No...
I failed them all.
How could I fail them?
How could I fail my kingdom...my ponies...
Wind and rain forced my eyes open. With the sky rapidly retreating from me, I realized I was falling. I twist my long slender body around, although I was unsure why I was in the shape of a human. Looking down at the ground, I knew I had little more than a half minute before the ground greeted me. Hello Terra, it is unknown to me that you hated me. However, Aera knows who I am. I am overwhelmingly happy that I still feel my connection to my powers, this world must have an unclaimed sun.
I summon a great deal of my energy to transform back into my equine form, but only my horn and wings were able to appear. I struggle more than just such a basic spell, I must be more drained than I thought before. I open my wings and gracefully slow my fall. I land in a neighborhood, dozens of homes lined up parallel from one another on two long rows on each side of a paved road. My energy becomes weaker as my wings and horn vanish, not able to keep themselves stable outside of my equine form.
Rain has already began to soak through my white dress. My body temperature is already dropping, and I don't have enough mana to support myself. Once I gain more energy, I should connect myself to this sun so that I have a much faster mana regeneration, but that'll take time. I turn to my right and spot a home that looks as though a small lap light is coming from it. Just as I take my first step towards it and a hail stone the size of my eye impacts the road at high velocity, breaking the road on impact. I get the message.
As I turn towards my left, I actually see someone. It looks as though they were sitting on their couch or something. I walk towards it now, hoping they wouldn't mind letting me in from this dangerous storm.
The death toll alone was reaching 850, while the number of displaced families was six times as much. Despite the rainfall, fires raged from lightning strikes. Needless to say, shit had it the fan at mock eleven. Some homes still had power, and these homes only had power from small generators. One home in particular was dark save for a light being cast from a small tablet devise.
Inside the home, a young man laid on his couch while listening to his favorite music. He watched the rain fall from across the room through his kitchen window. His name was Lance McDowell, age twenty-six, but he looked very much like a sixteen year old whenever he shaved. He smiled away as the rain fell almost horizontally, a smile followed by a slow tapping of his fingers on the arm of the couch. Lance wasn't in the mood to blare his music in his ears, but wanted to fill the quiet household with Dragonforce and Nightwish.
From behind, a bolt of lightning stuck the street. He turned around in time to see the scar it left on a nearby home. A close call to say the least, but the rumble of the thunder made his heart sore like an eagle. The shuddering roar that echoed the fury of whatever gods felt as though they were pissed off, or having really, really hot sex. Whatever was going on upstairs was great to say the least, making love to 'Fury of the Thunderstorm' by Dragonforce felt almost ironic to Lance.
*Knock-knock-knock* Lance paused his music from playing. His attention turned towards his front door, which stood vigil to the outside storm. He waited, to see if his senses were playing tricks on him. *Knock...Knock-Knock* He mouthed a few unpleasant words about who the absolute fuck would walk out in the storm. He had another six days worth of canned food, and another twelve cans of tuna.
He grabbed the handle, then looked through the tiny hole in his door to see who it was. Outside was a tall woman, skinny too. She was wearing a wet white dress with golden lacing, and her pink hair was long, nearly reaching past her back. He turned the handle and opened the door.
"Hey, come on in." He offered, opening the door more to allow the woman entrance into his home. "God, you're soaking. Did you know it was raining." He ran across the living room to a closet where he had a large group of colorful towels. He grabbed a pink towel and ran back across to her. "Here."
"Thank you." She grabbed the towel and wrapped it around her chest, shivering only slightly. "And thank you for giving me shelter. My name is....well...my name is Celestia."
"Well that's a name I haven't heard before. And my name is Lance." He watched her for a minute while she tried to dry herself off. "So uh, you know it was raining right?"
Celestia looked out the window and then back at Lance, only to shrug. "Huh, so it is." Lance sighed at her answer. She took quick notice of this then smiled. "I'm afraid I have no where to stay. Perhaps I could remain with you?"
"You're homeless?" Celestia nodded. "How?"
"I was kicked out of my home by...my father. Yes, he was an awful thing.. So I had to leave." She explained, looking around the home. "I can do your chores for you if it will allow me to stay here."
Lance scratched the back of his neck, thinking on her words. "I...I suppose that'll be alright for the time being. Eventually you'll need to get a job, I can't pay food for both of us forever."
She gave a nod before shivering once more. "I do not suppose you have a set of spare clothing for me?"
"Nothing I don't think will fit you, sorry. But I figure we could wrap you up in a blanket or a sheet while your dress dries. Follow me, I'll help you out."
Celestia follows the human across the living room to a bathroom. She sees a toilet and a shower and tub. "You are awfully kind. I cannot express enough of my gratitude towards you." Lance walked into the bathroom, only giving her a nod along the way in as for his answer. He opens a dresser built into the wall, pulling out a large yellow bed sheet and a large orange bed sheet.
"Which one you want?"
"Yellow please." He gives her the sheet while folding the orange one away. He steps out without a word and shuts the door along the way. She takes off her dress and tries to dry the rest of her body. The dress is folded up on an empty towel rack and she sets the towel on the floor to keep it from getting wet. She looks at her dress, a little sad at her situation. She was lucky.
"Down boy!" Lance hissed at himself, mostly at his crotch. His heart was racing and all he could think about is how wet she looked, and how hot she looked. That dress wasn't see though, but he got a good idea of what she had under. She wore no bra, and maybe even no panties as well. He shakes his head, cursing more at himself. "She had just big 'ohle titties." He covered his eyes, she was so hot, and so massive. She was at least three- maybe four inches taller than he was. Her strawberry-blond hair was long and went much farther back than her ass, but it was wet so it may be as long as towards the middle of her back.
He snapped to attention when he heard Celestia coming from the bathroom. He looked over at her and how she turned her bed sheet into a much drying looking dress. While he knew it was still a bed sheet for his bed and his guestroom, he smiled seeing how much warmer she looked. Her hair looked a little frazzled from her attempts to keep it from dripping, but it wasn't as though he really cared. At least she wasn't flooding the place like she did while coming inside from the storm.
"Hungry? Nothing hot I'm afraid, no power, not after the storm hit."
"How long as it been going on?" She asked as Lance stood up. "And yes please."
Lance wandered over to the kichten and as an attempt to hear his answer, Celestia followed him. "A few days ago, didn't you know?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm afraid I was just dropped off down a few blocks down."
"You looked like it." He opened his fridge, happy his generator was able to keep it cold. Although he left his freezer off, so he'll need to go shopping soon for more meats. He grabbed a leftover plate of spaghetti and pulled it out, gave it a sniff and shrugged. "Leftovers?"
"Home, food? I have nothing to repay you."
"You said you'd clean for me, least I can do."
"You don't mind?"
"Got a spare room and I don't get to work on my house much. Haven't vacuumed my place in...eh...never mind." He waved a hand and brought out a pair of forks and plates. "Mom always told me to help those in need. Dad told me to make sure to take care of women." He smiled, scooping out a medium sized ball of the noodles and pasta sauce, then he dropped one on both plates.
Celestia looked down at the plate, making sure she could actually eat it. There was a healthy amount of meat, but more pasta than that, much more. It took her a few seconds to gather her thoughts. She could eat it, a little meat wouldn't hurt her, and might actually just burn right into mana. Carbs were also good, she'd sleep well tonight, and he did say she could stay.
"I thank you for this meal."
"You're welcome, Celestia. What a pretty name. Sounds like Latin, but I'm not sure. Sun or something, you do seem pretty bright."
She blushed at his complement. "T-thank you. I was always told I was ugly."
He dropped his fork with wide eyes. Lance looked at her with wide eyes, then looked really angry. "Well, you're not!" She was almost blown away by his words, her jaw dropped a little. "Who ever told you that needs to get their reality checked, either that or they're dumb."
W-what? I wasn't aware they actually thought like this now. Have the humans actually changed this much since we left? I notice nothing out of the ordinary about this human, but nothing actually comes up. He's normal, yet, he's different somehow. Such kindness, and openness...reminds me of Rarity or Fluttershy. Sombra was open once before, before Platinum died.
"I'm sorry I made you angry..."
"Don't be." He softened up a little, but it was clear he was still angry about it. "Eat-up."
"May I have some water?"
"Of course."
I sat on the couch, thinking to myself. The sun they had was much farther away from this world than I had thought at first, although it does leave me room to expand my magic once again. I feel a little awful that I had to use magic to twist my words so that this human would give me shelter, but not much of what I had said had left a hole in his mind where his thoughts would review my words. Only a few sentences were scaring on his mind, luckily he would recover quickly from them.
Lance was sleeping now, the cool night air inside the home left me a little upset. I was just glad I was given something dry to wear. I knew humans did not like nudity unless it was for mating. His mind was strangely weak. Only some parts showed physical trauma or disorder. A well rounded human was good, because he could be in-
No,... I shouldn't try to influence him anymore than I need to. He's given me food, water, and shelter as well as something dry to cover myself. However, should he try to press too far with who I am, I would use my magic to veer him away from such actions until I know I can trust him fully. I don't want to start a panic, many humans still scoff at the thought of life on other worlds, and exposing myself would lead to my undoing before I am able to recover.
I lay down, resting my head on a tiny couch pillow. Much of what I am is lost, much of everything I worked for, is gone most likely forever. Zorok feeds on pain and suffering while absorbing magic to increase his own. A plan must be made if he chose to follow me. Demons were everything but not greedy. My eyes closed, only seeing the after image of the demon's demented face. I can still feel his yellow eyes touching my soul in his attempts to damn me to Tartarus. With a lone tear falling down my face, I try my hardest to rest, still wondering if Luna is alright.
In the wake of the morning, a surprise was left hanging in the sky. Lance was shocked to say the least, even to go so far to run outside with the excitement of a child having as much candy as he wanted. Despite the burning feeling in his eyes, he fell on his knees and looked up towards the sun with his eyes closed. He fell back, feeling the warming rays of the blazing fury from above. He and like many other humans that lived around him looked out to the completely empty sky.
Celestia woke up to all the commotion coming from outside almost a half hour later. She felt much better, but what confused her was the open door to Lance's home. She got up and looked outside, seeing a party of humans of all ages and even sizes. Lance ran around with a ball wrapped tightly in his hand with a few younger humans running after him, all had massive smiles on their faces. The smell of cooking meat filled the air, she covered her nose to try to block it from entering, but her attempts were futile when she began to taste the smoke. Her arm dropped, and she left the abode with the door closed behind her.
Lance only stopped as Celestia walked out and the group of seven kids rammed right into him, toppling him over into once big pile. Still, laughter filled the air and even more came from Lance who turned his attention back at the kids. Celestia didn't walk much farther than his front porch so that she didn't attract any attention she didn't want with what she was wearing at the moment.
"Okay, I'll be right back y'all." Lance said, waving as he ran up to Celestia. He laughed and smiled at her. "Bet we could lay your dress out in the back so it can dry faster. Don't want you missing all this fun."
"What's going on anyways?"
"We're welcoming the sun back!" He answered. "Haven't seen any in just over a week, so I gave my coal out so we could celebrate with a Bar-B-Q. Then we work on helping out picking up the mess." He waved his hand around and sure enough Celestia finally noticed the fallen branches and damaged roofs. All she could do was bite her lip with slight anxiety.
"COME ON!!!!" The group of kids called out to him.
Lance waved at them, then glanced at Celestia. "Go ahead and do what you do, whatever that is. Hopefully we'll have power back on soonish." He gave her a last smile then ran out to the awaiting kids.
What?
I watch him play, unable to look away from his playfulness. He runs around with a round object his in arms, he spins around a couple of kids who were trying to block him from running past a pair of worn green chairs. He falls as one had managed to grab onto his leg, but he still manages to get the ball on the other side. His team comes running up to him and piles onto him. Laughter fills the air. Across the street, I see a few parents talking to one another, all with smiles on their faces. A couple have small white sticks in their hands they seemed to be sucking on.
Next door, there's a human standing over a metal object that has heat radiating from it, and many small meat patties on it, cooking. Oh how had things changed for the humans, things I never thought possible, but how much had they changed. I look at the sun, unaffected by the harsh light it gave off, but instead I feel my energy returning much faster now that the sun is out. Pursing my lips, I try to feel for my magic around my hand. I was happy I had enough to show that it was still there. Seeing and feeling are different from one another. I am happy, insanely happy that I can cast once again.
It was time to dry my dress. I wanted to step outside of the shade, gain more power. I feel drained, and I needed more sunlight. I don't do well in the shade. With a sigh I walk back in, adjusting my sheet. I pause. I'm sure he'll let me take a bath. I needed to rest my tired muscles. I wonder over to the bathroom and drop my sheet.
While the bath was running, sadly with cold water, I check on my dress. Thankfully it was good to go already. It dried fast, just like my coat did while I was a pony. And while I felt it for wet spots, I felt a small tingle go down my spine. It was a part of me, that I knew now. The sheet felt off, while this felt fine, wonderful even! I stop the water, and dip my fingers in the water. With a bit of magic, I make the water steaming in just a minute or so.
Now, I was left to think. While laying in the tub, I just thought.
"Okay...I'm on a human world. I was banished from my world..... Zorok." The Elder Ether, Demon of End Times. He was locked away, forced to eat a world that it could not reach. "Luna's dead, Twilight and the Elements of Harmony are dead. The Avatars of Senses are dead. Terra's life was being drained. My sun was dying..." Yeah...Okay, things were pretty bleak. But I have another to pick. This one felt right, but was farther away by a few million miles.
I was lucky to survive his spell, just left me drained of most of my magic. "Maybe things aren't so bad after all..." Yeah, that's what makes this so good for me. I can recover, and maybe...Lance being ever so helpful, hasn't even asked me where I'm from yet. This is good because it leaves me longer to make up an easier story. First though, to make it more believable I need to find out other communities that live far enough away from here that I won't be questioned even more.
During my musings, I hear Lance walk down the hall and enter a room. I heard quiet thuds and pressed my ear up against the wall, and used a bit of magic.
"Report."
"Nothing. I'm still working on the project. I just need some more time is all."
"Is that all? Just more time? We've given you three years and a perfect retirement for your parents, and you want more time? No. We want it now." The voice was distorted so the person could not be identified. "Be as it may, we cannot say we aren't forgiving. We believe that your position is compromised."
"Is she a threat yet?"
"No. Although the woman you have picked up off the street is under yellow alert. She doesn't show up anywhere in our files."
She heard Lance give a long sigh. "As I see it, she's just some lonely anon. And when did you guys start spying on me?" Don't think to much about it, the tone of his voice seemed as though he wasn't surprised at all.
"Since we hired you. You have shown results in the project, but just as I said before, you are in danger once more. In three days a van will pull up and will take you and that woman to your parent's home. You will make up a story fitting enough for them to believe. You're an excellent lair."
"No I'm not, I'm terrible, and my mother sees though me like a window."
There was a sore scoff. "Make sure the codes are set up just as we want them before you move. If you want to remain rich, you are to remain our monkey."
Lance was quiet for a bit, she could only hear a couple whispers. "-asdga. Your kind is so advanced, why do you aid me?"
"Because for our race, aiding in the unification of the galaxy would be benifical. While right now we cannot fully interact, we can still set the right stones in place. You have three days. Report before you leave."
"Yes masters."
Celestia jumped away from the wall, eyes wide with shock. "W-what?"