God Complex

"And so the contract is bound.." The Djinn that stood before John said as he packed away papers into a brown leather briefcase.

"When does this well..kick in?" John stood up from the booth that he always sat in at the bar that he always drank in.

"Why don't you just have a drink."

"That doesn't exactly answer my question." John furled his brow and dusted some sawdust off his blue jeans.

"And I don't intend to. Just have a drink." The Djinn simply passed John a drink. Its consistency was similar to tar, and the smell certainly matched the sights.

"You don't expect me to drink that...do you?"

"I do. Take a drink."

John slowly picked up the shot glass and downed the sludge. It was as thick as it looked and tasted as it smelled.

"This is tar....THIS IS TAR!" John screamed and gagged as he slammed the glass down onto the table with a thud. John began to cough uncontrollably and reached for a glass of water but the Djinn already had the water in his hand, toying with it, watching John cough and gag.

"You humans really are..." On the last syllable he began to crack up laughing. "I can't believe you did that! You actually drank it. I thought you would have thrown it to the floor, you couldn't have actually thought tar would bring on any kind of transformation or that it was some magical sludge that would mold you into what the contract wrote out. Seriously though...seriously though...here." The Djinn snapped his fingers and the tar was gone from his throat.

"You're an asshole." John said catching his breath. "You can't just feed someone tar."

"You should know not to eat it, did your parents teach you nothing?"

John rolled his eyes and stood up.

"Seriously when will it kick in?"

"The contract was set into place the second you signed your name on the dotted line. These superhuman powers in exchange for you leaving your planet."

"Honestly I was surprised that was all I had to do. I would have expected me having to do something really messed up or depressing."

"Brutal honesty I was thinking about having you become a eunuch in exchange for all the power. However you are the one who got me out of that blasted amulet so I let you off easy."

"Aren't I lucky."

"Indeed you are."

"So where am I?"

"Some planet where you will be totally alien, one of a kind. Cross your fingers they aren't very fond of dissection." The Djinn chuckled under his breath.

"I swear to god if I step out of this bar and find myself on some planet where they breath methane instead of oxygen I will...probably die, but I will be very upset!"

"No, it is not hostile in that regard. Now, I must be off, there are a fair few things to be done now that I am free. Cause chaos, instill paranoia, mess with some mediums. Normal things for an all powerful magical entity."

"I suppose I will away now then." John stepped out of the booth and put his hand onto the doorknob before taking a long deep breath. "To new beginnings." John swung open the door and found himself stepping outside of a different bar, this one being called The Winking Mare. John's eye twitched as he read this. "Please let this be medieval times, or at least a fantasy world." John looked around some more and found all the stores and stands were both abandoned for the night as well as labeled with horse puns.

As he continued to explore the square and its surrounding streets and vendors, he saw many a book store, and places selling horseshoes, saddlebags and the sort, some of which being jewel encrusted, strange to have such things for a beast of burden. Another sight he found strange was the lack of butchers, or any kind of meat vendors for that matter. He so swore he would smell the aromas of pork and lamb but no such things were about.

"Perhaps this city in vegan." John whispered to himself, "I'd rather be shot."

John chuckled to himself and continued meandering about until he came to the end of the east road. Beyond the pavement was a dirt road that lead up to what seemed to be a very successful apple orchard.

John smirked and said, "Jackpot."

He sprinted into the orchard and found a soft mound of ground next to one of the trees. He softly laid his head upon the mound and it was hardly more than a few moments before his exhaustion took hold and he fell asleep.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"What the...." A southern accented voice pierced John's ears as callused hooves prodded at his chest.

"Just five more minutes.." He uttered half asleep and rolling over, completely ignoring the creature prodding at him.

The creature, clearly a female, let out an exasperated sigh before bucking him in the chest. "Wake up!" She screamed in her unmistakable southern accent.

John lurched and rolled over once more, this time rising to his knees. "What the hell! You can't just kick someone like that." John's eyes were still closed as he stood up, dizzy from the blow. He opened his eyes, and looked about. As far as his gaze could reach there were apple trees and wooden buckets laying next to them. A patch here and there were empty but not much. "Who just..." He kept looking around before looking down and gasping in surprise. The creature he looked upon was an equine. Its fur slightly dirty from moving throughout the orchard, but the orange was unmistakable. A blonde mane drooped down its back and down its cheeks. "Am I dreaming?"

"You ought to be if you think it's okay to sleep here. Who even are you? What are you?" The orange equine was asking questions rapidly, and giving John absolutely no time to reciprocate an answer.

"Uhh. I'm John...and I'm well...don't worry about what I am. What the hell are you? Last time I checked horses don't talk." John stretched and scratched where his already completely healed bruise would be.

"I'm a pony now you answer!"

"I said don't worry." John laughed and tried to pat the head of his orange pony, to which she responded with a swift slap with her hoof. "Rude!" John exclaimed, holding his hand sarcastically feigning pain.

"You are trespassing!" She exclaimed, stretching out her back trying to get into John's face, "and you don't even have the courtesy to say what you are beyond a name that doesn't even sound like a dang name!"

"John's pretty damn standard if you ask me. What do they call you?"

"Applejack!"

"Ahhh, so you're named after a cereal." John snickered, but Applejack was clearly not amused.

"Wait 'ntil Twilight gets hold of you! An alien trespassing, not going to sound so good!"

"Fine, I'm a human. Happy?"

"What the hay is that!?" Applejack asked in utter confusion.

"I didn't question why you're a talking horse, pony, whatever! Why are you questioning my race?" John stretched once more. "So where can I get something to eat?"

Applejack was again sighed in disbelief and slammed her hoof into her face. "I'm going to go get Twilight, she's the authority on anomalies around here...she'll want to speak with you."

"My question still stands."

"The barn is north of here, and feel free to get at a few apples. You seem harmless enough, just gave me a scare is all. Something like you ends up here in the dead of night...well...gives me a frighten. The wood tends to leak out harmful things."

"I suppose I understand." John was saying once again sarcastically as he began to walk northwards towards the barn. "Am I to wait there?"

"Yes." Applejack uttered that last word before swiftly moving back towards the town.

John walked towards the barn, and as opposed to his night stroll he enjoyed the scenery. The apples were perfectly red almost as if they were painted. Their taste was heavenly, and surprisingly they were rather filling. The sun was shining in John's eyes but he could make out the barn and farmhouse from where he was standing. It was a modest abode with a few windows probably indicating bedrooms with the kitchen being in the back. As for the barn it was probably twice the size of the average barn he would see back home.

"Suppose they move a lot of stuff through here."

John sat down against the barn and started to eat another apple. Its juices ran down his throat as he ate what may as well have been solid ambrosia. It wasn't long before Applejack returned with a purple alicorn that could be presumed as Twilight. John waved as Twilight looked upon him and gasped in surprise.

"Hello..uhm..John, is it?" She asked nervously.

John stood up and extended his hand to her, "That would be me." He smiled genuinely now that he was full and happy. "What do you need?"

"Applejack was telling me you snuck onto her farm and slept there."

"That would be correct. Wasn't exactly going to look for a hotel. Apple orchard seemed like a nice enough place."

"Yes, but well. I need to ask you a few things, care to come with me?"

"Why not. Good to stretch the legs every now and then."

"Right." Twilight said with a nervous smile as she motioned for John to follow her.

The town itself was absolutely beautiful. All of the buildings blending together like a rainbow. The smells of the place were also amazing with fruits and vegetables and pastries filling the air with their respective aromas. The place that they stopped at was not a house but a tree. There were windows up at the top and a small door that John had to duck through to enter. John found himself sitting down on a seat opposite to where Twilight sat herself down. She had a journal in front of her and used her magic to control a pen.

"So what brought you here?"

"Signed a contract with a Djinn. His being was bound to some amulet I bought off a gypsy. Gorgeous piece of jewlery, and unfortunately I didn't get to keep it. Damn shame too! The amulet whispered to me and had me do some weird ritual and then I met him. I can't remember his name, probably not too important. Probably didn't even tell me the right bastard. He gave me one wish, but it would come at a price, I wanted powers beyond the reach of any human ever.

"Powers, what kind of powers?"

"Superhuman speed, reflexes, healing, strength, stuff like that. I wanted to effectively become a god, however when I asked with omnipotence he laughed at me. So we settled on something that would make me unbeatable in a fight. I was hoping to join the military like this. Maybe a private military corporation, but nope I'm here. Not all bad, at least this place smells better than the shit hole town I was in."

"So you have magic powers?"

"Wouldn't describe it as magic. I can't shoot fireballs or control people or anything. It's just for all intents and purposes I'm immortal. If the Djinn didn't lie to me there is nothing that would ever be able to muster the strength to kill me in any physical fight."

"That's actually rather interesting? You said it was a Djinn?"

"Yes I did. Do you have lint in your ears?"

"No!" Twilight was slightly taken aback by the sarcastic question, "Just strange. Air elementals with that kind of power seldom leave their own planes. The fact that you met one and it did that for you as well as sending you here is amazing."

"I guess it is. But he didn't seem like anything of the sort. When he came out it wasn't the stereotypical Djinn, it was just some guy! He was about my height and maybe a bit older."

"Well, if it can grant wishes, it can certainly shapeshift." Twilight pulled out a book on the inhabitants of the plane of elemental air, "You might want to read up on Djinn's they can be very dangerous. Are you sure there wasn't anything else in the contract that you signed other than being sent here?"

"He said that he was going to be light on me since I freed him, but I didn't read the whole contract. For all I know I have the life expectancy prison pedophile."

"Do you think you could tone down that kind of humor while you're around. Most ponies won't find it very funny and most will find it offensive."

"No promises, I don't need people to like me, I'm just here to do....well I don't know what I'm here to do." John scratched his head. "Honestly, I haven't thought that far."

"As happy go lucky as this place tends to be, Ponyville has this habit of getting itself into trouble with the weirdest things. An extra helping hand when something bad happens wouldn't be bad. You said you wanted to join the military on your home-world?" Twilight asked with genuine concern.

"I wanted to join a private military corporation. Something with a bit bigger of a paycheck and I would be off doing something more entertaining than fighting for a country's less than pure agenda."

"Well, one of my close friends, Rainbow Dash has been working on something. She said when she was flying around she saw a gathering of suspicious creatures in a ravine. Maybe you could meet up with her and ask if there is anything you can do to help. She's typically friendly around new po....people." Twilight blushed, "I'm used to calling everyone a pony, you're kinda unique in that way."

"Where can I find her? I'm getting bored of doing nothing. Besides, I haven't had a chance to test out this new power."

"She's just camping out by the ravine. Tell her I said hi! I haven't seen her in quite a while."