Revelations *Edited*

Simon kneeled down to check on the battered human as a wave of magic quickly swept across her face reconstructing it. She dug her fist into the underside of his jaw before he could react, sending him flying. Standing up Kat looked between the two halves of their weapon before glaring angrily at Simon.

Twilight watched, noticing magic had started pouring out of Kat as shevery angrily stomped towards Simon.

“Kat, Kat, calm down now think this through.”

Simon slowly backed away with each step Kat took, ultimately failing to put any distance between them. Kat immediately broke into a charge, pulling her fist back, yet right before it could connect Twilight watched in shock as vast amounts of magic started erupting from Simon’s body.

As the fist came up and connected with Simon's jaw there was a loud noise and a huge gust of wind bursting out in the center of the pair.

In an instance Twilight blinked due to the sudden burst and to her shock, Simon was gone. Immediately, looking up she could see a small speck, as well as hear the human mumbling to themselves as they walked over to where the pieces of Ragnarok lay picking up the handle part of it they walked back over to where they were just standing.

“YOU WANT BASEBALL THEN I WILL GIVE YOU BASEBALL SIMON.” They yelled out looking straight up. The human lowered their stance a little bit moving the handle behind them.

Twilight watched as the speck in the air grew larger until it was low enough to where she could make out the shape of Simon. Kat swung the handle around, hitting Simon straight in the middle of his body, launching Simon back into the air and flying off into the distance.

The human watched Simon fly off for a few seconds before they squatted down and jumped, large amounts of magic bursting out as they took to the sky, following right on Simon’s airborne heels.

Twilight ran as fast as her hooves could take her, trying to keep them within sight yet the ever increasing treeline only hindered her further. At that point, her only hope was to keep to a straight line and that her luck would hold out.

Once she left the edge of the forest she looked around but couldn't find any signs of them. Thinking quickly she used her magic to activate Ace.

“Ace can you tell me the location of Simon.”

There was a moment's pause before Twilight got a response.

“Yes Miss Twilight, Simon is currently twenty degrees to your left and five miles out.”

Twilight immediately turned and started running in the general direction.

“Ace please keep me updated if Simon moves more than one mile from the last location you told me.”

Twilight ran as fast as she could only changing directions when told to by Ace. Soon Twilight arrived at a mountain looking up the side to see large amounts of dust and rocks being kicked down from near the top, forcing her to move to avoid some of the debris

“Twilight, Simon is currently on the move towards your location.”

Twilight looked back up the mountain after avoiding another large stone chunk and saw that there was a dust cloud coming down the side of the mountain. However, more and more pieces of the mountain continued to fall, forcing her to take shelter behind a nearby boulder.

“Ace can you notify my friends about my current location?” Twilight asked as she watched the dust cloud grow closer, still unable to make out if it was just Simon or if Kat was there as well.

“Yes, Twilight I will do so right away.”

As Twilight watched the cloud grow in size she finally was able to see two figures among the dust, one currently in the midst of striking the other.

Luckily for Twilight, a gust of wind parted the cloud enough forTwilight to see that it was Simon sitting on top of Kat before they began to slide down the side of the mountain, Simon using the force from each of his strikes to maintain their momentum down.

When they hit the bottom they slid out some distance from the mountain prompting Simon to finally cease his attack on Kat, both figures visibly bloody. In spite of the numerous patches of blood all over his body, Simon could only smile as he stared down his defeated opponent with pride.

Simon gave an exhausted chuckle, “Was it as good for you as it was for me, my friend.” This statement confused Twilight she was about to step out from behind the rock she was using to hide as Simon stood up when something went flying by.

It struck Simon in the head, sending him to the ground so hard it left an impression in the dirt. Twilight immediately scanned for the object and immediately recognized it as an arm.

“God damn it Simon, how come every time we fight I always end up losing my arm? You know how much that hurts you douche!”

Twilight looked back and saw the human called Jack shouting angrily at Simon. Quickly picking up the pieces of Ragnarok that he was carrying with him Jack moved towards Simon, yet Simon remained on the ground.

Not knowing what the human would do to Simon, Twilight jumped out from where she was hiding and ran to Simon, placing herself between the two. The act and aggressive stance she took, served to halt Jack’s advance.

“Hmm that's interesting it seems one of the local species has adopted Simon as one of their own again.” The human sighed lowing his stance and moving his hand up in a defensive position.

“It's okay little horsey I’m not going to hurt him.” Jack slowly approached “If I give you a nice juicy carrot will you calm down.”

He held out one hand and a black spot appeared above it and a carrot fell out into his hand which they then held it out towards Twilight. “See, nom noms.”

Twilight mulled over the implications of how this human was talking.

“Simon did say that there were creatures similar to her species in his world that weren't intelligent maybe then this human thought she was one of them.” Twilight thought to herself as she allowed the human to draw closer, moving the carrot from side like a fishing line. With a toss he threw the vegetables to the side, with Twilight only paying it a glance before looking back at him.

Jack chuckled a little “Not falling for that huh?”

Not waiting for an answer, he tried to move around Twilight only for her to follow suit and maintain the distance between him and Simon.

“I’m sure you don't understand who exactly you're protecting.”

He stopped suddenly mid sentence looking at Twilight.

“Or maybe you do?” Jack stood back up he held out his hand and a black spot opened, causing something to fall out that Twilight couldn't see.

Jack turned the object in his hand before holding it out to show Twilight it was another translation headset that he quickly clipped into his ear. After a few seconds, he spoke again.

“Ace tell me does the user in front of me understand English?”

This caught Twilight off guard as she stood up from her aggressive stance as the pair stood in silence for several seconds, waiting for the response.

“Oh, is that right?”

Jack immediately smiled down at Twilight, who quickly started to coil into a more defensive stance.

“So Ace tells me that not only do you understand what I’m saying but you are also learning to speak it as well, which should make this go a lot quicker. To start off, while I know this may seem weird after what you probably just witnessed but Kat and I are friends of Simon.”

Twilight, now visibly perplexed as well as annoyed, chose this time to finally speak up.

“You’re right, that is a weird thing for me to believe. Which begs the question why should I trust anything you say?” The human seemed a little shocked by the voice that came out.

“Wow, so you can actually speak and in pretty fluent English too. Now I feel like a jerk for treating you like just an animal earlier,” Jack said scratching the back of his head. “Ace, please explain that I am a friend.”

“As Simon’s personal assistant I can say that there are several recorded times in which Simon and Jack have interacted without incident.” Ace suddenly spoke into Twilight's ear, verifying what Jack had said.

“Also, the headset is a pretty big clue as Simon only ever trusts close friends with these things,” Jack spoke pointing to his headset.

Despite this evidence, Twilight was unsure of whether to trust him or not, still making a point to keep her distance and not take her eyes off him.

Jack sighed in mild frustration at his lack of progress. “Look, I can't give you more proof until Simon wakes up and I can't get to him with you in the way. However, if it makes you feel better I promise not to hurt anyone while he is asleep. That’s about the best I can offer you right now.”

The two again paused as Ace translated what Jack had said to Twilight, who contemplated her next move for a few moments before, begrudgingly stepping aside.

“I still don’t trust you, I’ll let you wake Simon, just know I’m keeping my eye on you and if you try anything else I will take you down,” Twilight threatened with as much intimidation as she could muster, despite knowing that if the two came to blows she’d most likely lose.

Satisfied, Jack walked over to Simon and set the pieces of Ragnarok down near him. Once he was close enough, the stranger kneeled down and promptly slapping Simon in the face with the only hand he still had.

“Time to wake up Simon,” Jack yelled, slapping Simon repeatedly trying to wake him up, in spite of putting enough power into his later strikes to turn Simon’s cheeks red.

“God damnit Kat, how much magic did you make him use.” Jack stood back up moving over to Kat.

“What are you doing,” Twilight questioned.

“Look, right now the only person that can lift Simon is Kat, unless you can move thousands of tons of equipment at once and I’m sure you don't want to wait around out here while we wait several hours minimum for him to recover his magic.”

While Twilight felt some desire to question his logic, he had a point in that it would be a lot more comfortable to wait in a house as opposed to their current location.

“I’ve moved Simon before I think I can do it again.”

Twilight lit up her magic as she encased Simon, earning a stare of surprise from Jack. However, as Twilight tried to move Simon he wouldn't budge.

“That doesn’t make any sense. I’ve moved Simon before, so why can’t I now?” Jack sighed.

“The fight between Kat and Simon must have taken a lot of magic, that’s the only reason for Simon to be this heavy. Generally, he uses magic to keep the weight of his facility off of himself,” Jack paused as he saw the confused look on Twilight's face. “Okay, you’ve seen him use that pocket space before right where he keeps all his stuff.” Twilight nodded.

“Well using that pocket space comes at a cost. The space itself is still part of your body and while you don’t have to hold everything you put into it, you still feel the weight. Simon’s only able to get around this by putting anti gravity magic on the lab he keeps in his pocket space. Sadly, right now Simon’s lost so much magic he can’t maintain the spell, hence why we need to resort to plan B..”

Jack quickly walked over to Kat, gently trying to shake her awake.

“Alrighty Kat time to get up.”

Jack got no reaction and stood over the other human's body and reached behind himself to unsheath a hidden knife.

“Wait, you're not going to stab her are you,” Twilight asked concerned earning a laugh from Jack.

“Na, all that would do is get her pissed off at me and she has enough of an anger management problem that I’d like to avoid poking the proverbial bear.”

He placed the handle of the knife in his mouth and stabbed his own hand with it before spitting the knife out to the side

“Damn it, Simon, this would be a lot easier with two hands.”

Jack held the now bleeding hand out over the head piece of Ragnarok allowing the blood to pool into a crevice on it. Once there was a fair amount of blood inside, he reached down placing his hand over before beginning to focus. It was during this instance that Twilight heard her name being called out. Twilight turned around and saw her friends running over, who was quick to wave over.

“Twilight what's going on,” Rarity asked, as the others looked equally eager for an explanation.

“The short version, this human claims to be friends with Simon,” Twilight spoke, nodding her head in Jack’s direction.

“Hey I never claimed, I stated.” shouted Jack, causing a few of them to jump at the new voice coming through their headsets.

“So, what is he doing now?” Pinkie Pie asked, pulling out a telescope from her mane and aiming it in Jack’s direction.

“He is working on reviving Simon,” Twilight answered, earning looks of surprise and relief from the others.

“Actually, I’m working on reviving Kat, reviving Simon right now would take a lot more magic than what I have. Now, please be quiet for a bit, I need to focus.” Jack interrupted while keeping his eyes on the task at hand.

Twilight leaned in towards her friends. “Just keep your eye on those two, I don't trust them.” The others nodded, with Pinkie’s own eyes actually growing several times in size as she focused on the duo.

After a few minutes of silence, Jack finally moved his hand away from the pool of blood, letting out a tired sigh.

“That should be enough.”

Reaching in, Jack picked up a crystal that had formed from the pool of blood and turned towards Kat.

“Alrighty Kat it's time to wake up.”

Dropping the crystal into Kat’s mouth the reaction was instant. Kat immediately sat up as magic moved across her face reconstructing every broken piece for a second time. Now awake, her eyes darted around the area, to get a lay of the land as a look of realization formed on her face.

“I lost, didn't I?”

“Yep.”

“Damn it!”

“You did a really good number on Simon though,” Jack chuckled gesturing over the still downed Simon causing Kat to laugh.

“Yea well, that fucker had it coming.”

Looking back around Kat saw Twilight and her friends. “What's with the gathering of animals… Don't tell me Simon was adopted by the local wildlife again.”

Jack laughed at his companion’s rather ignorant statement. “Careful, they're the sentient species around here.”

Kat, intrigued, looked between Jack and Twilight for a moment before shrugging. “Eh I’ve seen weirder,” she said as she finally stood back up. “So what's the plan, Jack.”

“Well, we can't do anything until Simon wakes up, that's why I was hoping there was someplace we could take him.” Jack turned towards Twilight, reminding the pony of their prior discussion.

Twilight paused and she contemplated what course of action to take. “Well, we could always take him to the hospital agai….”

Twilight wasn't able to finish her sentence the moment the word hospital was uttered she was met with a very enthusiastic, “YES,” coming from the two humans.

Kat turned towards Simon, grabbing his arm to test his weight. Twilight watched as magic flowed across her body she leaned down picking up Simon and draping him across her shoulder. Looking over she spotted the pieces of Ragnarok. A black spot immediately opened, sucking them in before she turned to Twilight.

“Lead the way, tiny purple creature.”

Twilight ignored that comment from Kat, while Jack simply walked over to his own arm and slung it over his shoulder.

“Alright, just follow us and we’ll lead you straight to the hospital.Twilight and her friends surrounded the two humans and started making their way back to Ponyville.

“So, pardon my asking but how long have you two known Simon,” Rarity asked as they walked towards the town. Kat looked down at the little pony making noise confused before Jack decided to interpret for her.

“They wanna know how long we've known Simon. Fuck sakes Kat put on your headset already,it’ll translate for you.”

As Kat begrudgingly fiddled with the earpiece, Jack then turned to Rarity. “Well, I’ve only known Simon for about a thousand years now, give or take a century.”

Rarity almost tripped over her hooves at the revelation, while the others showed varying degrees of surprise.

“Nah, hold up. Let me see if I understand this.” Applejack turned to face Jack. “You're telling me that you and Simon are almost a thousand years old.”

Jack, again surprisingly them, shook his head while laughing rather heartily at the comment, confusing the small pack of ponies..

“Oh, I’m not saying anything like that, I’m saying that I’m almost a thousand years old. Kat and Simon on the other hand or hoof in your case, are much older than me.” Jack looked over to his human companion “Isn’t that right Kat?”

“Yea yea yea Simon was one of the first deities that I met a little over five hundred thousand years ago,” Kat muttered indifferently, now wearing a translation headset as she waved off her empty hand like it was no big deal.

“WHAT!” Twilight and all her friends stopped walking and started shouting at the same time.

“Wait, just how old is Simon,” Twilight asked, her mind struggling to process this new information.

Kat stopped to think for a second. ”Please, that fucking old man? I couldn’t tell you that much. He was a well-established deity back when I was still a child. I think the only person that can answer that question is the fucker on my shoulder right now.”

Kat shifted, flipping Simon over so that he was now laying on his back across her shoulder his unconscious head facing Twilight. “Say fucker just how old are you.”

“Well, I don't know Kat, I must be as old as the earth itself, also I have no sense of modesty and I like to tear off my fucking friend's limbs,” Kat did her best to imitate Simon’s voice, even shaking him to make his jaw flap as though he was talking. This little act of puppetry caused both Kat and Jack to start laughing, but Twilight and her friends found the joke more perplexing than funny.

“So you humans don't keep a record of when people are born,” Twilight asked as they all turned back and started walking again.

“Actually we do they are kept by the god that the person serves under,” Jack answered this time. “However, locating Simon’s would prove very difficult.”

“Why is that,” Fluttershy spoke up, though her voice still its usual quiet pitch.

“Well, Simon is the only deity that switches gods. He may only be a rank forty-seven as a combat deity but he is the number one creator so his talents are sought after by all the gods, so much that every five years they hold a tournament where the winner gets this Item that they call ‘Simon’s Heart.’ In simpler terms Simon then serves that specific deity until the next tournament,” Kat answered.

“Wait, if Simon is only a rank forty-seven then who is number one in combat,” When Rainbow Dash asked the whole group turned looked towards the humans and saw a visible shiver run down both of them.

“That would be Zack or as some deities like to refer to it as The Demon.” There was fear in Jack's voice as he spoke, though he seemed hesitant to say much else.

“A lot of deities believe that he lives solely to fight and kill,” Kat took over the conversation, “There is a rumor running around that a long time ago he did the impossible and managed to kill another deity to the point where none of the gods could resurrect them.”

“That's why no other deity ever challenges him for the number one spot anymore,” Jack chose to take the conversation back, “Actually the last Deity recorded to challenge Zack was Simon. As you can guess it didn’t go well for Simon which is why he can’t fully regenerate and is left with scars all over his body.”

Needless to say, after this latest revelation the rest of the walk back to Ponyville was done in solemn silence.

Once they finally reached the hospital, they were met by a few surprised reactions thanks to the extra humans they were with. Thankfully this didn’t stop them from entering the hospital, being greeted by several nurses and a doctor, who came out rushing to them when they noticed that one human had one of his arms slung over his shoulder.

However, things became a little more complicated when they tried to force Jack into the psychiatric ward when he refused treatment. Jack immediately rushed from the hospital with several of the hospital staff chasing after him. Applejack promptly followed to make sure that he didn't cause any more trouble. Once that was all settled, another doctor came along to see them.

“Hello Twilight, I’m surprised to see you again so soon and it seems that the humans have multiplied.” The doctor looked at the new human that was carrying Simon

“Hello Doctor I’m sorry but it seems that Simon has some kind of an attraction to trouble and we would like to put him in another room to recover from his injuries.”

The doctor nodded to Twilight and motioned for them to follow him.

“Luckily for you after the last visit we made sure to prepare a room for larger species like Simon in the event he needed to come back. Truly does pay to plan ahead it seems.”

The doctor led them down the hall and opened a door, revealing a room that seemed roughly three times as large as a normal one, with several beds that even Big Mac would call huge.

“If you would kindly put the patient on the bed so that he may rest.” The doctor pointed to one of the far beds, Kat smirked as she walked over to the bed and gently set Simon down on it before quickly taking a large step back. As soon as she did there was a large straining sound as the bed suddenly collapsed under Simon's new found weight.

Kat immediately started laughing and Twilight swore she could also hear Jack laughing though he was keeping himself hidden from sight in order to avoid any more trouble. Immediately, the six ponies ran to Simon's side to make sure he was okay.

After seeing the no new blood was pouring out Twilight politely excused the doctor. Once he had left the room she angrily turned towards Kat and where she thought Jack was.

“What is wrong with you humans, neither of you seems to care that your so-called friend is unconscious on the floor back there,” Twilight shouted at the pair, her friends moving to back her up. Both had stopped their laughing and Jack had come back into sight. The two humans stood there in shock for a moment before Kat smirked and nudged Jack with her elbow.

“I think I know what's going on here.” Kat smiled down at Twilight. It only took Jack an extra moment before he caught on as well.

“Ooooh,” exclaimed Jack as he too grinned at Twilight. Twilight took a step back, her annoyance replaced with worry.

“What do you know,” Twilight asked looking between the two grinning faces. “I...I...I don't know what you're talking about, I'm just worried about my friend. If you haven't noticed there's been no change in his condition since the beginning.”

Despite the prior mocking, Kat’s grin softened into a gentle smile.

“Look…” Kat paused realizing she didn't even know this pony's name.

“Twilight,” Twilight filled in for her.

“Right, Twilight look, please don't misconstrue anything, Jack and I are Simon's friends. In fact, I was in a very similar position to you. Simon was actually my first friend, after my family was killed ages ago thanks to Zack.”

Twilight and her friends all calmed down listening to her story.

“I was told that I repressed the memories of that trauma but needless to say I was an angry child because of it. Didn’t help that I was moved from foster family to foster family and I was always getting in fights. Every now and then Deities would visit the orphanage but I wanted nothing to do with them. Why would I support a system that kept a blood hungry psycho like Zack around for so many centuries.”

Kat was looking down as she reflected on the dark periods of her life. “Then one day, when I was fourteen my chance came. Our orphanage was taken on a tour of the center of all Deities, the god's facility. I somehow snuck a knife in.”

Kat chuckled a little bit as she thought back to her younger, hellraising years.

“Now that I think back on it I don't think I snuck it in at all I pretty sure they all knew I had it and what my plan for it was. As I’m sure you can figure out, I wanted revenge, I wanted to hurt Zack just like it did to me.”

Kat’s tone while mentioning Zack had a dark edge to it, making it clear to all that even bringing up his name was enough to make her hostile. Yet she continued on.

“We were actually supposed to see the creator’s section before seeing all the combatants up close. However, before that they funneled us into a room and lectured us on what creators do...and that’s when this idiot finally made an appearance.”

A slight nod to Simon, along with a harmless slap on the arm acknowledged Simon’s arrival in the story to the group, now more intrigued by the direction the story was taking.

“At the time I didn't know who he was, the only thing I did learn at the time was that he had a fair amount of authority since he cut our tour off and had us follow him instead. Ended up taking us all to a classroom setting where he had set up some simple experiments with magic that we could all take part in.”

Kat let out a chuckle remembering the loud, eager cheers of her classmates. “Naturally being a bunch of little kids, they were all excited at the idea of doing some fun, hands-on activities instead of listening to boring lectures. I’m pretty sure if things had been different, I’d have probably acted similar, but I had a mission and I wasn’t gonna let anything keep me from getting to Zack. Pity Simon didn’t feel the same way.”

Kat’s laughter started to turn bitter as she thought over what happened next.

“I didn’t know why at the time, but Simon was so insistent that I participate that he sat right next to me the entire time, so I couldn’t just walk away. Instead I ended up doing every one of these little tests, with him practically hovering over my shoulder the entire time. After that half an hour Simon stood up and smiled down at me, announcing to the adult that brought us there that I had a real knack for Science and that he was going to take me to an aptitude testing chamber to see how well I would take to becoming a deity when I was older.”

Kat’s voice started to weaken somewhat as she recalled what would become one of the most crucial periods in her life.

“It was a lie, no such test existed, but of course no one was going to question the word of the top creator deity. We ended up walking in silence for what felt like hours until we reached a door. I didn’t have a clue what he was planning and then he turned to me, the goofy grin he’d been wearing was gone.”

Kat’s tone grew dimmer as did he face, utterly devoid of any kind of visible emotion, save for a slight shaking of her hands.

“The next thing that he said to me was, ‘This is what you’ve been waiting for right,’ heh, I’m pretty sure I almost swallowed my own tongue when he asked me that, like I’d been caught red handed for something. I don’t know how he figured out my plan and I didn’t care, as far as my idotic ten year old brain was concerned all I needed to do was walk through that door to get my revenge. As you can imagine Simon didn’t like that idea.”

Twilight, who’d been hanging onto every word spoken, grew more surprised as Kat face now showed a mixture of shame and discomfort as she tried to speak. Part of the local librarian wanted to simply tell her to stop, but her own desire to find out more locked her voice up tight.

“Of course Simon blocked the door, telling me I’d die if I kept going and….I stabbed him,” Kat paused as the ponies gasped, “Multiple times,” She again paused as Rarity loudly swooned in horror before collapsing onto a couch she pulled out of nowhere. Ironically that was a more restrained response that she had expected.

“Yeah, even I’ll admit I wasn’t exactly stable at that point in my life. Yet, even in spite of that Simon didn’t stop me, he just stood there until my arm got heavy and I dropped the knife. Ended up crying in his arms after he told me that my life could be something other than revenge, something I’d always told myself was impossible.”

Kat paused as a tear slid down from her left eye as her hand lightly traced over Simon’s still arm, seemingly on autopilot as her mind was still firmly in her memories.

“Even after what he told me, there was still some small, scared sliver that refused to accept such a thing. He simply held me tight, told me everything would be okay and to focus on the here and now, rather than a future I couldn’t see. And when it came to Zack, he said that if I still felt as I did when I was an adult, he’d make sure I’d be ready if the opportunity was there, so long as I promised to not hesitate to strike him down. After that Simon came to the orphanage just about every day to check on me...and in that time, I fell for him.”

Kat let out a big breath as she finished her story, looking more relaxed and free. Reliving all those memories, well calling it an emotional rollercoaster would be short changing it big time, a turbulent sea would probably be a more appropriate metaphor. Now, while those feelings were still there, they felt as if they’d stilled somewhat, as if the waves had finally calmed.

“Heh, I think that last time I felt like this well...was when Simon held me and told me everything would be alright. Even when he’s unconscious he still gets to me.”

Kat’s moment of self reflection and peace was immediately shattered by a rather loud reminder she wasn’t the only one in the room.

A quick glance to the back of the room revealed a sextuplet of ponies, all with tears in their eyes...save for the orange cowgirl pony though she still looked emotionally struck. However, that was nothing compared to a much louder sniffling sound coming from her side, causing her to firmly plant her face in her hand, embarrassed by what the sound implied.

“I swear Jack, if I look over there and you're crying too I am going to rip your other arm off.”

Jack sniffled, “I can't help it, you know that story always makes me cry.”

Jack did his best to wipe away his tears with his one arm, while the ponies all stared at him expectantly, to which Jack could already tell what they were thinking.

“Look, if you’re looking for some heartfelt story about how Simon changed my life then you’re out of luck. I met him while I was rising through the ranks as a combatant, he literally ripped off my arm, then reattached it later and we just kinda hit it off from there.”

The sheer look of disappointment on the faces of the various ponies earned a hearty laugh from Jack, while Kat merely looked disinterested in the whole thing.

“Boys such simple creatures.” She said shrugging. “Anyways, the first time Simon was ever seriously injured, he didn't wake up for an entire month and I was by his side the entire time. Of course, when the idiot finally came to you can imagine how I laid into him about how scared I was and he just told me to stop worrying, that life was too short and it’s more important to laugh and have fun. That's why Jack and I play around with Simon while he is out because that's what he would want.”

While some of the girls, mainly Fluttershy and Pinkie seemed okay with this idea, the others expressions varied from slight apprehension to flat out denial, Twilight being the later half.

“But, don’t you think you should be just a little more concerned about him? I mean his injuries seemed mighty serious,” Applejack decided to chime in for the others with similar thoughts.

Kat smiled at all of them. “I’ve literally seen him walk out of an explosion when an experiment went wrong, so I’m not too concerned”

“Then why bring him here in the first place?” Twilight practically shouted out loud still having a hard time accepting what she was being told.

Kat started laughing. “Oh, he hates hospitals mainly, cause in our world the doctors always want to experiment on him and will use any excuse that they can get for it.” Kat and Jack started laughing again, though at least now the girls could confirm it was coming from a place of good nature rather than malice, which did help ease them if only a little bit. That just left one other question.

“So..um...what do we do now?” Fluttershy decided to chime in again, asking the obvious question was bluntly and straight to the point as one could.

“For now, nothing. It’ll be awhile before Simon wakes up so if any of you have something you need to get done I would say go do it. Don’t worry about King Coma over here, he’ll be fine and sitting here waiting for him to wake up isn’t gonna help anyone.”

“So what are you two going to be doing.” Twilight looked between the humans.

Jack gave Twilight a flat grin as he waved her and the others away. “Oh don't worry about us. We have some information to discuss with Simon once he wakes up, so we’re not going anywhere.”

Twilight looked to her friends after taking another side glance at Simon, still uncomfortable at the prospect of leaving him despite everything showing her this was a safe option. Yet, while Twilight was a pony of logic, she could just as easily be as stubborn as Applejack when she put her hoof down about something, illogical or otherwise. Thus...

“Well…. I would like it if at least one of us is here at all times. I need to send a letter to the princesses updating them on the situation” Twilight moved towards the door, stopping only to wait for some pony to offer to take the position.

“Don't worry Twi, ah’ll stay here, Rarity got me just after I finished my chores so ah haven’t got anything else going on today.” Applejack nodded to Twilight.

“While I would normally be more than happy to lend my time to help another, I’m afraid I must check up on my sister. Celestia only knows what kind of mischief she’d get into if I left her alone too long.” Rarity spoke up, making her way to the door.

“Well, I was just taking a nap anyway, so I’m cool with just hanging out here for a bit,” Rainbow Dash added, even though anypony could tell the high flying pegasus would prefer spending her time in the skies then in a cramped hospital room.

“Oh, I wanna stay so badly, but I can’t,” Pinkie Pie almost belted out as her entire form quivered anxiously, “I promised the Cakes I’d watch the twins today while they finished their orders. AND I’M ALREADY SUPER LATE,” Pinkie screamed as she spotted a clock and immediately bolted out of the nearest window, a mirrored cloud of pink smoke being all she left behind.

“I, um, also can’t stay. I need to go and take care of my animals,” Fluttershy muttered out, unhappy at the idea of leaving.

“Alright it's settled,Applejack and Rainbow Dash will be the ones who stay behind for now and meet back up here the second we’re all free.”

The remaining ponies all nodded heading their separate ways, Twilight taking one last glance at the hospital before heading back to the cozy little library she called home.

“Spike, are you here?” Twilight quickly called out for her faithful assistant, wanting to get through her own set of tasks as quickly as possible.

“I'm up here Twilight.” The little Drake called out from the second floor where the pairs bedroom could be found.

“I need you to send a letter to the princesses for me.”

As Twilight ascended the stairs she quickly levitated a piece of paper and the quill Simon had given her. With a quick flick of her magic, she wrote up a letter explaining that the two new humans that had shown up are calling themselves Simon’s friends but how Simon was currently unable to verify said claims.

Opening the door to her bedroom without missing a beat, Twilight entered with her eyes focused solely on her letter, not noticing a piece of paper falling onto the floor.

Spotting Spike she quickly used her magic to pass the completed scroll over to him, which the drake immediately set ablaze and off to the princesses.

Her task done, Twilight prepared to head back when she saw the paper that had fallen on the ground. It was the photograph that Simon had shown her on his second day in the library.
She stopped to look at Simon for a bit when she noticed something, the two other people that Simon had called friends, they looked almost identical to the two humans that were at the hospital. While this did seem to support their earlier claims, other than Simon none of the faces in the photo were visible to her, which only served to send her suspicions higher.

Without another word to Spike, Twilight took the photo and hurried back to the hospital, arriving in only a matter of minutes.

As Twilight reached Simon’s room and prepared to open the door, she heard a conversation going on inside between her friends and the still to be identified strangers.

“So you're saying that when you first saw us you didn't know that we were intelligent,” Applejack asked searching his face for any signs of deception.

“Nope, I honestly had no idea.” Jack laughed, a twinge of embarrassment still evident on his face “Believe me, if I had I would’ve cut out the baby talk all together. Still having some trouble adjusting to the whole talking sentient ponies thing.”

“Well, at least it sounds like they’re getting along,” Twilight thought as she opened the door, finding Jack and Applejack sitting off to the side talking while Rainbow Dash was trying to hoof wrestle with Kat. They had removed the collapsed bed from under Simon, leaving him on the floor, still unconscious but atleast with a pillow and blanket to cover him.

“But Rarity said that you had delivered a letter to Simon. How’d you not figure out that we were the ones who lived in Ponyville,” Applejack asked, looking confused to Jack.

“Admittedly, the name of the town would have been a dead giveaway,. You see we have these things in our world that are called, Tracking Letters. When activated you can picture someone in your mind and they travel to them on their own, real quickly too.”

The pair halted their conversation as they heard the door open, spotting Twilight finally joining them in the room.

“Hey, Twilight.” Applejack said both of the humans waved their hands, Kat still easily holding back Rainbow Dash in spite of this.

“Is there any change with Simon,” Twilight asked, walking over and looking down at the still unconscious deity.

“Well he is a little lighter, meaning that magic is returning to his system but I’m I don't think he is going to be waking up for quite some time,” Kat answered matter of factly, her eyes focused on Twilight. Said pony shifted her attention to the dueling pair, surprised to see Rainbow Dash was struggling against the human, who didn't even seem to be paying attention.

“What's that you got there Twilight.” Applejack noticed the small thing floating in her magic, earning curious looks from the two humans present.

“Actually I was hoping to ask one of them about it.” Twilight levitated the photo over to Jack who grabbed it and smirk widely once he got a look at it.

“Oh my god Kat come look at this it's an old photo of the three of us.”

There was a sudden flash of magic that moved down Kat's arm and in a instant of blinding speed, Rainbow’s hoof was down, almost sending the cyan flyer into the nearby walls. Kat however, didn’t seem to even care about this, making her way over to Jack. A single glance at the photo was all it took before she too started laughing.

“So that is you two in that photo with Simon,” Twilight asked, hoping internally that this was the case and she could finally put her suspicions to rest.

“Yep that's us, this was the day that I had insulted Simon's ability to use strengthening magic so he knocked me over and sat on me. That's when he started releasing the anti gravity magic holding his lab,” Jack finally stopped laughing, though he was still grinning like a clown as he mulled over the photo.

“At the time I had no idea that he had an entire production facility in his pocket space as the weight started to crush us I had to use strengthening magic to solidify my body against it but I wasn't able to keep it up. Once Kat noticed what was happening she came up behind Simon and was trying to move him off of me,” Jack thought for a moment as his grin finally dropped, “Though, come to think of it, I don't remember anyone taking any pictures.”

A glance and shake of the head from Kat indicated she was just as clueless, her laughter having died down as she looked over the photo with fondness. “That was certainly a fun day for sure.”

“You humans are crazy.” Rainbow Dash flew over to them, yet Jack and Kat could only agree as if it were no big deal.

Twilight took a moment to collect her thoughts before a new question formed. “Oh, have either of you heard the name Hedwig before,” Twilight asked the two humans.

“Can't say that I have, Kat responded looking over to Jack, “How about you?” Jack took a good long while to think to himself.

“Wasn't Hedwig the name of the Supreme Goddess in the old legend of how magic was given to the world?”

Kat shrugged. “Yeah, I’m not exactly well versed in old legends...come to think of it, why the heck do you know it? Isn't that legend ancient?”

I studied them college for a paper and got an A in case you’re curious.”

Twilight looked confused between them. “I’m sorry, did you say Supreme Goddess?”

“Back when our world was primal and magic was just being discovered a lot of legends popped up about how exactly magic first came to be. Of all those legends however, the Supreme Goddess was the one that most people ended up accepting as fact. Frankly, I’d always thought the legend was a load of crap like all the other old stories.”

Kat’s attention immediately shifted focus as she zeroed her eyes on Twilight, more suspicious than curious. “How exactly did you know about that name. It’s not exactly what you’d call common knowledge, especially around here.”

Twilight chuckled nervously, “Well, I was in Simon’s lab while he was working and overheard him mutter that name. When I asked him about it he just said it was nothing.”

Kat despite her suspicion seemed to be amused by Twilight’s little admission. “Heh, you always make a habit of randomly eavesdropping on people when they talk to themselves?”

“I wasn’t...I wouldn’t….”

“Relax ponygirl, I’m just messing with you. Anyway, I wouldn’t dwell too much on the whole legend thing, Simon never was one to put a lot of faith in old legends.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief it seemed the human was buying her story. “Even so, I’d still like to learn more about it if that’s alright.”

“Eh, I don’t see any harm in it. Plus, I get the feeling the little bookworm over here probably isn’t the type to take no for an answer.” Jack commented, earning a loud denial from a now red Twilight while Dash laughed hard at Jack’s rather accurate summation of her friend.

“Just keep in mind it’s been a long time so, I don't remember all of it but I can tell you the gist of it.”

Jack stopped for a second trying to recall as much of the tale as possible. “A long time ago, back when humans were little more than a collection of apes armed with sticks and rocks, it's said that the Supreme Goddess, out of pity for humanity, came down from the heavens with her two knights to give magic to the world. However, the goddess was not infallible and during her time amongst humanity, showed her first knight far greater favor and praise. Enraged over this favoritism, the second knight attacked the Goddess, managing to injure her before being defeated by his companion. In spite of this betrayal and seeing the folly in her actions, the Goddess spared the knight’s life and left him to wander the world as a mortal man. Sadly, due to her injuries, the Goddess was forced to leave the world behind and thus blessed four humans with the ability to share magic with mankind. Jack finished the story looking around at everyone, “Or at least I believe that's how the legend goes.”

“Is the Supreme Goddess okay, did the Second Knight ever get the chance to apologize,” Twilight started to ask, completely entranced by the story.

“Whoa there, calm down, it's just a legend, the only part of the story that was even partially true was that there are four Humans given the title of gods who shared the power of magic with all humans,” Kat interrupted Twilight, who quickly snapped out of her brief trance.

“But…” Twilight started to say but stopped, now wondering if the name on the diary was a mere coincidence. Twilight needed to think.

“I’ll be right back I think I need some fresh air.”

Twilight left the room making her way out in front of the hospital, leaving the four parties in the room puzzled. Outside Twilight was trying to process this new information. If this Hedwig from the diary was the Supreme Goddess then did that mean that Zack and Rolf were the two knights, and again how did this all connect to Simon.

“A penny for your thoughts.” Kat interrupted Twilight's quiet moment, sitting down next to her.

“What.” Twilight looked to Kat confused.

“Sorry it's an expression, it just means what are you thinking about,” Kat responded.

Twilight sighed she didn't want to tell Kat about the diary. “Can I ask you a question.”

“Shoot.” Kat quickly responded and quickly remembered their prior vocab issue, “I mean go ahead.”

“Well, did you ever tell Simon how you felt about him,” Twilight asked, looking up to the sky.

Kat’s eyes widened at the rather personal question, before simply laughing out loud.

“Actually, I tried several times but he always unknowingly interrupted me. Then one day we were talking and I finally told him to his face that I was in love with him. You wanna know what he told me.”

Twilight looked to Kat and nodded vigorously causing Kat to laugh again at how adorably transparent the pony was being.

“He told me that love is a wonderful thing but that I should find someone better than him to love, that loving him would only end in pain for me,” Kat sighed, “After that, we never talked about it again.”

“Do you still love him,” Twilight asked, her excitement now a mix of concern and worry, both for Kat and for herself as well.

Kat hummed musing over the best way to respond. “Well yes and no. I mean yes I still love Simon, I really don't think I could ever truly stop, I mean he saved my life twice.”

Twilight looked to Kat confused.

“That story I told you all earlier was the second time that moron had decided that my life was worth living.” Kat sighed “The first was the night my family was killed by Zach. When he had broken into the shelter my family was in I was scared so I closed my eyes when I opened them again Simon had shielded me with his body” Kat chuckled to herself. “The idiot probably doesn't even remember.” Kat looked to Twilight trying to remember what her point was before realization donned on her “but I guess you could say I’m not IN love with him anymore. I’ve moved on and dated others.”

“So you've dated other humans.” Twilight looked at Kat curiously.

“Well, more than just humans, I have been with quite a few other sentient beings from other dimensions over the years.”

“So you don't think it's weird that a pony like me is having feelings for Simon.” Twilight looked back up to the sky.

This earned an even louder laugh from Kat, practically hunched over while trying to support herself on her knee. “You wanna talk weird, I once fucked a version of myself from another dimension now that was weird.”

Twilight’s brain looked as though it’d suddenly shorted out for a moment, and was now trying desperately to reboot itself yet was constantly stuck on stall. “...what?”

“I was sent on a mission to invade another dimension, which turned out to be exactly the same as ours, only everyone there was the opposite gender, myself included,” Kat smiled at Twilight who looked intrigued, confused and possibly, a little curious as the prospect. “And when I met my counterpart one thing lead to another and we ended up having sex.”

“But, didn’t that feel weird at all?” Twilight was still trying to process the notion of being intimate with an alternate version of yourself. It certainly was a subject that came with a fair amount of implications. Though Kat’s seemed rather cavalier about the whole thing.

“Eh, sure it was a little weird at first but I was there, other me was pretty easy on the eyes and I figured why not,” Kat’s smile turned into a perverse smirk, “If it helps, you can just call it masturbation and leave it at that.”

And with that last bit of information, Twilight immediately felt like shifting topics, not helped by how her fur was now the same color as most of the Apple Family’s crops and the sheer volume of mental images flooding in was threatening to overload her.

“Is there any way to revive Simon faster.” Twilight finally asked.

Kat took a moment to breath, becoming more serious to match the question. “Well, if we could get into Simon's lab I could probably find his magic reserves that he keeps for emergencies and we could use that to revive him. Only problem is when I searched Simon he didn't have the key on him.”

“Twilight.”

Any further conversation about the key was halted as Twilight turned her head as she heard her name being called, spotting Rarity and Sweetie Belle walking towards them.

“Oh, hello Rarity.” Twilight greeted her friend as they approached, when a thought occurred to her. “Now that you’re here, by any chance, Simon didn't happen to leave his lab open when he was staying with you did he.”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry dear, but I’m afraid not oh, by the way, I hope you don't mind I brought Sweetie along, she was rather insistent on telling her favorite human to get well soon. I of course tried to explain that he wouldn't be waking up for some time but she refused to budge on the issue.”

Beside the posh pony, Sweetie Belle offered a big radiant smile, obviously eager to head into the hospital, which helped to lighten the mood among the three. Though it also had another...rather unexpected effect.

“Oh my god it’s so cute.” Kat very enthusiastically, holding her arms out towards Sweetie, barely restraining herself from just grabbing the filly all together. “Can I hug her?”

Sweetie nervously hid behind her sister.

“It's okay Sweetie this is Simon’s, rather forward friend, Kat. No need to be afraid.”

Sweetie tentatively took a stepback out to the open, but wearily eyed the still star eyed human, eager to cuddle her like a stuff toy.

Now out in the openTwilight noticed a locket hanging off of Sweetie’s neck.

“What's that you're wearing Sweetie.” Twilight tried to take a closer look at it.

Sweetie smiled as she looked down at the locket. “Simon gave me this,he said that it was part of an important mission.”

“And what mission is that,” Twilight asked curiously, still eyeing the jewelry.

“I’m not sure all he told me was that a talking cat would give me a secret phrase.” Sweetie happily replied like it was a completely normal thing to say, causing Kat to practically burst into hysterics, earning her the confused eyes of the pony trio.

“I’m not sure if you ponies know but my name Kat is spelled almost exactly the same as cat in my language.” Kat looked off to the side, “That douche said that he didn't know I was here.” Sweetie Belle suddenly got excited staring at the human with wide eyes making the two other ponies think for a moment that she might have understood her.

“What's the matter, Sweetie,” Rarity asked her.

“That's the secret code phrase,” Sweetie said excitedly bouncing in place.

“So what are you supposed to do when you hear the phrase,” Twilight asked.

Sweetie gave the locket a light tap as she eagerly began to speak. “I'm supposed to ask, what was the promise you made to Simon.”

Kat’s smirk was gone as she now looked sad, her eyes focusing more on the ground than anything else, yet she still responded with an almost lonely sigh. “I promised to always be by his side.”

Suddenly another voice rang out.

“Voice recognized, password accepted.”

The locket on Sweetie's neck opened with a sudden click and the key to Simon's lab fell out.

While the ponies could only gawk at the sudden surprise, Kat simply picked up the key without care, unimpressed by the display.

“Simon you do always plan for everything.” Kat examined the key before looking over to Twilight, “So, now we’ve got the key, you wanna help me dig through Simon's shit.” Twilight smiled nodded eagerly, while Rarity looked horrified at Kat using a rather crass word in the presence of her impressionable sister, even though said sister couldn't understand her.

“I would love to.” Kat laughed as the four of them made their way back into the hospital room.

“Hey, Jack we have a plan,” Kat announced as she kicked the door to the room open. Her bravado and advance however, were immediately stopped as soon as she took a step forward.

“Whoa big.”

“What are you talking about?”

Twilight pushed past Kat to see what she was commenting on, only to immediately panic at the sight of both Princesses in the room.

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, I didn't know you were coming.” Twilight quickly moved into the room and bowed to the two monarchs.

“Oh, they’re princesses, great. Still doesn’t make this situation any better.”

Peeking up from her bow, Twilight found the voice had come from Jack, who was currently hovering in the air thanks to Princess Luna, eying the human somewhat cautiously.

“If you would just hold still and relax we would have a much easier time There is no need to worry, we're very good at medical magic,” Luna said as comfortingly as she could while holding Jack up with her magic moving his arm back into position from where it was torn off, Jack struggling the entire time to get free.

“I told you I don't fucking care if you studied medical magic at whatever the pony equvalent to fucking Harvard university is, the only sentient being I let touch my fucking arm is Simon.”

Jack quickly grabbed the arm and started swinging it at Luna in vain, trying to get himself down. Kat all the while could only smirk at her comrades predicament, her presence quickly drawing the attention of Celestia, while Luna remained preoccupied with Jack.

However, Celestia immediately turned her focus to Twilight, trying to ignore the still screaming human, whom at the moment all she could hear was random noise, something she’d hoped to correct.

“Hello Twilight, I apologize for the rather abrupt entrance, but given the circumstances we felt it was a necessary course of action,” another loud scream from Jack forced her to pause, “I don’t suppose you have an idea of what he’s trying to say do you?”

“He’s asking you to put him down since he doesn't let anypony but Simon reattach his arm. Apparently the medical squad had done it once at the wrong angle so they had to remove it and try again.” Twilight explained translating some relevant information that Kat had added and watched as Luna accepted defeat and set the human back down on the ground.

Jack quickly moved away doing his best to hide behind Applejack, peering out just enough to look at Kat. “Please tell us what this plan is before this crazy pony tries to mutilate me again.”

Rather than answer, Kat simply held out the key, seemingly brightening her scared companion’s spirits somewhat.

“Well, we found the key to Simon's lab, so we will be able to get some refined magic and use it to revive him,” Kat offered a glance to Sweetie Belle, who grinned while Jack looked on confused, “Here, catch.”

Kate immediately tossed the key up into the air, forcing Jack to pop out from behind Applejack and grab it before it made contact with the ground.

“Why do I have to open the door,” Jack complained to Kat throwing the key back to her.

“Because if I'm going in there with the weakened state that it is in I'm probably going to need my magic to protect myself.” Kat glared at Jack while immediately returning the tossed key.

“Aw come on you know I hate the draining feeling that opening Simon’s door does.” Jack this time slapping the key back like a volleyball.

“Would you rather be the one going into Simon's lab because I'm sure it's super rocky in there and I know you get motion sick.” Kat went to throw the key back to Jack only for it to be stopped in mid air.

“I'll do it,” Twilight announced frustrated at the sight of two individuals far older than everypony here combined, tossing a valuable item back and forth like a dirty rag as she pulled the key in. “I just need one of you to tell me how.”

Both the humans looked at each other and shrugged.

“Nothing really to tell, you just insert the key into the door just under the handle and give it a turn the key does the rest,” Kat instructed Twilight, who eyed the key, hesitant to believe it could be that simple.

Twilight moved over to the closet in the room, using her magic she moved the key just under the handle and pushed forward surprisingly it glided into the door despite the fact that there was no keyhole. She attempted to magically turn the key but found it wouldn’t budge.

“It needs magic, you have to be touching it so it can draw magic from you.” Jack answered before Twilight could ask.

Nodding, Twilight reached up with her hoof and the moment she touched the key she found herself unable to pull away. It was just like when she was in the revival chamber with Simon, she could feel herself growing weaker by the second and her eyes started growing heavy again when something inside her burst, suddenly filling her with energy. Twilight’s eyes shot open as she looked at the door, surprised to see runes were quickly forming and interacted with each other before moving and forming lines surrounding the door.

“Are you okay Twilight.” Celestia approached out of concern seeing Twilight dip just a little bit.

Twilight didn’t respond immediately, simply taking her hoof away from the key. Twilight noticed as she stepped back this time that the runes weren't disappearing and finally let herself relax enough to acknowledge her mentor.

” Yes, Princess Celestia, I’m fine.”

And that wasn’t a lie, Twilight was feeling better than fine, she felt as though she had just gotten the best full nights sleep of her life and was ready to take on anything. However, despite dropping her hoof and acknowledging Celestia’s question, she hadn’t taken her eyes off the door, watching anxiously as Kat pulled the now unlocked door open. Inside all Twilight could see was a complete void, the only light being generated by the lights in the room.

“Well, you ready to go in?” Kat looked down to Twilight who only nodded still staring into the more creepy looking lab, “Welp let's go.”

Twilight nodded taking a step in as she put weight on her hoof she felt the entire lab shift downward. Twilight pulled back in surprise, only for Kat to offer her a comforting hand.

“Don't worry about that, like I said before it's going to be rocky in there but it shouldn't shift too much.

“Wait, we wish to be of some use, therefore, we request that you allow us to accompany you.” Luna quickly made her request before they could proceed further inside.

“Yes please take the crazy one with you,” Jack shouted causing Kat to roll her eyes in disbelief at how easily her companion was brought to near hysterics by a pony princess of all things.

Twilight took another step into Simon's lab to better test the waters. Once in, she could feel it rock back and forth slightly before she turned back. “Having some extra help certainly wouldn’t hurt.”

Kat merely offered a casual shrug as she made her way inside. “As long as she’s cautious, I don’t see a problem. So let’s do this.”

Kat was next to enter the lab she seemed completely unshaken by the movement of the Lab as she continued walking moving over to Simon's bookshelf, Luna following shortly after, watching her every step as if she were navigating a minefield.

Kat reached up and pulled on one of the books on the top shelf where there was a clicking noise before Kat pulled the bookcase up revealing the hidden doorway.

“I’ve been wanting to ask if that is just a part of Simon's lab why is it hidden like that,” Twilight asked while Luna just took in the surroundings as best she could, lighting her horn up to give more light to the room.

“Cause Simon is a huge child sometimes and just likes hidden passageways.”

Twilight paused, peering into the production room that before was full of movement and loud machines. now eerily still and silent.

“Ace could you lead us to Simon's magic reserves?”

Kat stood silently for a few seconds when a rhythmic tapping noise started ringing. Twilight and Luna stood there not knowing what this noise was as the tapping got louder. Soon there was a small mass coming towards them accompanied by the sound.

Luna stepped forward shining a light on the small mass revealing a cat. Though it was strange, its movements were not fluid it was more jittery as it grew closer, they could see that its face was just a flat surface much like the puppets that Simon kept in the main part of his lab.

“Ah there you are Ace.”

“Sorry for the delay.” Twilight had to keep her jaw from dropping at the voice now coming from the cat.

“Ace is that you?” Twilight gave a confused look down at the creature.

“Yes Twilight, I have borrowed the body of a maintenance droid to lead the way.” The cat announced as it sat down in front of them. Twilight approached, a closer inspection revealing that the body seemed to be made entirely of metal. As to the tapping noise, the legs seemed to end in points much like a spider’s. Overall, it was an odd design to say the least.

“Maintenance droid?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, it is an autonomous entity that is used to perform light repairs around the lab.” Ace explained.

“Anyway, Ace can you lead the way? Kat interrupted, prompting the droid to stand back up and turn around.

“Yes please follow me.” Ace started walking, the tapping returning as well,proceeding into the production area where the three of them followed.

“Amazing,” Luna commented looking around the large room filled with all the countless machines, numerous wires and cables attached to the ceiling swayed as the entire lab rocked back and forth.

“You think this is amazing you should see it when everything is in motion.” Twilight commented walking alongside Luna.

“We would like very much to see that.” Luna continued to look around at everything as she walked. Suddenly the entire lab shifted quickly in one direction causing the objects on the ceiling to sway greatly.

“LOOK OUT!” Kat suddenly shouted as she quickly ran over diving to push both Twilight and Luna out of the way, only to scream in pain as some strange orange liquid fell onto her back.

Twilight could feel the heat radiating off of it. Looking up she noticed that they had been standing under the container on the ceiling that was moving the extremely hot substance.

Twilight looked down to Kat the orange liquid was sending up a lot of smoke as it cooled and started to lose its color. Twilight quickly lit up her horn, using her magic to move the liquid off of Kat.

“Kat are you okay.”

A quick glance showed that her shirt had taken the brunt of the damage and was burned away, with some embers still visible on the edges and her skin didn't fare any better, with several large black burns. Even where the skin wasn't black and charred, it was still a violently irritated red covered in blisters.

“Don't worry I’ll be fine are you two okay,” Kat’s voice strained as she fought against the pain and pushed herself up.

Sitting on the ground Kat reached into the front of her shirt and pulled out some sort of cloth with two half circles next to each other and on the far side of each end there were the burnt remains of something that probably held it together. Kat waited till she got a nod from Twilight before she turned to the small creature that Ace was inhabiting.

“Simon is going to pay for this, that was my favorite shirt.” Kat swiveled her head around as best she could looking at the giant hole in the back of it. As Twilight stared at Kat’s back, watching several small magic runes accumulating at the edges of the damaged skin.

“Is the human okay,” Luna asked, visibly unnerved by the numerous burns on Kat’s back.

Kat let out a pained snicker as she stood back up. “Please reassure the blue one that I’m fine. It may look bad but the healing magic implanted in me is already working so there's no need to worry.” Kat answered before Twilight could react, who was quick to relay the message so they could continue.

They all started walking again following behind Ace. The pair eventually approached a door that Ace quickly entered through a small nearby hole, with Kat forcing the door open immediately afterwards. Once inside the group then found themselves coming across a large vault of some kind.

“Finally,” Kat shouted, “This has to be the place. Ace can you open it?”

“I am afraid that I cannot.” The answer came to the disappointment of both Twilight and Luna.

“Guess I will just have to do this the hard way.” Kat pulled her hand back as Twilight watched runes run down her arm, lining up and forming something similar to another piece of clothing on her hand. Without a word and a single grunt of effort, she slammed her fist into the door. As Kat connected Twilight noticed that runes would appear in the area that was hit.

After the first strike, Kat unleashed a continuous burst of blows against the door but with each hit, the runes on the door glowed brighter before it all focused back into the single point, letting loose a massive shockwave that sent Kat rocketing back towards the hall.

“Damn it.”

As Kat stood back up she let out a roar of frustration and charged back at the door Twilight watched as the magic moved to coat her entire body, growing steadily until Twilight could no longer see any gaps within it. As Kat ran she showed signs of having no intention of stopping, when she met with the vault door her momentum was stopped for only a second as the runes on the door glowed brightly then burst to allow her to bust through to the other side of the door.

“KAT!” Twilight shouted moving over to looking through the hole, finding Kat on her back and a pool of blood starting to form around her. Twilight and Luna immediately moved over to their downed companion, using her magic Twilight move the blood out of their way. Looking around Twilight tried to find some refined magic to give to Kat as fast as possible when Kat groaned and then started laughing.

“Ha, take that Simon you still haven't built a door that I can't destroy,” Kat shouted, raising her fist to the ceiling, reaffirming Twilight’s belief that the humans were in fact insane.

Kat lifted her head looking Twilight in the face. “Hey Purple, have you always been bichrome like Simon.” Kat's head immediately dropped, her eyes looking hazy leaving Twilight to attribute her comment to blood loss. Kat shook her head vigorously before she stood up seemingly forgetting what she just said, her back dripping with blood she looked down at Ace.

“So where’s the magic.” Kat asked, slurring her words near the end.

“The refined Magic is stored in the back of the vault.” The voice came from the small creature. Twilight finally calmed down enough to take a good look around. The front area of the vault had a few display cases with items that Twilight could only guess were things of personal value as most of them seemed very old and worn down and each case had a person's portrait next to it.

“What are these,” Luna asked, looking into one of the cases that seemed to hold a pair of green tinted goggles.

“I’m sorry, but you require a security clearance level 5 for that information.”

“Yep that's Simon for you he doesn't like to talk about the past, no matter what it is,” Kat answered and Twilight had to translate for Luna.

The group proceeded further into the room. As they moved back they eventually came to a large crystal in the middle of the room with several sections that seemed to branch off, with many creatures similar to Ace surrounding it though all were completely motionless.

Luna and Twilight stared in awe. “My word, I’ve never seen a gemstone of this size, where in Equestria did it come from? ” Luna asked.

“This is an amalgamation of several refined magic crystals all fused together for easier storage.”

The small form of Ace approached the crystal a small arm came out its back as the arm came close to the crystal causing a small flash of light to suddenly appear, before a fragment of the crystal fell off.

Kat slowly picked the fragment up with little difficulty despite it being close to the size of her head, and without a single word, took a massive bite out of the gem.

Twilight watched as the magic on Kat’s back suddenly lit up even brighter and started to move in on the damaged areas, healing every square inch of it. Kat stuffed the crystal under her arm and smiled over to the two ponies as her back finished healing.

“Well, you two ready to head out?”

Twilight and Luna both nodded and the three of them headed back towards the way that they came in. As they approached the hole in the vault door there was some odd clunking sound on the other side of the door. The moment Kat heard this she rushed to the hole pressing her back against it she leaned over looking out the hole. “

Shit fuck fuckity fuck.” Kat cursed as there were a couple of loud bangs and she pulled her head back and motioned for Twilight and Luna to stay put. “Ace what's going on?” The small creature moved over to the hole looking out.

“It seems that in your breaking of the vault door you inadvertently activated the security droids.” Ace sat down in front of the hole while Kat face warped to a mixture of panic and anger.

“Well can't you shut them off,” Kat shouted.

“I am afraid that I am an information A.I. and therefore I have no control over anything in this lab.” Twilight moved over towards the hole.

“What's going on.” Twilight was about to poke her head around the corner when she was stopped by Kat.

“Turns out, breaking in may not have been a good idea. Seems we accidentally activated Simon’s security, so if we want out we are now going to have to fight our way out,” Kat looked around, “Ace are there any weapons in here?”

“No, my data shows no functioning weapons in this room,” Ace announced, finally moving from the doorway

“Great, well this is going to be fun. Alright, when I clear a path I want you two to grab the crystal and make a run for it” Kat said turning back towards the hole. Twilight watched as the magic once again started layering up over Kat. Kat sat the crystal of magic down on the ground, she then moved heading out the hole where Twilight could hear more bangs followed by crashing.

Hesitantly, Twilight poked her head out around the corner and saw what looked to be an army of puppets filling up the hallway, all with some type of blue line heading up into the ceiling and every now and then there would be a flash of light accompanied by a bang.

Twilight watched as Kat fought, picking up the puppets and throwing them around. Yet, every other instance, another loud bangs would go off and Kat would react as though she’d been hit, yet Twilight couldn’t see any signs that such a thing had happened..

“What is going on out there Twilight.” Luna had stepped up and looked out the hole.

“Kat is fighting out there trying to make an opening for the two of us to get out,” Twilight said, watching Kat struggle against the horde of puppets, “Luna I have fought these things before so I’m going to help her when the moment opens itself I want you to take the magic back to Simon.”

Not waiting for Luna to respond, Twilight immediately charged into the hall and unleashed a barrage of blasts from her horn. While several of them went down easy enough a couple turned their attention to Twilight. Raising one arm, several bangs sounded and suddenly Twilight felt pain across her cheek.

Twilight quickly formed a shield around herself as her hoof touched her cheek, finding blood dripping down her face, indicating she had indeed been struck by something. Adding to this, the puppets were continuing their assault and despite not being able to see it, Twilight could feel countless projectiles bouncing off of her barrier. However, she couldn’t mull of this for long as she could feel her barrier weakening, she needed a plan. And with a quick glance, she had one.

“Princess Luna, toss me the crystal,” Twilight shouted as she looked over to the hole where she saw Luna holding the crystal. I

Without a word, Luna launched the crystal toTwilight, who dropped her shield just long enough for the crystal to land near her using her hoof to stop it then she put it back up.

“Okay, so every time I’ve seen humans like Simon get any kind of energy, they’ve ingested these crystals. So I should in theory be able to do the same...hopefuly,” Twilight said, more than hesitant to enact the plan she’d come to. Yet she opened her mouth, leaned forward and took a bite of the crystal.Surprisingly it seemed to turn almost into mush the moment her teeth made contact pulling off just a small amount. The moment she swallowed time seemed to stop around her.

“Erase.” A voice suddenly called out to Twilight it was soft almost too quiet to hear.

“Erase?” Twilight said confused, “Erase what?”

“Erase.”

This time as the voice spoke a rune appeared in front of her. Twilight didn't know why but somehow she knew that this rune meant Erase. “You must erase it.”

Without another word, time started to flow again leaving Twilight baffled by all that happened, save for the fact she was told to use the rune she’d seen. With little room to argue, she quickly used her magic to create the rune and place it on one of the puppets. The effect was instantaneous, as the line attached to the puppet’s back started blinking before it faded completely, leaving the puppet to fall lifelessly to the ground.

“Kat aim for the blue lines on the puppets it's how they are being controlled,” Twilight yelled out, now fully clear on what needed to be done.

Kat looked to Twilight after tearing off the limb of a puppet. “I have no idea what you are talking about but if you have a better plan please, by all means, fucking do it already.”

Twilight looked around it seemed that for every one they took out was replaced by two more. Twilight needed a way to take out a lot of them all at once then an idea came to her. Quickly Twilight used her magic to create the rune again, this time she attached it to her shield, somehow changing it from pink to blue.Twilight immediately began pumping magic into her shield causing it to grow in size.

In mere moments, the shield reached some of the puppets, who once inside of it, immediately lost their lines and were rendered powerless. Sadly, while this technique was proving effective, it was rapidly depleting Twilight’s magic and would fade in a manner of seconds. Twilight looked down at the crystal of magic, ready to lean in to take another bite. Once grabbed a bigger chunk between her teeth and swallowed only to hear Kat shout something to her but it was too late. An enormous amount of magic suddenly flowed through her causing her shield to expand out at an exponential rate.

Kat seeing everything magical that the bubble touched die, feared for her life and made a quick dash.

As all this was occuring, Luna watched confused, concerned and intrigued, both in Twilight’s odd magic usage and the human named Kat, now rushing towards her screaming loudly.

“Your name is Ace correct,” Luna asked the machine standing by her, “What exactly is the human trying to say to Twilight.”

“Kat says that Twilight has taken on too much magic.”

The human stood back up after diving through the hole looking out they sighed in relief before waving for Luna to follow. As Luna moved out into the hallway she saw Twilight lying on the ground unconscious surrounded by unmoving humans shaped figures.

Kat walked over picking up the magic crystal then turned and said something to Luna.

“Kat would like it if you would carry Twilight.”

Luna nodded to Kat picking up Twilight in her magic and placing Twilight on her back. The two of them moved the rest of the way out of the lab in silence. Once they exited lab Celestia immediately moved over to Luna.

“What happened,” Celestia asked, seeing Twilight unconscious.

“She's a real lightweight when it comes to magic, ended up absorbing more than she could handle, it looks like she expelled most of it in a single blast so she should only be out for a short time,” Kat replied leaving the lab. Rarity had to translate for her while Luna moved Twilight over to one of the empty beds.

“Well did you get the magic,” Jack asked.

“Yea yea yea I got it.” Kat held up the crystal between both her hands and sat it down next to Simon. With a simple move of the hand, Kat broke a small chunk of it off she moved over to Rarity who had been acting as the translator she held out the crystal to her.

“Here when Purple wakes up, she is going to have a massive headache, hurt all over, and might be quick to anger but if you give her this all symptoms should clear up.”

Rarity nodded, taking the crystal from her hand. Kat moved back over to Simon picking up the large crystal “Okay sleeping beauty it's time to wake up.” Kat quickly shoved the magic right where Simon's mouth was, it seemed to melt like it was a piece of ice. As it shrank they could see the lights in Simon's lab slowly coming back on one by one. Once it was gone completely Simon's eyes slowly opened and he let out a yawn as he sat himself up and looked around.

“Hey everyone, what's up?”

Simon stretched as he forced himself onto his feet, only to stumble as he was immediately hugged by Kat, which he was quick to return with a smile

“Hey Kat, you are doing really well give it another thousand or so years and you may finally beat me.”

Kat didn’t offer any kind of a remark, content to just take the compliment, while Simon took the time to spot Jack who simply pointed angrily to where his arm was supposed to be.

“Yea I'll fix it just give me a moment.”

Kat finally let go of Simon. He took a look at his bloodstained clothing. “Just let me change then we will take care of your arm.” A black spot opened next to Simon he reached in and soon was pulling out clothing once he had everything he needed it closed again and Simon began to strip.

“Whoa, children in the room,” Kat shouted pointing to both Jack and Sweetie Belle getting an objective response out of Jack. “Find somewhere else to change.”

Another black spot opened next to Simon and Kat sent him in with a swift kick, his yells echoing from inside his lab.

“Hey Kat, we might want to change as well since we’re both covered in blood and there’s also a giant hole in the back of your shirt,” Jack commented getting Kat to take a good look at her clothing.

“Yea might be a good idea.”

Kat and Jack both walked over to Simon's door, which Jack opened without a second thought, resulting in Simon shouting about how the ponies are always naked anyways until Kat had closed the door behind her. Eventually the shouting calmed down allowing those in the room to hear Twilight groaning as she started to wake up.

“Uh, anypony get the number of that train that hit me.” Twilight went to sit up but immediately regretted it because her head was pounding.

“TWILIGHT!” Twilight's friends said in unison and moved over to her bedside.

“Ouch not so loud please.” Twilight started rubbing her temples with her hooves.

“Oh, right Kat said that you would probably need this.” Rarity levitated the crystal over to Twilight, whose eyes seemed to almost glaze over. She couldn’t explain why, but she felt a desire form in her, to take the crystal no matter the cost and she could feel that desire growing stronger by the second. However, the sound of her friends gasps managed to snap her out of it.

“What, what is it?”

Twilight was trying to stay as calm as possible as she picked up the crystal in her magic, the urge quickly coming back as she immediately shoved the crystal into her mouth, nearly moaning with relief as it melted in her mouth. With a single swallow the crystal was gone and with it, all of Twilight's aches and pains went away.

"It might be best if you see for yourself." Rarity used her magic to move a nearby mirror in front of Twilight. To Twilight’s shock, she saw that her right iris instead of it’s usual purple, was now entirely blue.

“Wait, where are the Humans.” Twilight looked around, she wanted to talk to Simon about this, figuring he could explain it and thus wasn’t worth getting upset about.

“They just left to change their clothing.” Applejack motioned towards Simon’s door. Twilight got up out of the bed and hopped down onto the ground.

“Are you sure you should be getting up so soon,” Luna asked, her gaze focused heavily on Twilight’s changed eye.

“It's okay I feel fine now.” Twilight moved over to Simon's door using her magic and started to open it.

“Oh man, what is with that shirt Simon?” Twilight could hear Jack's voice coming out, and listened more closely.

“It was made for me by Rarity, you know, the white one with the fancy hair. Anyways it is a collection of their tramp stamps...I think it's how these ponies mark their territory.” Hearing them laughing casual Twilight opened the door the rest of the way her original reason for seeking them out forgotten.

“Hey, naked humans in here,” Kat shouted, having to restrain herself from throwing something at the pepping pony.

“Don't worry it's nothing I haven't seen before,” Twilight responded, completely unphased by the parties state of undress.

“Oh, right you were with Simon this whole time, you were bound to see him naked at some point. Come on in.” Jack spoke up this time. Twilight entered the lab not bothering to close the door, and saw that Jack’s arm had been completely reattached, not even appearing as though it’d be severed..

“Speak for yourself I have a different body than you two,” Kat said, peaking twilight's curiosity as she looked over to Kat.

It was as she said she didn't have any signs of a penis under the small piece of clothing she was wearing on her bottom half Twilight figured this meant that she must have a vagina like most females. Also, her teats were much higher up and Twilight could only think that maybe she had a child recently because they were enlarged. Twilight would have to remember to ask if she could add her sketch to her research of humans.

“Anyways as I was saying, Simon, when our team got here we immediately split up to search the land for you the rest of them didn't know that Jack and I had snuck a Tracking Letter through the portal.”

“Wait there are more humans here,” Twilight asked.

“Oh yes, including Simon here there's a total of six humans,” Jack nodded giving his reattached arms a few test waves and just enjoying the having the sensation back, “There’s me, Kat, Robert, Misaka, and Erma.”

“I see those two are an interesting choice. Though I have to say the thing that surprised me the most was how you all got here so fast, I figured that it would be at least a month before they managed to reopen the portal.” Simon finished putting on his last piece of clothing but the look on Kat and Jack's face was one of confusion.

“Simon just how long have you been stuck here.” Jack had walked over to Simon and put a hand on his shoulder.

Simon thought to himself for a moment. “Hmmm, about thirteen days.”

Kat exchanged looks with Jack before she too put her hand on Simon's other shoulder. “Simon you’ve been gone for over a year.”