hooves around him. “You did it! You really did it! I never stopped believing in you Gabe.”

“Thank you Danny.” Gabe returned the hug, right before he started glowing.

“Gabe” Danny gasped. “What’s happening?”

Gabe’s entire body was enveloped in a bright light, and when it faded he had changed back from a human into a pony. “Nothing, this is who I am now. I shouldn’t have tried to change that. Not if it meant hurting my friend.” Suddenly Gabe felt completely drained and began to lose his balance; soon he collapsed on the ground.

“Gabe!” Danny shouted, worried.

“Don’t worry about me.” Gabe said, his voice trailing off. “I’m just a little beat, that’s all. See you soon.” At that he passed out, this time without the fear of Justice haunting his dreams.

Chapter XVII: Happily Ever After

For the first time since he and his friends arrived in Equestria, Gabe slept in peace. His dream was tranquil and he felt rested. Eventually he saw a familiar silhouette standing in front of a bright light.

“I’m proud of you” She started. “Gabey.” She gave Gabe a brief kiss and then turned towards the light.

Satisfied, and guiltless after so many years, Gabe smiled and began to open his eyes. Unsurprisingly, he was in a hospital bed; he looked around and saw Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie. For some reason pinkie was snuggling a small blue cannon, Nero and Danny. They were all fast asleep. Gabe checked for a clock and saw it was five in the morning. Eventually he got out of bed and began to browse the hallways; luckily for him he found a small balcony and gazed at the moon, reflecting on the last few days.

“I see somepony’s awake.” Gabe heard a voice say. He turned around and saw none other than Princess Luna behind him.

“Y-your majesty!” He stammered, and kneeled in respect.

Luna giggled. “There’s no need for such formalities. I should be the one honoring you. Not many would have the strength to do what you did.”

Gabe chuckled as he nervously rubbed his hooves. “Justice was easy; my friends gave me the strength I needed.”

Luna returned with her own light chuckle as she advanced towards the ledge and gazed at the moon. “I didn’t mean confronting that demon, I meant confronting yours. By facing your sins and the past that lay heavily on your heart, you showed true strength. Beatrice would be proud.”

This made Gabe jump. “You know about that?”

“As I said” Luna replied. “The realm of dreams is my domain. So I know of your distorted past, and what you truly are. I must say, I’ve never met a human before, so as you can imagine I have a few questions.”

Danny slowly opened his eyes as he woke up. He got off of the chair he had fallen asleep on and stretched a little. “Danny?” He heard a soft voice ask behind him.

Danny turned around to see Fluttershy was waking up. After yawning the most adorable yawn ever, she asked Danny, “I don’t understand, why didn’t you tell me Gabe was the one who hurt you in the first place? If you did, then maybe…”

Danny sighed; his sympathy had almost cost him his life. “I just… I didn’t want Gabe to get in trouble. I mean, your friends have made mistakes in the past, right?”

“They have Danny, but we didn’t do them any favors by letting them hide it.” Fluttershy responded.

“I’m sorry.” Was Danny’s immediate response; he didn’t do well when opposed. “At least now we’re all safe. But you’re right; because of me so many ponies were hurt.” Danny’s eyes started to water. “And I… I had to watch, as Justice….” Danny started to cry as Fluttershy held him in her hooves.

“We all make mistakes, Danny. Remind me to tell you about this one incident when I really lost my cool at the worst time possible.”

Danny’s knowledge of the show led him to guess at what she was talking about. “Um… I don’t think that’ll be necessary. Your hugs are all I need.”

A short while passed before Nero rolled off of his chair, audibly hitting the floor with a thud and jumping up in shock. “Whoa! Where am I? Where’s Sanctus? He still has my muffin.”

Danny chuckled before responding, reluctantly breaking Fluttershy’s hug to help Nero up. “We’re in the hospital.”

“Ugh.” Twilight groaned, Nero’s clumsy move having woken her up. “What? Hospital? Who’s hurt this time?”

“Oh… I’m sorry if you don’t remember.” Fluttershy softly responded to Nero and Twilight’s qualms. “After that giant dove flew over the city we saw Danny carrying Gabe out of… well… Um… the royal Canterlot ballroom that we destroyed and said that Gabe needed help so we brought him to the hospital.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s right! Shoot! How is he?” Twilight gasped.

Fluttershy and Danny stopped and realized that neither of them had checked on their friend who had just saved their lives. All four of them turned and saw that Gabe’s bed was empty. Then they all screamed when they saw that their friend was gone.

“Shhh!” A passing nurse stuck her head into the room. After the four calmed down to an extent, she nodded and walked away.

“Where is he?” Danny whispered, frightened.

“Don’t worry.” A voice from behind the group answered their question. “He’s in good hands.”

The group turned and saw Gabe enter the room, with Princess Luna in tow.

“Princess Luna!” Danny, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Nero gasped and kneeled in respect for the moon princess.

“Princess Luna?! Gabe?! Pattycake?! Sanctus?!” Pinkie pie gasped as she leapt from her chair and fired a massive bang of confetti out of her cannon.

“Shhh!” The nurse stuck her head back in, jumping in shock when seeing the princess and backing away with a flushed red face.

“Sorry.” Pinkie Pie whispered. “Oh my gosh, princess, it’s so cool that you dropped by and we’re sorry we didn’t defeat the big wolf-meanie and he…” She was cut off by Princess Luna’s gesture.

“There is no need for apologies, Ms. Pinkie Pie, but I would like to ask that you, Twilight, and Fluttershy to excuse yourselves so that I may discuss some business with our three recent heroes.”

Princess Luna’s statement caused the group to get worried, but they dared not object to the diarch of their land. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Pinkie pie made their way out of the room. Gabe looked confident but Nero was looking right and left and Danny was shaking.

“Luna knows what we are, where we come from.” Gabe started.

Nero gave out a sigh of relief, but Danny was stricken with shock and began to sway. “Does that mean… Does that mean we have to go back?”

Luna smirked and let out a sigh. “No worries Daniel, even if we wanted to send you back we couldn’t; Gabriel here destroyed the only convenient way to return you to your native world to stop Justice. I mean my sister and I could always pool our magic and open a small gate.”

Danny went from frightened, to relieved, and back to frightened.

“But then again, that is a lot of work, and you three aren’t causing too much trouble.” She gave another smirk and rustled Danny’s mane.

“Aren’t causing trouble?” Nero laughed. “We released a murderous demon, destroyed a historical landmark, and half of Canterlot. How is that not too much trouble?”

As soon as Nero stopped giving Princess Luna reasons to have them committed Danny and Gabe teamed up to slam a nearby trash can over Nero’s head.

This caused Luna to chuckle. “You three have nothing to worry about. There have been many far worse incidents in our fair country. I’ll make arrangements for the nine of you to return to Ponyville.”

“Thank you your majesty.” Gabe spoke up, taking a knee, soon followed by Danny and Nero.

Luna nodded in response before walking out.

After Luna made her way out Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie entered the room; followed by Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Rarity. “Howdy Gabe!” Applejack said hello. “Sorry we missed y’all wakin’ up, but we’ve been helpin’ round the city. Feeling better now?”

Gabe looked to Danny, and nodded to Applejack. “Better than you know.”

Twilight Giggled in response. “That’s certainly good to hear.” She paused as a pause crossed her mind. “Hey Gabe, and you two for that matter.”

“Yeah?” Gabe replied, shortly followed in kind by Danny and Nero.

“Well” Twilight started. “When I first moved to Ponyville I didn’t have many friends, but over time I learned the means by which to open my heart and accept others; Princess Celestia asked that I send back reports of what I learned.”

“And you want us to spell out a little of what we’ve learned about friendship?” Nero finished for Twilight.

“I guess if you were so inclined.” She smugly smiled. “It would certainly be a way to pass the time as we make our way out of the hospital to say the least.”

“I’ll go first!” Danny jumped ahead.

“Ooh! Ooh!” Pinkie pie interrupted him. “First let me get a quill and paper.” She swung open a painting on the wall and grabbed a quill feather and scroll of paper from a hidden compartment; she gave them to a surprised Twilight and turned to Danny. “Alright, go ahead.”

“Um… Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that you can’t run away from your problems, and you can’t face them, not alone at least. You need the help of your friends to bring you out of the darkness and give you the strength to leave it behind.”

Gabe was next. “Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that you can’t change the past; but you shouldn’t want to, the things you’ve done don’t always define who or what you are but they can help make you into a greater pony for the future.”

Danny smiled, not from Gabe’s message, but from the fact that Gabe referred himself as a “pony.”

The group had made its way out of the hospital and as they made their way through the wrecked Canterlot Square the sun began to rise.

“Do I get a letter?” Nero stepped forward.

Twilight was surprised by this request, but she wasn’t sure why, and she certainly wasn’t close minded to somepony else’s ideas. (Not anymore at least.) “Alright, why not? Shoot.”

“Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that often in life you’ll have to step up to the plate to do something against all odds. But this doesn’t mean it has to be a bad thing; whether it’s leaving what you know behind for something new.” He looked to Gabe. “Letting go of your past.” He turned to Danny. “Or having to take a stand. The road is never easy, but it doesn’t have to be, we decide how we go and where. And right now” he put his hoof out. “I say we go home.”

“Our new home.” Danny put his hoof on Nero’s.

“Our real home.” Gabe joined.

At that moment Danny’s horn began to glow and spark. “You know what?” He rhetorically asked. “This makes me think of a song.”

“Here we go again.” Twilight rolled her eyes.

Once again Grant’s horn flashed and the group found themselves on the roof of their train, the wind blowing their manes and tails as rock music played. Things seemed to slow around Danny as he started singing. The other ponies sometimes repeating a line, as if on cue.

Songs of pain and soothing lullabies

Songs of happiness and some that make us cry

One song we share

The cross we all bear

One that segregates

One that unifies

All we wonder

No one ever denies

If once given life we must die

So bow down with me

Where summer fades into fall

And leave your hatchets of hate

Bow down with me

And sing the saddest of all

The song we all serenade

The more we know

The less we understand

Life... eternity

The savagery of man

We want it all

Aimed at the fall

What is destiny within the masterplan

All we wonder

No one ever denies

If once given life we must die

So bow down with me

Where summer fades into fall

And leave your hatchets of hate

Bow down with me

And sing the saddest of all

The song we all serenade

Hold on now

Don't leave don't let it go

Dance away the waltz of life

Right or wrong

The seed we never sow

That's our loss

Our sacrifice

The area around the group seemed to slow down as white pedals fell all around; Danny took a white flower out of nowhere and threw it into the air.

What does the winter bring

If not yet another spring?

Bow down with me

Where summer fades into fall

And leave your hatchets of hate

Bow down with me

And sing the saddest of all

The song we all serenade.

As the song wound into its last instrumental stretch the train reached the station and the ponies got off. The final notes struck as they all made their way into the town where they lived, glad to be home.

Epilogue

The sun’s rays were almost unbearable. As they crept through the broken branches into his still-shut eyes he cringed, tossed and turned to try in vain to prevent the sphere of light from interrupting his slumber. As he moved about he groaned audibly as eventually he was roused from his sleep. His eyes tore open as he breathed shallowly. Slowly he regained his senses as he examined where he was.

As his eyes scanned the shattered three limbs above him, the dark woods around him and the soft mossy grass beneath him the question on his lips was not “Where am I?” But rather “Am I alive?”

Eventually he found the strength to lift one of his arms and raised it in front of his face. He examined his vicious clawed hand front and back, gaping in disbelief. “I don’t believe it” he said to himself, putting his hand on his forehead. “I am still alive.”

Justice sat himself up and began to laugh as he looked himself over; not a cruel, psychotic laugh but rather a warm hardy laugh, a laugh that celebrated the fact that he thought himself dead but was privileged to live another day.

“I don’t understand.” He said to himself as he tried to stand. “I don’t deserve to live, not after what I did to them. Why am I still alive?” Due to his lack of strength Justice fell face-first to the ground.

He noticed a nearby stream, knowing the sustenance would do him good he slowly made his way to the water’s edge. There he fell to his knees and began to drink. During a short pause between drinks Justice noticed his reflection, crisp and clear in the water’s surface, unchanged by the flowing current. As he stared deeper into the image he became immersed in his own features, until suddenly his face changed from him idly staring to him roaring in a sick mix of fury and insanity; with a mouth so twisted and eyes so deranged that even the boldest Ursa Major would run screaming. Seeing this caused Justice to jump back in fear, moments after seeing this horrible illusion Justice began to cry.

After wiping his eyes Justice stared at his hands and saw them coated in blood; he remember the scientists that he burned alive, he remembered the Canterlot ponies he had thrown about and pummeled like child’s playthings, he remembered the guard he ripped in half, and he remembered strangling Gabe. “What am I?” He asked, still sobbing. “What have I done?” He cried more and reflected on the monster he was. “Is this why I continue to live? To remember the monster I once was and always will be?”

Horrified with this revelation Justice cried more. He had lost the evil in his heart just to have it shown to him. Luna was given a new body that everypony would accept and forgive, but he was still the wicked demon he was created as; he felt true despair, knowing that he was forever bound by his past and his previous sins.

Justice looked up from his anguish when he heard cooing. He looked over and saw a white dove, and in its beak it was carrying a white flower. The dove hopped forward and placed the flower by Justice’s leg.

Justice just stared, confused.

Seeing that Justice wasn’t getting the message the dove inched the flower into Justices hand.

“Is…” Justice stammered, still confused as he gently picked up the flower. “Is this for me?”

The dove cooed as it nodded its head.

“I don’t understand, why would you give this to me? And why aren’t you afraid? I’m a monster.”

Unable to respond, the dove simply flew away. Leaving Justice still confused.

Justice stared at the flower and then it dawned upon him. He picked himself up from the dirt, his look of confusion being replaced by a stern glare. “No.” He said to himself. “No more will I be a monster, no more will I blame others for my misfortune, no more will I cast judgment upon those I do not tolerate. I will cast off my old ways, redeem myself for what I’ve done, and make myself anew!” He held his fist, with the flower within, high in the air.

After a period of time Justice brought his hand down and held the flower to his heart. He turned and made his way into the forest.

“Thank you…”

“Gabriel…”

“…My Friend.”

End.