A being from the unknown world

by makota

Rating: mature
Tags: Human, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Profanity, Violence
Length: 100991

Twilight and her friends are asked to deal with a creature from another world

Twilight and her friends are asked to help with closing a portal but before they can close it completely something slips through. They soon learn that not everything is straightforward when asked to watch over it.

Big thanks to The Fan Without a Face who did the editing for this story.

Published 2017-06-07 21:30:10 UTC
Last updated 2018-12-10 03:33:39 UTC

The problem with staying *Edited*

The problem with staying *Edited*

“Uh, Twilight, there is one problem with taking it,to go see the princess.” Applejack stated

“Excuse me, I’m a him not a it,” Simon interjected crossing his arms as if he was angry but still kept a smile on his face.

“Oh sorry.” Applejack apologized, feeling a little awkward about her slip of the tongue. “But anyway, as I was saying, there's a small problem, how do we get him to the princess without causing any kind of panic.” Applejack looked between the girls for an answer

"Oh-oh-oh-oh I know, we can use my balloon." Pinkie quickly chipped in.

"Sorry Pinkie, but that balloon isn't big enough for all of us and I don't trust him enough for any of us to be alone with him," Twilight added.

"Not the one that attacked first purple butt," Simon said but was ignored by most of the girls, though Twilight offered a weak glare in response to the insult.

Twilight let out a sigh. "Look, my name is Twilight, not egghead and definitely not purple butt. And this is Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie," Twilight spoke pointing to each of them in turn.

"I would offer up one of my animal carriers but I don't think I have one big enough to fit him," Fluttershy added.

"It’s for the best, I don't like enclosed spaces anyway," Simon said with a wave of his hand just to be ignored again.

Rarity put her hoof to her chin before she felt inspiration hit her. "Idea! What if we give him a disguise until we can get on the train. We can rent a private car that way no one will be none the wiser."

"You want me to crawl on my hands and knees and pretend to be a pony? No thank you, that does not sound like fun." Simon piped in, cringing mentally at the thought of him in some kind of goofy looking pony costume.

"What no no, not that darling, have you heard of a Minotaur? While you’re a little on the scrawny side, you certainly look like one, just need to apply some fake fur and a mask and getting you through town shouldn’t be an issue." Rarity looked at everyone. "I will just need a few things from my shop to do it though."

"Oh well, don't let me stop you guys from getting the stuff you need. If you can't tell my way home is closed I have nowhere to go right now, plus I could use a nap." Simon said, letting out a yawn before laying back in the grass

"That should work." Twilight spoke looking down at Simon, now laying on his back, before turning back to the group. "Rarity you, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie should go get the disguise ready since you’ve actually met minotaurs before. The rest of us will stay and keep an eye on him." The named trio all nodded to Twilight before they started galloping off in the direction of Ponyville.

Twilight turned towards Simon. "Well, since we have some time how about you answer a few questions, like what were you doing with the vortex?" Simon turned to face them laying down on his side using one arm to prop his head up the other draped across his side.

"Oh, that's easy, I was closing it," Simon stated matter of factly.

"What!?" All three girls responded in unison.

"Yeah, I was setting up a device that closes the portal after a delay so that I have enough time to get back through." He smiled at them before laying on his back again and stretching out.

"Wait, so you're saying that if we hadn't interrupted you, we wouldn't be in the situation that we are now?" Applejack responded, almost flabbergasted at the revelation.

"Yep, pretty much," Simon said in the middle of a yawn and closing his eyes.

"Great, just perfect." Twilight groaned as she turned and looked at Simon in order to ask him another question only to find he was asleep. Part of her was prepared to scream to get him awake but she realized something was off.

"Umm egghead, are you seeing what I am," Rainbow asked. Twilight took a closer look at Simon. She noticed that all the color within an inch around him seemed faded. Twilight's curiosity got the better of her and she approached slowly but as her hoof got within the faded portion she felt a few tingles through her frog so she pulled her hoof away quickly.

"What is it," Applejack asked, watching Twilight’s reaction.

"I'm not sure but it might be best if we wait for him to wake up," Twilight spoke as she examined the bottom of her hoof. Sure enough, there was a spot that was slightly faded purple but she could see that it was quickly returning to normal.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an Unknown world

The small man once again approached the figure upon the throne. "Sir, I'm here with the status report of all our current missions in progress.” The figure waved for him to continue. "All missions are running as scheduled except...."

"Except for Simon’s. Of course, he’s always had a unique way of doing things." The figure interrupted.

"Well, you see sir, Simon’s portal has closed." The man spoke, shaking heavily out of fear of retaliation. Yet the figure didn’t react as he’d expected, remaining relatively calm.

"Let me guess, Simon said it was a world filled with nothing but broccoli again. Make sure to demote him down another 5 ranks and only give him enough magic to survive for the week. Once he’s struggled enough we’ll see how willing he will be to fight in the arena again." The figure commanded

"That's the thing, Sir Simon didn't come back through before it closed this time." the small man spoke weakly, knowing an outburst of rage was about to occur.

"WHAT!" the figure shouted, practically leaping out of his chair, nearly giving the messenger a heart attack. "Get all of our portal engineers working on opening that portal immediately. I don't care how many capacitor deities we kill in the process, get it open.”

"Of course sir. Right away sir." The small man disappeared again.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Everfree Forest

Rarity and the others came running back with the Minotaur disguise, with Rarity carefully levitating it with her magic, as they made their way to the spot they’d left earlier. "Sorry it took so long everyone, I had only seen the Minotaur the one day and I didn't have time to properly measure the subject before we ran off." Rarity spoke as she approached the others. Applejack and Rainbow Dash looked up from where they were hoof wrestling and Twilight lifted her head off her hoofs where she was obviously made to mediate. Simon all the while was still on his back asleep. "Has he been sleeping this entire time?" Rarity asked tilting her head to the side curious.

"Yeah, pretty deeply too." Rainbow Dash snickered pointing at the pile of sticks and leaves that she had piled on top of his chest, meriting a giggle from Pinkie. Twilight just rolled her eyes at the pairs immaturity.

"Alright, let's get going then we don't have much time to lose," Twilight spoke taking the disguise with her magic and tossing it on top of Simon, finally jolting him awake. Simon immediately shot up, startled and unintentionally sent the pile of sticks and rocks flying in every direction. As he flailed around in response to the surprise, he accidentally kicked the speaker away, though thankfully not enough to damage it. Twilight quickly levitated the device with her magic and moved it back over towards him. "My friends are back with your disguise. So let's make sure it fits properly so we can walk into town without causing a panic." Simon shrugged picking up the blue suit covered in fur and looked it over.

"The only thing we couldn't come up with was a way give you face the same shape as a minotaur," Fluttershy spoke.

"Oh, I can help with that," Simon said he then reached out his hand disappearing into the same black spot as before pulling out an animal-shaped mask.

"Actually I've been meaning to ask you what is that thing you keep pulling all this stuff out of," Twilight asked

"Oh, umm, it is a fourth-dimensional space where I can store any number and size of items as long as I have the magical energy to open it to the correct size. I guess you can think of it like a closet that I take anywhere I go." Simon shrugged

Twilight’s eyes lit up in excitement as she thought of all the things she could do with that kind of ability. She then gave Simon a slightly confused look, "but wouldn't your world's fourth dimension be different from our world's dimension so you wouldn't have your stuff here." She would have liked to ask more questions, except for the fact that He was an invading force.

Simon smiled at her. "Ah, I see you're the smart one of the group." Simon stood up and took off his shirt to change into his disguise. Twilight immediately noticed two things, the first was the reason he wore the clothing was that his body was completely devoid of fur so he needed something to protect him from the elements, the second was that his body, if his lower half looked anything like his upper half, was covered head to toe in scars. Twilight wanted to ask about them when he suddenly spoke up again. "You see, while our worlds may have different fourth-dimensional space, you're not thinking of something so much more simpler if our worlds have a fourth-dimension tied to it and so too would our personal bodies." Simon picked up the disguise, flipping it around until he found the hole that he needed to slip in. He then proceeded to place it on the ground and unbuttoned his pants, removing them before stepping into the disguise, eventually covering his entire body, save for the head. Once the costume was in place, he wordlessly picked up the rest of his discarded clothing.

"Oh, I will take that darling." Rarity spoke, quickly removing the clothing from his hands. "I thought this might happen so I brought my saddlebags." Rarity used her magic to place the items in her bag.

"Okay," Simon said, he then picked the mask up off the ground and affixing it to his face before picking up the translation box and disconnecting the two earpieces so he could place one in his ear and readjust the mask, finally completing the disguise. Some parts of the costumes were a little snug while some were a bit looser, but it wasn't bad fitting for something done without measurements. Simon then held out his hand with the other earpiece, which Twilight quickly levitated back onto her ear.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road," Rainbow said taking to the air and pointing in the direction of Ponyville before moving ahead of the group. The remaining members just shrugged and started following after the rainbow mare. As the made their way to town, the mares settled in around Simon, hoping that if they did run into somepony that was curious about him, they could deflect them enough to not notice that he didn’t speak.

"So Simon, does your world have any animals," Fluttershy spoke up, trying to pass the time as they walked towards Ponyville. Simon looked over in Fluttershy's direction and spoke something but without the translation device, she could no longer understand him. "Oh..umm that's oka..." Fluttershy started but she was suddenly interrupted by Twilight.

"He says yes, they have a lot of different species of animals in his world including some that seem to be the same species as us," Twilight looked over at Fluttershy.

"Oh, that's really interesting, did you have any pony friends in your world," Fluttershy asked hopefully. Once again Simon said something she couldn't understand, though this time after he was done she looked at Twilight eagerly, though the purple pony seemed a little surprised by his response.

"Simon said that the ponies in his world aren’t like the ponies here in Equestria. They don’t have magic and they aren’t especially intelligent either. They make good companions like a dog but they couldn't exactly hold a conversation," Twilight spoke matter of factly, still a little stunned by the notion of a world where ponies lacked even the ability to speak.

"So Simon what are farms like in your world." This time Applejack spoke up, looking back at the group. Like with Fluttershy, Twilight was needed to translate the otherwise incomprehensible noise that came from his mouth.

"Apparently, the farms in his world are largely industrialized, meaning that they have chosen quantity or quality," Twilight spoke even as everyone including herself was taken by surprised by this answer.

"Now why would they go and do that?" Applejack asked shocked because she could never think of doing something like that with the apple farm. Simon closed his eyes as he thought for a second and then began speaking.

"Hmm, it seems that in his world the population of his species exploded out of control so they industrialized a lot of things in order to keep up with demand. He also said that it wasn't a popular choice, a lot of them were against it but due to the circumstances, it was a necessary sacrifice." Twilight translated, with Applejack seeming to accept the answer, but her dislike for it was written all over her face.

Rainbow Dash who had been mostly uninterested in the conversation suddenly flew back from the front of the group and up to Twilight.

"Oh, ask him if there's anything like the Wonderbolts in his world." Twilight seemed slightly annoyed by the Pegasus that was suddenly in her face.

"Rainbow he can hear you, you can ask...." Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she looked at Simon who looked confused by the question.

"Well, the Wonderbolts are a group of aerial performance Pegasus that also act as reserve forces in case of an emergency." There was a silence for a while as Simon spoke Twilight, giving the occasional nod to what he was saying. "Okay, so he says that humans, which are what his species is called, do not have a natural ability to fly but they do have these things called planes which are like giant metal birds that they can use to fly. Some of the more famous groups of fliers out there are part of military organizations." Rainbow Dash seemed satisfied with the answer Trying to imagine what giant Wonderbolts would look like. They all looked forward to where the forest cleared, finally giving them a clear view of Ponyville. They walked in silence for a bit as they entered town before Rarity decided it was her turn to ask a question.

"So I must ask does the rest of your race have as bad as a sense of fashion as you do. I mean, I know black is a slimming color but you had two outfits that were entirely composed of it." Rarity asked causing Simon to start laughing before he spoke.

"Really?" Twilight looked to Simon before she turned to the rest of the group. "Apparently, Simon was never really one for fashion, he just sorta grabbed stuff and put it on, he never worried about colors or how they looked. Also, the first outfit he was wearing wasn't his choice it was a standard unit of cloth that all the infiltrators use. Anyways, he says there is actually a very big fashion industry since wearing clothing in public is a requirement for his species."

"Well, I hope you don't mind, but I would like to make some alterations to your wardrobe." Simon nodded giving her permission to do as she pleased. "Thank you, and don't worry, by the time I am done you will be the best-dressed human in Equestria."

"Uh, Rarity he'll be the only dressed human in Equestria." Applejack commented.

"Good, then he won't have any competition, I'm not a miracle worker after all." Rarity joked. This caused all of them to laugh as they continued to walk through the town. After a little while, they were approached by another pony, a mint green unicorn by the name of Lyra

"Hiya girls, what are you all up to today?" Lyra asked she then spotted the minotaur that was behind them. "And who is your handsome friend." She asked then gave a small flirty growl. Pinkie was the one that stepped up next to Lyra.

"Hey Lyra we are just traveling with our friend Simon here we are supposed to escort him to the princess as fast as possible." Pinkie said putting her hoof around Lyra, which the mint colored pony was quick to slip out of and approach Simon.

"Oh, so your somepony important enough that the princess wants to meet with you?" Lyra slipped past the girls and put one of her hoofs around his waist leaning on him and used her other hoof to slide it up and down on his leg. "You know, once you're done with your official business with the princess you should come back here and visit me. I'm sure I could show you a few things about pony culture that you didn't know." She looked up at his face and gave him a little wink. This caused all the girls to blush except for Pinkie who was giggling to herself and Rainbow Dash who was frozen in place with her mouth hanging open at the blatant flirting. This time it was Twilight who stepped in

"Well Lyra, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we have important business to take care of." Twilight started to say using her magic to pull Lyra off of Simon but as soon as Lyra looked to Twilight she interrupted her.

"Oh, what's that on your ear Twilight. Can I try it on?" Lyra spoke quickly moving from Twilight’s magic to her side staring wide eye at the device on her ear.

"What oh..." Twilight quickly looked side to side trying to come up with a convincing lie, afraid that Simon might talk to her and blow their cover. "No, I can't let you try it on cause it was given to me by somepony important."

"Oh, somepony important huh." Lyra smirked and for a moment Twilight thought that she was caught lying. "Did you finally get you a special somepony Twilight, I'm so excited for you, though I have to say that they have some interesting tastes in accessories."

"What no it's not like that." Twilight blushed a little bit at Lyra's statement. She tried to say more but she was at a loss for words.

Lyra laughed. "Relax Twilight, I'm just teasing you." Lyra bumped Twilight in the side with her elbow. "Anyways I gotta get going, I promised Bon bon I would help her with her shop today." Lyra and the group parted ways as Simon and the girls walked away Lyra saw a piece of paper on the ground, quickly picking it up and bringing it closer to her she found it was written in some sort of language she couldn't read. Her eyes quickly shifted back to Twilight and her group, as her curiosity had now officially been piqued.

"What in tarnation was that all about," Applejack asked.

"What, I panicked," Twilight replied trying to explain herself.

"No, ah know that Twilight, I meant what was with Lyra. Ah don't think ah have ever seen her act that way." Applejack stated, looking at everyone.

"Oh, that is cause Lyra has a biped fetish." Pinkie Pie chirped in. Simon took a quick look back, seeing Lyra looking at them while holding the note he left with his name and number. he made, the call me sign with his hand which only served to confuse her more since she had no clue what the meaning of the thing he just did with his hand. Thankfully, they made it to the train station with no more interruptions. Twilight approached the ticket counter.

"I would like to buy tickets for a trip to Canterlot, preferable a private car that is able to hold larger species," Twilight told the ticket pony, who took a quick glance a Simon to confirm the necessity of the cabin. After looking through a few pieces of paper he looked up to Twilight.

"I'm sorry but it appears all of our private cars for larger species have already been booked, but we still have a few pony sized car's if it's okay with your large friend." Twilight looked back at Simon who just nodded his approval.

"Sure, we’ll take that one." Twilight nodded producing a bag of bits and using them to pay for the tickets. Twilight then used her magic to hand each of the tickets to everyone. "Okay, follow me our car is this way." Twilight lead them through the station towards the back of the train. They got into the car without much trouble, though Simon had to lean back and place his legs forward, pretty much taking up two spots just so he wouldn't hit his head while sitting. Once they were all seated, Simon removed the head and mask of his disguise, as well as pulling the speaker from before and holding out his hand to Twilight She understood what he wanted right away pulling the device from her ear and putting it into his hand. Simon took it and hooked it back up to the speaker like he did before so they could properly communicate again. "So Simon, tell us what is it that your world wants with ours," Twilight asked him as the train started to move. Simon closed his eyes thinking on this subject for a while before he spoke again

"How can I explain this?" Simon paused a brief moment then started speaking again. "In simple terms, they want magic." He then went quiet again.

"What," Twilight asked looking confused at him.

"it's hard to explain but you see magic in our world magic is a limited resource but we didn't realize that until it was too late. Most of my world runs on magic, and it’s been filtered through machines, refining it allowing it to be used in several different ways," Simon spoke grimly.

"So what's so wrong with letting your world have a little bit of magic," Rainbow added.

Simon smiled at her. "Well there's nothing wrong with giving a little magic, hell from what I have seen your world seems to be an entire ocean of magic, but the gods wouldn't stop at just a little, they wouldn't stop until they left your world as a husk, with not a single drop of magic left.”.

The girls gasped at the same time before becoming silent. "Wait, you said, gods, what did you mean by that." Twilight asked this once again made Simon pause before he looked up

"Well, in my world there is a hierarchy, with the gods being at the top. There are a total of four of them and each one has their own private army of humans serving them. They’ve been around for as long as anyone remembers and they are the only beings in our world to passively generate their own source of magic. Next in line are deities, now there are three different types of deities, with fighter deities being at the top. They battle against each other in the arena to entertain the gods and are given ranks based on their standings, the higher their rank the more respect they get as well as they get a larger ration of magic along with pretty much anything they want. They are also the ones that primarily get sent on infiltration jobs, though they will send anyone that they feel is qualified." Simon paused giving a chance for this information to sink in. some time during the story Pinkie had laid her head down on Simon's lap. Simon had taken to absent-mindedly scratching behind her ears.

"Pinkie! What are you doing." Twilight said surprised looking down at Pinkie in his lap.

"I don't know what's going on but this is heaven." Pinkie Pie answered dreamily, practically melting into Simon’s hands.

"Anyway, please do continue darling." Rarity spoke up trying to ignore the odd behavior from their friend.

Simon nodded as he continued to scratch behind Pinkie’s ears before he spoke again. "Middle tier deities are the Creator Deities, whose job is to use magic in the creation of objects as well as finding new uses for magic. The last is the Capacitor Deity, who are the lowest ranked as they don't have much ability to use magic but they are very good at absorbing it and hold a large amount within themselves. Finally there are the normal citizens which are just ordinary humans. Unable to use magic themselves they hope that by working for the gods that upon their death they will be resurrected as a deity."

"Oh my that sounds terrible," Fluttershy spoke up once his story had ended.

"Wait, hold on one second you said deities are resurrected, like zomponies." Rainbow Dash quickly asked, mentally shivering at the image, along with Fluttershy and Rarity.

Simon shrugged. "I guess, I mean what happens is that when one of the gods takes particular interest in a citizen once they have died the God will place some of their own magic in the human causing them to come back to life as a deity, but they need to keep an ample supply of magic within themselves to stay alive."

"You said that they would dry up our world like they did yours. What is your world like?" Applejack asked

"Well, my world used to be a lot like this one, very lush and green, but then the gods showed up and showed the normal humans how to harvest magic and some ways how it could be used to make their lives easier. Everyone was excited for the life of leisure that they could have naturally started using magic in large amounts, but eventually, the planet started dying. All the plants started dying at just about the same time. We tried our best to keep them alive, even using magic to sustain them, but it took too much magic. Eventually, the plants all started to rot and eventually, our soil turned to sand without the plants and most of the animals either went extinct or are now kept in large zoos. The only spots in our world that are able to sustain life are the few cities we’ve managed to build. Everywhere else is just... The Deadlands." The girls shared a moment of silence after hearing the grim tale of what happened to his world. The train started to slow down and a voice came over a loudspeaker telling everyone that they had reached their destination. Simon picked up the speaker detaching the device from it, he held out the device again to Twilight. Twilight was about to pick up the device and placed it back on her ear when it was suddenly picked up by Rarity.

"Hold on darling, why are you the one dooming themselves to be his translator while we are out and about. Why not let one of us work as the translator for a while?" Rarity moved the device up to her face and looking it over, seeing how it goes and then placing it on her ear. "Is this correct?" Rarity turned her head towards Simon allowing him to see how she was wearing it

Simon gave her a thumbs up. "Yep, looking good."

Rarity turned her head back. "Thank you dear, well shall we get going?" Rarity put Simons clothing back into her saddlebag from where she had been working on them the entire train ride. Simon put his mask and the head of his disguise back on. They all exited the train and proceeded out of the station. Simon stopped and took in the sights looking all around at buildings and busy everything seemed it reminded him of the cities in his world. “Oh yes, it's quite a sight here isn't it." Rarity asked seeing his reaction

"Yeah, it reminds me of some the towns I saw in my world." Simon stopped looking around and looked down at Rarity. "So what way is it to this princess."

"It's right this way." Rarity spoke as she started leading the group towards the palace. Everyone was moving except for Applejack who pulled Twilight aside as soon as she was sure they were out of hearing range of the device.

"Ah, don't know about this Twi, he seems a little too eager to meet the princess don't you think?" Applejack looked back to where Simon and the others were, eyeing him suspiciously.

"You know he does seem to be in a bit more of a rush to meet the princess and he did say that his gods would do anything to get this world." Twilight whispered back to her. "Still he did say that he was going to close the portal of his own free will. For now, we will just have to keep an eye on him while he is in the princess’s presence. If anything goes wrong, then we’ll act.”

"Okay Twilight." Applejack nodded and the two of them sprinted to catch up to them. Soon enough they were walking up the stairs to the palace the guards eyeing the large minotaur as they made their way towards the throne room. Twilight stopped them just outside the large doors to the throne room and started talking to one of the guards.

"Excuse me but we are here to see the princess, we have something very important that needs her attention right away," Twilight spoke very matter of factly with the guard showing that she had some pull around here.

The guard nodded to her. "Yes, of course Ms. Sparkle." the guard opened the door slightly slipping through very quietly there were a few murmurs from the other side of the door and a minute passed before the guard came back out. "Princess Celestia is almost done with her current meeting it will only be another minute then she will speak with you." Twilight nodded and returned to the group and told them it would only be a minute.

Suddenly Simon spoke up. "Umm, is it alright if I take this disguise off yet?" They all looked to him after hearing his weird language, the guard's in particular looked surprised and suspicious. Rarity looked around a bit at the rest of the girls looking at her before she realized that she was the only one that understood what he had said

"Oh, right, he asked if it would be alright for him to change back into his clothing." Rarity stated

"Well sure I guess...but just let me warn..." Twilight started to say but it was too late Simon had removed the head and mask. The guards reacted immediately thinking that it was some kind of monster. The five guards jumped into action two of them with swords and three of them with spears. They all charged at Simon to hold him in place but they were caught off guard as five black spots appeared with two hands popping out before grabbing the two swords and holding them in place. Out of the other three holes came weapons similar to what the puppets had wielded, each one had cut the spear in half. This caused all the guards to stop in place staring wide-eyed at the scene that had unveiled in front of them in just five seconds of time. That is when Twilight stepped in picking up all five guards in her magic. "Will you all calm down, he is a guest of Princess Celestia and you," Twilight said turning her attention to Simon. "Equestria's guards are trained to subdue, not kill, you would have been fine if you didn't move." Twilight said angrily.

Simon pulled the speaker out and plugged his earpiece into it. "Hey, in my defense I'm new here so I don't know that and secondly once again I was not the one to attack first." Simon stated.

Twilight ignored the last comment from Simon, but before she could put the guards down the doors to the throne room burst open. "What is going on out here," Princess Celestia demanded. Twilight quickly put down the guards before all the girls and guards bowed before the princess. Simon smiled and waved at her as the hands let go of the swords, dropping them on the ground before retreating back into the black spots with the weapons and disappearing. Celestia gave the creature that was the same height as her a confused look. Though she could feel some magic radiating off of it trying to get into her mind her own magic managed to overpower it. Moving her attention to Twilight she spoke.

"I assume this individual is what you wanted to talk about?" Celestia asked looking back and forth between them.

"Uhh, yes." Twilight sighed

"Very well, we can discuss this more in the throne room." Celestia then walked back into her throne room Twilight followed motioning for the girls to follow along with Simon while the guards all moved back into position, though still shaken up by how easily the stranger dispatched them. Inside the throne room, Celestia ascended the stairs sitting on her throne next to her was Luna on her own throne. "So Twilight, my faithful student, please tell me what happened and who is the unusual creature that you have brought here."

Twilight took a deep breath. "Well, first this is Simon." Twilight motioned to Simon. "He came out of the portal as we were preparing to use the Elements to close it." Twilight relaid the story of what transpired to the princess, stopping when she got to the part where Simon had somehow gotten out of the shield that she had used to trap him. "By the way Simon how did you get out of my shield?" Twilight questioned him.

Simon smiled at Twilight. "Well, you see, I simply used my fourth-dimensional space to move my body. I could demonstrate if you wish." Simon looked up to the Princesses as he spoke. Luna nodded vigorously, excited to see this creature in action while Celestia only gave a slight nod. Twilight's horn lit up as she once again placed a shield around Simon. Simon started walking around running his hand around the inside of the shield again. He stopped once he had found the point he was looking for before he took a step back, reaching out right Before his hand made contact with the shield a black spot appeared but instead of digging around in it, he pressed further the black spot slowly growing in size as he pressed further and further.
Right before the last part of his body disappeared another black spot opened, this one just outside the shield. After it opened, a hand came out as it pressed forward more and more came out until finally Simon was free and the black spot disappeared. Simon turned to the princess before taking a bow. Both Celestia and Luna looked stunned they have never seen magic used in that way before. Simon collapsed down onto one knee, instead of trying to get back up he chose to sit down on the spot giving a big yawn.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked, worried about Simon for a moment.

"I'm fine, it just takes a lot of magic to move like that." Simon waved his hand like it wasn't any big deal. "Anyway, I'm sure your princesses want to hear the rest of your story." This caused Twilight to look up to the princesses, who looked clearly concerned but after hearing him say he was okay they gave Twilight the nod to go on.

"Okay, where was I, oh, Rarity could you come over here?" Rarity nodded moving over to Twilight. Twilight pointed out the device that was on Rarity's ear. "Simon gave us this device, it seems to act as a translator." Twilight continued on with the story, leaving out the encounter with Lyra, when Twilight got to the train ride she began describing what Simon had told them about his world. The princesses listened intently to Twilight only giving the occasional nod. When the story finished with the incident that happened outside the throne room the princesses quietly discussed something between the two of them. They then asked a question that none of the girls thought to ask back on the train.

Celestia looks down to Simon. "So Simon, you said your world consisted of ranks, where do you fall in these ranks?"

"Oh, I am considered a Creator Deity. My specialty is fourth-dimensional space." Simon gave another yawn.

"You said that your world refines magic may we see this?" Luna asked quizzically.

Simon shrugged. "I guess I could try, do you have like a garden nearby that we can go to."

Celestia nodded. "Of course, right this way." Celestia and Luna stood as they led the way to outside to the nearby garden. Once they were all there they all turned to Simon, who was looking around, until he reached a bed of flowers.

"Do you mind?" Simon asked motioning to a flower. Celestia motioned for him to go ahead. Simon picked the flower holding it up and examining it then turning to all them. "Now, usually the refining process takes some very large machinery but I have been working on something. It's still experimental so it might not work." Simon reached out his hand reaching into the black spot and when he removed it, his hand was covered in cloth with a small, half circle device on the back of his hand. Simon turned towards the group kneeling down so that they could all see he held the flower in one hand and covered it with the gloved hand. Several lines on the device lit up, glowing a faint blue for a while before it stopped. When Simon removed his hand the flower had been crystallized. It took everyone by surprise including Simon. "Wow, normally a flower that size would only produce a small crystal of refined magic not this much."

Twilight came closer looking it over. "Simon may I have a piece of that to study."

Simon shrugged "Sure." He broke a leaf off the flower stem and held it out. Once it was taken Simon took the rest of the flower and swallowed it whole. Twilight saw ever curious, brought the crystallized leaf close to her face before sticking out her tongue to lick it. However, Simon stopped her. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, it's a highly addictive substance and we don't know how it would react to your species, since you’re already filled with magic and everything."

Twilight pulled her tongue back in moving the leaf away. "Interesting. I can’t wait to study this" Twilight spoke looking the crystallized leaf over again. this time she took the leaf and moved it towards Rarity. "Here Rarity, could you keep this safe until I can get it back to my lab." Rarity nodded taking it in her magic and moved it into her saddlebag.

Celestia cleared her throat to make herself know before she spoke. "That was an interesting demonstration, though I think we need to return to the throne room, Luna and I have a decision to make." With that, they all moved back to the throne room, Celestia and Luna quietly returning to their respective thrones before quietly discussing their next course of action. The rest of them sat around waiting. once a decision was made Luna spoke up.

"Very well, we have made a decision." Luna spoke up gaining everyone attention "Simon, your cooperation so far has been noticed and taken into account."

"But your kind's abilities are still very dangerous." Celestia spoke up after Luna was done "Therefore we have decided that we will allow you to live here for as long as it takes to get you home. For the time being, you will be staying with Twilight and her friends in Ponyville, but because of this familiarity aura you possess we don't know how the long-term effects of exposure are. Therefore, you will be rotated one week at a time staying at each of their houses. Twilight we would like you to be the first for him to stay with, your understanding of magic may help to find a counter to the familiarity magic that he has."

"What!" Twilight exclaimed looking between Simon and the Princesses.

First day with Twilight *Edited*

First day with Twilight *Edited*

Twilight was stunned, though she understood the reason for wanting Simon to stay with her she didn't know if she'd be able to handle another day with him let alone a week. "I don't understand Princess, wouldn't it be better if he stayed here at the castle where there are guards to keep an eye on him?"

Celestia looked down to Twilight, offering her a slightly sympathetic glance. "I'm afraid not, this familiarity magic that radiates off of him might work its way into the guard's minds, which is why it needs to be you. You know as well as I that the stronger one is at wielding magic the less likely it is to affect them. That is why I chose you to be the first that he stays with, as you are easily the most skilled magic user I know of in Equestria." Twilight, blushing at the compliment, nodded doing her best to accept her teacher's decision, if nothing else she couldn’t fault her logic.

Nearby, Simon had finally changed back into his normal clothing, though not without some minor alterations. Apparently, Rarity had taken to sowing Twilight’s cutie mark onto his shirt. She had originally wanted to include the rest of the girls marks but there only had enough time on the train for one. Still, she figured she might have to get the shirt back some time to put apply the rest.

"Yes, I understand Princess, Celestia," Twilight answered her teacher before turning around. Upon seeing Simons shirt she stopped in place, her eyes zeroing in on the mark. "What is that." While her tone didn’t suggest any kind of hostility it was apparent Twilight was a little unnerved or uncomfortable at the addition to Simon’s clothing.

"Oh that? Well, I figured that he only had a limited time here so I thought it might make a good souvenir.I was actually going to put each of our cutie marks on his shirt but there was only enough time for one." Rarity answered a bit embarrassed at the situation, before turning to Simon. "I would like to ask if I could have the shirt back when you’re not using it, I do hate to leave a project unfinished."

"I'm not sure if that's such a..." Twilight started to speak but was cut off by Simon.

"I like it," Simon pulled his shirt up a little bit, giving him a better view of the mark that was currently stitched to his shirt. The sight of suddenly exposed skin caused Twilight to blush slightly. Twilight was about to try and object again to his shirt when Luna spoke up.

"I think that is a wonderful idea." Luna clopped her hooves together. "You must add Celestia's and mine to the mix as well." Simon seemed alright with it and Rarity eagerly nodded, happy to accept the princesses request.

"Now I'm sorry to rush you all but we do have other appointments we need to attend to. However, do not worry, I will make arrangements for a place of residence for Simon should all of you decide that he is not a threat. In addition to that, tomorrow morning I will make an announcement to Ponyville about Simon and hopefully placate any concerns or fears anypony may have," Celestia stated.

"Does that mean I have to wear that disguise until tomorrow," Simon asked, his dislike of the disguise written all over his face.

Celestia giggled, "No, I don't think that will be necessary. As much as we appreciate everypony's discretion we think that you just traveling with the bearer of the Elements of Harmony will be enough to calm ponies as is. Just remember to be friendly and answer any questions about yourself and things should remain peaceful." Simon and the girls nodded each of the girls turning and bowing to the princesses before leaving while Simon just waved and blew a kiss to each princess before he found himself being dragged telekinetically out of the room by a visibly annoyed Twilight.

The gesture however, didn’t go unnoticed as it caused a light blush to form around Luna’s face, while Celestia simply giggled, not used to being addressed with such familiarity, at least not in such a recent time. The moment they were out of the throne room Luna turned to her sister, her expression having quickly shifted.

"So sister, how much information do you think he was withholding," Luna asked her sister in a serious tone.

"I feel that there are many things he is keeping from all of us, though that is to be expected given he likely hasn’t fully trusted us yet. Hopefully that is something we can rectify, though I find myself more concerned for the things he did not tell us about himself," Celestia answered.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an Unknown world

A large man with long black hair quietly made his way into a room that seemed to be adorned at every wall with some form of machinery. Men and women with white lab coats running here and there all over the place, with two individuals standing out amidst the chaos, clad in regular clothing, their attention focused on magic flowing from them into a large circular machine in the middle of the room. "How is the portal coming along?" he inquired..

A small man with short, blonde hair made himself known as he approached. "As you can see my lord we are making progress." The small man motioned to the center of the room where sparks of electricity could be seen, culminating inside the large circular machine. "However, without Simon here to make the proper calibrations to his portal machine progress is slow going, but we believe we have identified the signal that the other world is using to detect our portals, so we may soon be able to open a new portal without them knowing."

"Good and has word gotten out of Simons disappearance yet." The large man looked down to the smaller man.

"No sir, only a select few of our own are even allowed to know." The small man mentioned looking around and speaking carefully just to ensure no one but the two of them heard it.

"Let us keep it that way, we do not want Rolf or his God to find out." The large man spoke carefully, receiving a nod from his associate as they glanced at the still forming portal.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the train between Canterlot and Ponyville

"I still don't understand why those guards were giving me strange looks on the way out," Simon spoke up as they sat in one of the trains normal sized cars, where the headroom was considerably larger than the private cars. Of course, this also meant the occasional pony would glance in his direction, though only the foals would stare for an extended period before their parent would discourage their ‘rude’ behavior.

"Simon, you do realize that was because you disarmed five of Celestia's personal guard in the same amount of time it took for them to treat you as a threat, all without moving an inch." Twilight had leaned in closer to Simon to whisper to him. While this was going on, Pinkie had practically shoved her way next to Simon and now had her head comfortably situated in his lap so Simon would scratch behind her ears.

"Hey, I didn't start it," Simon spoke, defending his actions, only to find himself ignored by the girls, who seemed more interested in other discussion topics.

"Tell us, darling, you mentioned that the fighter deities were the ones that got sent to the other worlds yet you referred to yourself as a creator deity. Why were you the one sent here?" The girls all nodded as if wondering the same thing.

Simon smiled. "You all already know why, it's the reason I'm only being allowed to stay with each of you for a week at a time." He sat back and waited for each of the girls to figure out why.

Twilight was the first to speak up, "You mean the magic that makes you seem familiar."

“Yep, that's it. Though back home, we are not sure why but I am the only deity to have it." Twilight was about to ask another question when she was suddenly silenced by Simon putting a finger in front of his lips and making a shushing noise. A colt suddenly walked up to their group from the aisle, stopping next to them with his attention mainly focused on Simon. Rarity and Applejack recognized him as Pipsqueak a classmate of Sweetie Belle and Applebloom.

"I know you," Pipsqueak said looking at Simon and showing signs of thinking really hard. "You’re Sweetie Belle's older brother right." Simon just gave a somber smile and nodded, while all the girls especially Rarity were shocked by this statement. "That's so cool" Pipsqueak added, "You should come to school with her one of these days I'm sure you would be super popular." Simon shrugged then nodded this seemed to satisfy him as he excitedly moved away and ran back to his seat. All the girls turned to Simon, with Rarity having the most surprised look on her face.

"Sweetie Belle’s older brother?" Rarity questioned causing Simon to simply maintain his apparent carefree shrug response. This upset Rarity further to know that he had somehow found out about her little sister and was using her with his familiarity magic to protect himself. "Do you even know who Sweetie Belle is?' Rarity's thoughts on the matter starting to become more clear. Simon shook his head in the negative, thankfully diffusing a bit of Rarity's anger as she looked at him confused. "How could you not know, didn't you just use that name with your magic." It was Simon’s turn to be confused as he looked to Rarity.

"Oh, I think there is a misunderstanding. I don't have control of what connections are created." Simon stated, "You see, in my world we did study this magic to try and learn how to replicate it. One of the things we learned is that it will connect me to someone that they know of but don't know that well." Rarity instantly calmed, finally understanding that it wasn't his choice though this caused another question to pop into her head.

"Well, Sweetie Belle is my younger sister and if you were her older brother that would that make us siblings as well. Though, are you her older brother because we are together?" Rarity smiled at Simon looking at him with half-lidded eyes trying her best to have some fun by pretending to flirt with him.

Simon smirked at her. "Oh, you know we are the greatest of lovers." Simon gave a playful growl in her direction. The girls all looked to Rarity, who had expected a response but not one that suggestive in manner.

"I...I...I..." Rarity stuttered slightly embarrassed trying to come up with a retort but she was at a loss for words. "Anyways, moving on, why is it that you choose to use that magic on the young colt anyways?" Rarity questioned trying to change the subject while both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie snickered.

"Well, truth is I did but I didn't." Simon shrugged.

"What do you mean," Fluttershy asked tilting her head quizzically.

"Well, I actually don't control it at all, it's an ability that works on its own but it only affects the ones that don't know me which is why it’s no longer affecting all of you." The train came to a slow stop at Ponyville station, just outside their window they could see that it had become late into the evening. This was for the best as the girls wanted to ensure there would be almost no chance of being stopped by some random pony who’d fall under Simon’s unintended influence. Still, the girls quickly made their way to the library to avoid any ponies still wandering outside.

Twilight was the first to enter the library calling out, "Spike we're back." The door was left open, allowing everyone else to enter before Spike came down the stairs, obviously having just woken up if his half-asleep state was any hint.

"Welcome back Twilight." Spike yawned. "What took you girls so long? I thought you were just going into the Everfree Forest to close some vortex thing?"

"Uh, about that, we kinda had a small hiccup," Twilight answered motioning towards the door, resulting in Spike getting his first glimpse of Simon as he ducked through the pony-sized doorway.

"That seems a bit bigger than a small hiccup," Spike starred, now wide-eyed at the creature. Simon however, simply offered a friendly wave at the small drake once he was inside and standing at his fully height. "Umm, would any of you like some food I can whip something up in a jiffy." The small dragon doing his best to avoid coming across as potentially rude to Simon.

"Oh, thank you Spike, that would be wonderful," Fluttershy mentioned looking towards Twilight to make sure it was okay with her. Twilight gave a nod and the rest of the girls all gave their thanks to Spike as he made his way into the kitchen to prepare something. However, he paused just before reaching the door, turning his attention back to Simon..

"Umm, what do you eat." he asked Simon "I’m sort of in the dark about what you like.”Simon smiled wide for the first time, allowing the girls to take note of his teeth. Fluttershy was the first to notice he had canines, teeth specifically for eating meat. Naturally this made them a little nervous though they assumed it would be something Simon would mention himself at some point. Simon opened his mouth to answer giving the girls a better view, though they still couldn't see the back teeth because of the height difference, they could only assume.

"No thanks, I don't need anything right now, but I appreciate the gesture." Simon walked with the girls as they all sat down at Twilight’s table, though Simon had to sit on the floor just to be near the same level as them.

Applejack was the first one to break the silence once they were all seated."What all do you eat anyway?" Applejack asked, but was unsure if she really wanted to know, all the girls were starting now anxious for the answer.

"Oh my species are omnivores," Simon stated he hooked a finger into his cheek pulling it to the side as far as it could go and turning to show off the rest of his teeth. They could see that indeed while he had canines on the sides of his incisors he also had premolars and molars just like they did. "So I can eat whatever I want, though I don't have to eat anything as long as I have magic in my system. So nothing really to worry about" Simon tried to give them a comforting grin. The explanation did seem to calm their nerves about his dietary needs, a few moments later Spike came back out with some bowls.

"I wasn't sure how long you all were going to be gone so I prepared some food just in case," Spike commented bringing bowls to the table and setting one out in front of each of them before bringing out a larger bowl that was full of salad and setting that down in the middle of the table.

"So you don't need food because you ate that magic flower earlier," Applejack asked. Spike was dishing out the salad to each of them, when he gave Simon a surprised look, almost as if he could believe what he’d just heard. However, he was quick to shake his surprise off and continue, while some of the other girls were taking slow bites, their attention still focused on Simon.

Simon nodded. "Well what I had was refined magic, it was just a coincidental that it had enough power to retain its shape." Spike had finished giving everyone food and was taking a seat at the table next to Rarity but was still tired enough that he was quickly falling asleep where he sat.

“Just how long can you survive on that amount of magic," Twilight asked.

Simon closed his eyes and thought to himself for a while. "Well, it's not an exact science but judging from the size of it if I keep magic to a minimum I could probably last about a month or survive at least one fatal wound." His last words shocked all of those present, causing all of them to stopped eating and leaving them staring wide-eyed at Simon.

"What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, in my world the only way to get to a higher rank is kill a deity that was higher in ranking than you," Simon spoke casually as if it wasn't a big deal. "I mean, it wasn't that bad if your God liked you, they would just make sure you have enough magic to come back to life."

"That sounds simply barbaric." Rarity spoke aghast.

"That's the worst thing I have ever heard of." Applejack said.

"Haven’t you humans ever heard of friendly competition." Rainbow Dash added, Simon simply shrugged, seemingly unable to understand why they were so surprised.

"Well, I’ve lost my appetite." Rarity said with all the girls nodding in agreement.

"So Twilight, would you like it if all of us stayed over tonight like a sleepover." Pinkie Pie asked, deciding to shift things to a more pleasant subject.

"Yea that sounds like a nice idea, that way we can keep on eye on him while he is awake." Twilight nodded all the girls agreed in staying over.

Twilight quietly levitated the now sleeping Spike and quietly took him back up the stairs to her room to put him to bed. "I'll grab some blankets and we can all stay together in the main room." All of them had gotten up from the table, the girls arranging themselves around the room. While Simon was walking around a bit looking inside of the different doors like he had never heard of privacy before. When Twilight returned Simon had moved over to one of the bookcases and scanning the different books, running his hand over each text.

"Simon we don't even speak the same language I doubt that we have the same written language." Undeterred, Simon had grabbed a random book off the shelf and opened it. For several moments, he stared intently at the pages before he started laughing hysterically.

"What is it, can you really read our language," Fluttershy asked.

Simon shook his head. "Nope not a single word." Simon was still giggling to himself as he kept flipping through the book

"Then what is with all the laughter?" Rarity asked

"It's your writing." Simon had to hold back more laughter looking at it. "It looks like what some lazy animator would come up with just so they could just get the words out of the way and work on the rest of the scene," The girls looked between each other not confused about what Simon was talking about it but accepting it as another difference in worlds. Simon kept laughing even as he put the book back and made his way over to where all the girls were laying down, sitting down on the floor near them. Twilight was handing each of them a blanket that she had brought down with her.

"I hope it's okay Simon but I don't have any blankets your size," Twilight spoke hoofing him a blanket that would maybe only cover half of his body. Simon simply shrugged, sliding back against the nearby wall he sat with his legs crossed and threw the blanket on himself from the shoulders down it covered him pretty well like that.

"So I have been answering all of your questions all day so how about you girls tell me about yourselves and your world for a while," Simon said, leaning against the wall. The girls all looked at each other and nodded.

Twilight was the first to speak up, "Well, I grew up in Canterlot, which is the town we went to earlier, where I went to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns..."

The rest of the night carried on with each of the girls telling him their respective stories along with some of their past achievements. Eventually, Simon had fallen asleep against the wall and the rest of the girls figured it would be safe to follow suit..

The next morning, Twilight found herself awoken by the smell of food being prepared. Lifting her slightly stiff neck up, she quickly noticed Simon had changed his position and was now laying on the floor the blanket covering his entire upper half just his legs were visible. Pinkie was still asleep, having had scooted up to Simon, with her back against his covered side. Fluttershy and Applejack were both already awake as Twilight had expected since the two of them were always early risers, looking around she saw that Rarity was also already awake and Rainbow Dash was of course still asleep. Twilight decided to let the three sleepers just stay as she moved to the kitchen. Entering Twilight saw her missing friends and Spike all in there working together to make some food for the group.

"Are you sure about this Applejack?" Spike asked, not looking back from the large bowl where he was mixing ingredients.

" Not really, I mean all we know is that he said that he could eat anything and apples are always a good choice." Applejack spoke from where she was unloading a box of apples that she apparently went out and retrieved from her farm with Fluttershy’s help.

"Oh, good morning Twilight." Rarity turned her head spotting Twilight enter the kitchen. From what Twilight could see, she had been arranging and measuring the ingredients that they would need for the food.

"Good morning to you too. Though I’m a little confused, what are you guys up to?" Twilight asked moving more into the kitchen. Spike and Applejack both looked to Twilight a little surprised by the question but didn’t dwell on it.

"We thought that it would be nice if we prepared a special breakfast for our guest today," Spike answered.

"Well, why didn't you wake the rest of us up, we could have helped," Twilight asked looking between the three of them.

"We tried to wake Rainbow but, we’d have had better luck trying to wake up an actual rock. I don't think a train running next to her could wake her up." Rarity answered.

"Pinkie pie is sleeping too close to Simon for us to risk waking her and Simon up," Applejack added.

"And from what I heard you were the last one to go to sleep so it was my idea to let you sleep a little longer. Hope that was okay" Spike looked over to Twilight, a little nervous given how familiar he was with Twilight’s propensity for schedules and time management.

"Well, I'm awake now. So I’m more than happy to lend a hoof," Twilight said, happily moving over to where the three of them were working.

"Some of these apples could use mushing." Applejack pointed to some of the apples that she had laid on the counter. Twilight nodded and moved over to where the apples were getting started on helping them with the food preparations.

An hour later Applejack smiled "I guess it's time to wake everyone up, the food is almost done now."

"I'll do the honors, you can get the food together and bring it out to the table." Rarity moved out of the kitchen and to where they were the rest of them were sleeping. "Alright everyone it's time for food."

They could hear Rarity say from the kitchen about a min later they could hear Rarity again. "Umm everypony come out here we may have a problem." Applejack, Spike, Fluttershy and Twilight came out to see Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie standing where Simon was sleeping. However, moving over they noticed the problem, underneath the blanket was not Simon but one of those puppets that he had placed his pants on to make it seem like he was still there sleeping.

Twilight quickly looked out the window near her door. "Okay everypony, let's search the house I don't think he went outside otherwise there would’ve probably be a panic already." Twilight looked back to all of them. "Let's split up, this place isn't that big so it shouldn't be that hard to find him." Everyone nodded and quickly split up, looking all over the library for about half an hour before Spike yelled out.

"Ummm, everypony, I think I might know where he is at." All the girls came running to where Spike had yelled out he was back in the main room staring at the door to the broom closet.

"Well, where is he?" Twilight asked Spike just raised his claw and pointed at the closet door. Twilight looked over at the door and noticed that the door had changed. It was now a silver in color and definitely not made of wood anymore. Twilight carefully approached the door, her friends at her back. Looking at the handle it was definitely made for somepony with hands, since it was knob instead of a latch. Using her magic, she slowly turned the knob, only for them to be met with a sudden loud noise, bursting into the room, causing some to jump and Fluttershy becoming stiff as a board. Twilight, after composing herself, notice the noise seemed to be music, though the language clearly indicated it was from Simon’s world. Once everyone had calmed down Twilight opened the door the rest of the way, revealing a much larger room filled with various types of unusual clutter, most notably several of the puppets from earlier. At the very back of the room, with his back towards them, was Simon. If the flashes of light were any hint he was working on something but also seemed to be singing and dancing with the music at the same time. All the girls, after breathing a sigh of relief in finding him, giggled at the scene that Simon was putting on as they all entered.

Fluttershy, having gotten over her shock ,flew over to a glass case inside, which seemed to contain a pair of strange stick like objects that seemed to be fighting each other. Spike had moved over to one of the junk piles and was digging through it, looking for something interesting. Applejack and Rainbow Dash had moved over to the wall of puppets. A quick glance revealed that while some of them looked like the ones from the forest, others were in a sad state of disrepair with many pieces missing. There was even a small collection that looked almost human, not unlike Simon. While it did unnerve them somewhat they found themselves poking and prodding the puppets, while Rarity found herself digging through several clothing piles, her attention and interest completely captivated.

Twilight, meanwhile, had moved over to a very large bookcase and was quick to pull out a few select tomes only to find she couldn’t read a single word. There were a few hand drawn images she could make out, suggesting they might have been research journals but there were hundreds of them. Twilight knew that even working at her fastest pace with no rest at all, to fill this many journals would take thousands of years. if this was true, then he would very well be older than Celestia and Luna put together.

So lost in the potential implications, Twilight almost didn’t notice a photo slipping out of one of the journals. Picking it up, she found a picture of a a scarless Simon with a much smaller human on his shoulder and another human with much softer features, likely a female, standing next to him. The most striking part of the photo was the large smiles adorning each humans face, smiles that Twilight had never seen on Simon since he’d arrived. More curious than ever, she debated pulling Simon away from what he was doing to ask, only to find he had abandoned his early activity and was now dancing with Pinkie Pie, who was doing her best to try and adapt to dancing on two legs. Still curious, she quickly teleported the photo to her room, opting to inquire about it later in the day. For now, she made her way over to the dancing duo, and gave Simon a questioning glance. .

Simon, knowing he had some things to explain, put his pink dance partner down, much to her disappointment and turned down the music this, getting the attention of the rest of the group. They all moved over to where Simon was and he spread his arms in a wide gesture. "So, welcome to my fourth-dimensional space." Simon gestured to the entire room causing them to all to stop and stared wide-eyed around the room

"So, this is where you store all that stuff that you pull out of nowhere," Applejack asked, with Simon simply nodding.

"Well that explains that, so why were you in here not out in the library. You know you scared several of us with your puppet of yours." Rarity said.

Simon scratched the back of his head, offering a weak chuckle. "Yeah, sorry about that, I lost track of time. I had planned to be back before you all woke up, but hey, what can you do."

"How long have you been awake." Rainbow Dash asked, looking at him accusingly.

"Oh, I never went to sleep. I don't actually need to sleep so I decided to work on a project instead while you all slept." Simon motioned to his desk.

"What were you working on in here," Twilight lifted her head up a bit trying to look at the top of the desk that the flashes were coming from but it was pretty much at eye level for her so she couldn't see very well.

"I was working on these." Simon reached over and scooped up something from the desk before holding it out to the girls. To their amazement, they appeared to be similar to the translator device, though they now looked more like clips and each had markings on the side. "You see I personalized each of them with your individual tramp stamp."

"I'm sorry our tramp what," Rarity asked feeling insulted despite not knowing what the word ‘tramp’ meant.

"You know, your tramp stamp, your butt tattoo, the marking on your hindquarters," Simon pointed to their cutie marks.

"Oh, you mean our cutie marks." Pinkie commented, not the least bit offended by the somewhat crass nicknames he gave what was basically the sign of their individuality. Same couldn’t be said for the others, whose facial expressed varied between shocked, annoyed and slightly disgusted.

"Yea, that's what I meant." Simon handed out each of the devices the girls, who each took one and gave it a look over..

"What's this other mark on it," Fluttershy asked, pointing to what appeared to be an outline of a heart with two symbols inside. One of the symbols appeared to be a line that curved back, forward and then finally back again while the other was one straight line going up and down then a second straight line that went left to right connected at the corners on the bottom.

"Oh, that's my symbol, I put it on everything that I make. Sort of a personal touch," Simon commented the girls nodded their heads in understanding.

"Well it might be cold by now but we prepared some food for breakfast that we were going to surprise you with before you disappeared on us." Applejack commented heading towards the door that they had come in. Simon and the rest of the girls following suit once outside most of the girls walked towards the kitchen to bring the food out, Twilight stayed behind to watch Simon as he closed the door he grabbed a key that was in the lock and gave it a turn before pulling it out. Once it was out the door a wave a magic rippled across it, effectively returning it to its original state.

"Could you teach me how to do that," Twilight asked, positively giddy at the prospect of learning magic from another world.

"What do you mean," Simon asked looking down to Twilight.

"Could you teach me how to use your fourth-dimensional magic," Twilight asked waving her hoof in the air for emphasis.

"Hmmm." Simon thought to himself as he looked Twilight, who suddenly felt very embarrassed at being looked over by someone.

"Probably," Simon said as he shrugged and started walking towards the table where all the food had been laid out, leaving Twilight to both get excited and ponder about his response.

Author's Note

If anyone is curious the song Simon was listening to was cha cha slide. and sorry it took so long I was a good deal done when my cat decided to walk across my keyboard and it caused me to loose a lot of the work I had completed. also, I would love to hear all of your thoughts and comments on the story.

Revelations *Edited*

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.”

Truth *Edited*

Truth *Edited*

“Wait, how is that possible?” Twilight asked as she stared almost stunned at the three humans.

Jack and Kat both turned towards Simon, essentially handing him the floor to offer an explanation.

“Well, a theory I have had but haven't been able to test is that different dimensions carry with them a different perception of time. I believe that in the process of opening a portal between two of them temporarily aligns these. However,this was an untested theory since we never had a deity stuck on the wrong side of a closed portal without their death.”

Simon’s tone in spite of the rather serious subject matter he was discussing, the deity seemed to simply treat the matter as casually as he would simply going for a walk. While Twilight wanted to pry further, it probably would’ve made more sense to discuss it in another location.

Thus, with all three humans fully dressed, they made their way back towards the door. Once they left Simon's lab all the ponies gathered to check out the new clothing they were wearing.

“Well, I just say it is refreshing to see that at least one human has a sense of style.” Rarity commented, as she eyed the trio’s new wardrobe, leaving said group perplexed as they looked amongst themselves

“And, which one would that be,” Kat questioned, genuinely intrigued.

“Why you obviously, you're the only one wearing clothing with any sort of coordination. Just look at them, one only looks nice because he is wearing a shirt that I made and the other is wearing something that looks like a rainbow threw up on it.”

Rarity’s statement earned a round of snickers from Kat and Simon as they gave a knowing glance to Jack, who at least seemed to take the critique in stride.

Celestia cleared her throat getting everyone's attention. “On to more pressing matters and it is sadly not a positive one. The reason that my sister and I came to Ponyville was to assess the goals and more importantly, the potential danger these new humans could pose,” Celestia cut straight to the point, with Luna at her side, “So I would like to ask what exactly are your intentions here humans?”

“Is it perhaps the same reason that Simon chose to come here perhaps?” Luna added on, making Jack look to Kat who shook her head in the negative and spoke, Twilight again translating for the pair.

“No, though we weren’t sent here with some kind of grand plan if that’s your concern. Really, our group was simply dispatched to retrieve Simon and that’s all.”

While this revelation did bring about a sense of relief to all those present, it raised another concern.

“So, you're just going to take Simon and head home,” Applejack asked.

Kat shook her head again, reigniting the group’s prior concerns. “Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. The first reason is the portal between our worlds has been very unstable since it closed. We can't just go home because until the techs on our side get things working again there’s no way we can leave.” Kat sighed, taking a seat on one of the beds, “and after seeing all of you, taking Simon back is probably the last thing on our minds.”

“Why would we cause something like that.” Applejack asked again, speaking for the rest of the assembled party.

“Well, when the portal closed without Simon' return, Mine and Simon's current god, Victor, took it very personally.” Jack spoke up this time, “So he sent us here to assess the situation and retrieve Simon, then once they stabilize the portal he plans on taking this dimension by force.”

There was a collective gasp followed shortly by the princesses once Twilight had finished translating, herself having a hard time getting the words out. “This Victor is willing to go through so much just for some magic?” Luna looked worried as the prospect of a potential war.

Jack shook his head. “No truth is Victor is very petty, this stopped being about magic the moment that portal closed. Now he wants revenge because you took away something that he owns.” Jack motioned to Simon, “Even when another god wins the tournament and Simon belongs to them Victor just considers him on loan.”

“Hold on. You mean that in your world you all are only seen as property. That's terrible.” Fluttershy interjected, horrified at such an idea.

Kat gave a sympathetic smile. “Well some gods are worse than others but that’s pretty much how it is. That’s just one of the prices that we pay for our immortality.”

“Only one? There are others?” Luna asked.

“Yea, one of the other prices that we pay is sterilization,” Kat responded.

Rainbow Dash gave a confused look. “What does being clean have to do with it?”

“No Rainbow, what she's trying to say is that they are neutered, they can’t carry foals.” Applejack corrected her.

“My word, that doesn't sound pleasant.”

Rarity couldn't imagine such a thing. True, she wasn't ready for foals yet but she knew that she wanted them at some point later in life., To have that option taken from her, the idea just seemed horrid. All the humans just shrugged at the idea.

“I mean we are given this information before we become a deity... but we can still do the fun stuff.” Kat laughed. This caused all the ponies in the room to blush.

“Also, not exactly crazy about the whole referring to us as being neutered. We’ve still got all the necessary equipment, we just can’t produce the necessary juice is all.” Jack chimed in, only earning even redder blushes from those around him due to his choice of metaphor.

Celestia cleared her throat, “Well, I appreciate you being so candid about such detail with us. Even if it was honestly more detail then we needed.” Celestia took a moment to recollect herself, “I believe you said, squad, exactly how many humans are now in Equestria.”

Kat stopped for a second then she started fiddling with one of her hands, looking as if she was counting using her fingers.

“Counting the three of us, six humans in total.” Kat motioned to herself and the other two.

“Really Kat, was the fingers really necessary, it wasn't even that big of a number.” Jack looked slightly annoyed.

“Maybe it was or maybe I just did it to get a rise out of you like I am right now, who’s to say,” Kat smirked at Jack.

“Yes well, given the situation I believe it would be vital if you could tell us the abilities these other humans possess.” Celestia continued. The three humans stopped for a moment.

“Well, first there's Robert, who’s an electricity user meaning he can control stuff like lightning,” Jack spoke first, and earned an unimpressed snort from Rainbow Dash.

“Then there’s Misaka, who is able to control the temperature of the environment around herself,” Kat added on, “And finally there’s Erma. And she’s...unique among the three.”

All the ponies looked confused. “Uh, how unique are we talking here,” Rainbow asked half expecting a mention of Erma being able to do something completely insane.

“Well, Erma’s main skill has always been hand to hand combat. I actually watched quite a few of her matches back in our world…” Jack said before his tone dropped some, “But I have never seen her use any kind of magic, and she’s never lost a fight, not once.”

“That is troubling information,” Celestia looked more concerned than ever, already contemplating what course of action to take, “just how dangerous are these other humans?”

“Very,” Kat said, her tone as sharp and direct as could be, “ Robert and Misaka are ranked twelve and eleven in their gods' order, though that only put them in the low forties globally, just a little ahead of us. Erma on the other hand…. rank three globally.”

Both of the princesses looked surprised and slightly horrified at this news, more so because they had little to properly measure this ranking system against. For now though, they needed to take some kind of action.

“Twilight, in light of this new development my Sister and I feel that certain action must be taken.”

Luna quickly chimed in to finish her sister’s statement. “Given the circumstances, we wish for all of you to search for these humans.”

That earned mixed reactions from the various ponies, with Applejack immediately stepping forward. “Now wait just one minute. I agree this is important, but we can’t just up and leave right this second. Harvest season is almost here and my family really needs my help.”

Despite her words, Applejack wasn’t trying to downplay the severity of the situation. She knew the possible implications that came with these humans being in Equestria. But she was still an Apple after all..”

“I am sorry to hear that Applejack, we were hoping to have the Elements of Harmony…” Celestia started to say before she was cut off by a cough.

“Actually we may be able to help with that,” Simon said suddenly motioning to himself and the other two humans, “We may not look it to you ponies but we have helped with this sort of stuff in our world.”

All three humans immediately seemed to almost pose like a couple of children ready for an adventure, Kat flexing her arm showing off some of her muscles,Jack giving an enthusiastic thumbs up and Simon casually standing in the middle with his usual grin. If nothing else the rather lighthearted action helped alleviate some of the previous tension.

Applejack looked around seeing all her friends smiling and nodding. “Well if you think it will help I suppose we could see how much we could get done in a day.”

“If it is possible, I must ask that you all act as soon as possible. If these humans are as dangerous as you say I would like them found quickly. I would hate to see what will happen should they find a city.” Celestia spoke up, already visualizing the potential catastrophes that could occur.

“Oh, I wouldn't be too worried about that,” Kat interjected

“Why shouldn’t we worry, I feel like this is probably the proper time to worry,” Fluttershy asked.

“That is because our mission is to find Simon and assess the strengths of this world without being discovered. So they will keep themselves hidden, at least for the time being.” Kat shrugged, again treating the rather critical situation about as casually as a change in the weather.

This new information caused Celestia and Luna to discuss again. Luna stepped away, “While we do agree that this is better news we would still like it if these were found humans promptly. Better now and avoid any possible concerns that may arise later.”

“With that being said Luna and I must return to Canterlot. We shall immediately send word across if we receive any reports regarding the humans,” Celestia spoke before she and Luna said their goodbyes and then teleported from the room.

The princesses now gone, that just left the matter of preparing for the coming events, which Twilight was all too quick to jump on.

“Alright everypony...eh, everyone, we should all get home and get some sleep.We’ll all be getting up early in order to help Applejack tomorrow.”

As expected every pony was quick to nod enthusiastically at the prospect of helping their friend, while the humans just offered neutral smiles, which was good enough all things considered. However, there was one problem Twilight had forgotten to calculate.

“But wait, what are we going to do with the new humans,” Pinkie Pie asked, her tail turning into a question mark.

Thankfully, it seems like said humans had anticipated this as Jack was quick to respond. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll just hang out in Simon’s lab, which should be big enough for all of us.”

While it seemed like a sound plan, Twilight was quick to shoot it down.

“I couldn't do that to you two,” Twilight responded, moving over to where they were standing, “I insist all three of you sleep at my house tonight. Under the circumstances it’s only fair and should be much more comfortable”

To the surprise of many, while Jack and Simon seemed relatively indifferent with the arrangement, Kat had a more...vocal reaction.

“Fuck yeah, hanging out in an actual house, we can totally throw a seriously wild party, whose with me” Kat said rather loudly before Jack smacked her across the back of her head, Rainbow Dash doing the same to Pinkie when she started to raise her hoof.

“Kat, that is someone else's house you can't declare it a party. Also what part of we need to get up early tomorrow did you miss?

Kat rubbed the back of her head, letting out a slight groan and offering her friend a glare, but quickly nodded as she mulled it over.

“Oh, right.”

Of course, contrary to her words, Kat still gave Twilight the biggest begging eyes she could muster. As Twilight watched Kat suddenly Pinkie Pie was next to her also begging, though with a considerably more effective puppy impression. One would think having been friends with Pinkie for so long Twilight would be able to resist it.

Twilight sighed in defeat. “Alright fine.”

Kat and Pinkie cheered, only for Twilight to immediately cut them off. “But not a party, we can have a sleepover.”

While Pinkie somewhat deflated at the idea of not having an actual party, Kat simply shrugged. “Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I’m sure I can make it work.”

Twilight felt a sight pit form in her stomach at the possible double meaning but chose to focus her attention to her friends.

“You're all welcome to come of course.” Twilight smiled hoping some of her friends would join as well if only to make things a little less awkward.

Rarity was the first one to speak up. “I’m sorry, while sleepover sounds positively divine, I’m afraid I need to keep an eye on Sweetie Belle back at home. The poor thing looks about ready to collapse,” the aforementioned filly seemed to be on the edge of sleep, her eyes struggling to stay open, “Besides, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable leaving her alone in the shop. Especially if she tries to make another special breakfast like before.”

Rarity quietly levitated her drowsy sister on top of her back as she recalled the time her sister nearly burned her kitchen town trying to make toast. “Well then, I will see you all tomorrow bright and early, and Simon your bed should be safe for you to move if you need it.”

As Rarity headed towards the door Applejack started to follow suit,“Afraid ah’m goin to pass. If y'all are coming to help then ah’m got to go home and figure out how best to split the work.”

“Umm, If you don't mind I think I’ll pass. I still need to check up on my nocturnal friends after all” Fluttershy quietly chimed as Applejack was out the door,

“That’s okay Fluttershy.” Twilight smiled to reassure her timid friend, offering a small bow of thanks. Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

“How about you two?” She asked, more for Rainbow Dash than pinkie since she already knew what her exact response would be.

Pinkie Pie quickly jumped up excitedly, practically bouncing off the wall, looking ready to explode from excitement.

“I’ll come. I love a good party.” Pinkie smiled, while Dash just offered a halfhearted nod, though her enthusiasm could be seen.

“Eh, I’ll come too. Somepony needs to keep your parties cool, Egghead.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the familiar taunt as the group left the hospital and made their way back to Twilight’s library. As the group walked on, Twilight let her body switch to autopilot as she contemplated the situation Equestria now found itself in along with the potential risks it posed.

“Hey Simon, I think Ms. Purple over here has All Sight.” Kat pointed down at Twilight, causing the pony’s ears to perk as her current train of thought was suddenly broken.

“All Sight? What’s that,” Twilight asked intrigued.

“It's a rare ability among humans. There has been only like three or four reported cases of a human having this ability,” Jack commented.

“Yea but what does that mean.” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently as she hovered in the air.

Simon smiled as he opened the door to the library.

“Well unlike the magic I have seen you all perform that has a visual or auditory manifestation, Human magic is completely invisible. That is where All Sight came in, it’s a special ability that allowed a human to visually see the magic that we created. This skill proved invaluable as through trial and study, humans were able to develop devices that enabled any human to see.”

Despite being wowed by this revelation, the ponies still had enough awareness to walk inside and take a seat, Simon and the others following suit.

“Remember Twilight, you told me to aim for the blue lines coming off the puppets,” Kat commented, “But I didn't see anything like that.”

Twilight watched as Kat held out her hand, a black spot appeared and a bottle fell out into her hand, which from a glance, they saw contained some kind of dark liquid. Kat twisted the lid off the bottle and took a sip, before exhaling and putting the cap back on.

“Heads up Simon,” Kat shouted as she threw the bottle to Simon who caught it and repeated the same action, only he took a noticeable larger sip before recapping the bottle.

“Your turn Jack,” Simon called out as he threw the bottle across the room to Jack. As he moved to take his own drink he noticed the three ponies staring at him.

“Umm, you three want some.” Jack held the bottle out moving it between himself and the ponies.

“Whoa, Jack,” Kat shouted suddenly, slapping his hand hard enough to make him pull it back, “We don't even know if they are old enough to be drinking.”

“Well, there's one way to solve that,” Simon spoke up turning to all the ponies. “Are all of you old enough to buy your own houses, live on your own, date, get married, have sex, and raise a family.”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped like a bridge as her cyan fur turned a shade of red at the blunt question, while Pinkie and Twilight seemed unfazed, being more accustomed to Simon’s straight to the point nature.

“Yepper, we do adult stuff all the time,” Pinkie Pie commented, meriting looks of surprise from Jack and Kat, though a quick shake from Twilight made it clear it wasn’t what they thought.

“Well, that settles that,” Simon said, walking over to a nearby table setting his hand down causing six small glasses to appear. Jack promptly started pouring out the bottle into each of the glasses, filling them up near the edge.

“Alrighty let's drink up then.”

Jack set the bottle down and all three humans picked up a drink and downed it in one gulp. The three ponies meanwhile were more cautious, with Twilight being the first to pick up the glass.
Twilight brought it close to her nose giving it a quick sniff she downed it quickly just like the humans did. This proved to be a mistake as her throat felt like it was on fire. Twilight tried to exhale like the humans did but all she could do was start coughing, making her fellow ponies look at their own drinks with newfound fear.

Simon could only chuckle as he quickly started lightly rubbing the hacking pony’s back.

“Yeah sorry about that I guess I should warn you all that this is pretty strong stuff.”

Rainbow Dash, quickly shaking off any fear she might’ve had, was quick to step up next, not wanting to look like a coward in front of the humans. With an angry snort, she lifted the glass between her two hooves and downed it immediately...and immediately began coughing just like Twilight

“Sweet….Celestia......what is... this stuff?” Rainbow Dash asked between coughs, “Reminds me of the time I took a sip of some rainbows at the Cloud Factory.”

“It's a special drink from our world called rum,” Kat said chuckling as she picked up the bottle and poured three more drinks. She took one for herself and quickly downed it with the other two being taken by Jack and Simon.

Pinkie Pie remained still, looking at the full glass in front of her carefully. Finally picking it up between her hooves, contrary to her own excitable nature, she took only a small sip, testing its flavor.

“It doesn't have a bad flavor, it's very unique.” Pinkie took a small drink from it noticing that burning feeling the others were talking about. “You just kinda gotta go slow.”

Unbothered by how oddly calm Pinkie was being, a much more cautious Twilight slowly poured both herself and Rainbow Dash another glass.

Like with Pinkie, Twilight took a small sip as opposed to downing it in one go and found it made quite a difference.The burning was still there but nowhere near as bad. The flavor of the drink was just as Pinkie had said it was unique, a bit bitter certainly, but not bad. After a few drinks,Twilight started to feel a little on the dizzy side so she sat her glass down.

“How do you humans stand to drink this stuff so fast,” Rainbow Dash asked, her speech just a little slurred.

“Oh no we got a lightweight here.” Jack point and laughed at the pegasus now swaying back and forth like a blade of grass.

Pinkie Pie laughed too, “Rainbow you sound so funny.” This was in spite of the fact that she’d actually drunk the most of the three ponies, yet seemed completely normal...at least as normal as she could be.

“We’ve been drinking this stuff for years so we've built up a bit of a tolerance to it.”

Kat snickered a little as she watched all three ponies showing signs of getting drunk. As each of the ponies continued drinking they slowly got enough tolerance to take larger drinks. Twilight had moved over to Simon’s side, who had started a discussion with her about the quantum mechanics of dimensional tunneling however in her drunken state it was going in one ear and out the other.

Rainbow Dash was drunkenly talking about the Wonderbolts to Jack, her speech was so slurred that the translator wasn't picking up any of it so Jack just smiled, nodded and did his best to keep the drunk pony grounded. Pinkie Pie did her best to hang out with each of them and was currently drinking with Kat, who had pulled out a second bottle and was drinking straight from it.

Simon had taken a seat while he was talking. Twilight feeling dizzier with every drink laid her head down in Simon's lap with a happy sigh.

“I love…” Twilight started to say but stopped herself short, “this.” She finished and buried her head under her hooves out of embarrassment and mentally hoping she’d pass out to avoid future embarrassment

“Hmm... what was that Twilight?”

Twilight lifted her head from her hooves as it seemed that Simon didn't hear what she had said.

Twilight sighed. “I was just thinking that I’m going to miss having an intellectual equal to talk with when you leave.” Twilight could hear a grumbled response coming from the direction of Rainbow and Pinkie Pie but it was too slurred to make out what they said. Besides, it’s not like she meant it as an insult,

Simon smiled down at Twilight and lightly petted her head. “Don't worry so much about what's to come just live for today.” Simon reached out and grabbed another glass. “Here drink this and have fun.” Simon held the drink in front of Twilight who took it shakily into her magic.

Twilight lifted her head and smiled at Simon. “You’re right, let's have fun.” She quickly downed the glass and felt the familiar burning sensation in her throat, though it wasn’t nearly as intense as the first time.

Sadly, for Twilight due to the multiple glasses she’d had, her body’s alcohol tolerance was at its limit and her eyes went dark for a brief moment.

After this momentary nap Twilight’s eyes opened and found herself on her side, laying on something soft and comfortable. There was a warmth pressed against her chest, her front and rear hoof seemed to be laying on the same object. Twilight almost let the warmth of this object lull her back to sleep before she realized that something was off. Twilight slowly opened her eyes noticing that the blanket was covering her head making it so she couldn't see anything.

Twilight carefully scooted herself away from the object next to her and used her magic to remove herself from the covers. Immediately the small amount of light in the room from the rising sun triggered a headache. Twilight’s head was pounding hard enough that she couldn't think straight, unable to recall anything that had happened after her last drink.

Moaning quietly at the blistering headache she was feeling Twilight rolled herself away from the warm mass and out of the bed.

Once off the bed Twilight took a couple of calming breaths as she tried to stand on her still wobbling legs with minimum success. As her eyes started to readjust and clear up she noticed on the end table there were three packets and three glasses of water next to a note. It was written in the human's language although a lot sloppier than what she had seen of Simon’s.

It simply said, “For the ponies open one package dump contents into water then drink.”

Twilight stared at the note before she felt her headache flare up again, more painful than before with little cause to question the note, right now all she wanted was for the pain to cease. Opening the package and tipping it over, a bunch of powder came out and fizzed a little bit as it made contact with the water.

Quickly guzzling down the water. Twilight felt the effects right away as the headache gradually decreased in intensity. There was still a slight dull ache, but her mind was able to think more clearly now and she could finally get a bearing on her surroundings. To her surprise, she hadn't been sleeping in her bed.

Looking over at her bed she could see both Rainbow and Pinkie sleeping in it, neither pony sleeping in exactly the most dignified of positions. Finally Twilight took a look at the warm mass that was sleeping next to her. Using her hoof she slowly moved the blanket down revealing a completely undressed Simon.

Twilight had to place a hoof over her mouth to silence herself as a scream threatened to fly out.

“Why is Simon in the same bed as me, without his clothing?” She thought to herself.

Turning back to her bed she walked over and gently tried to wake up Rainbow and Pinkie.

“Psst Pinkie, Rainbow wake up.”

Reaching up with her hoof she gently shook them until she heard Rainbow Dash groan, the fast flyer’s eyes opening just enough of a crack for them to make eye contact.

“Rainbow what happened last night?”

Rainbow Dash gave another groan, her eyes quickly shutting as she struggled to move. “Ugh, Twilight do you have to be so loud my head is killing me.” Rainbow brought both of her hooves to her temples trying to massage the pain away.

Seeing that further questioning was useless at the moment, Twilight used her magic to quickly prepare another glass of the human's remedy.

“Here, drink this, it’ll help.” Twilight levitated the glass in front of her friend. Rainbow took it between her hooves and quickly downed the glass feeling its instant relief.

“Wow, Twilight when these humans leave we should see if we can get some of their medicine, it’s awesome.”

While Twilight agreed with the sentiment, though she was saddened by the thought of Simon having to leave eventually. However, that immediately reminded her of the more pressing issue at the moment.

“Listen Rainbow, do you remember how we ended up in my room last night.” Rainbow paused thinking to herself before she shook her head.

“Nope, I pretty much forgot everything after the first couple of drinks.” Twilight was about to ask another question when they both heard Pinkie suddenly groaned.

“Can you two keep it down?”

Twilight didn't even wait this time as she made up the remedy for her and quickly passed it over to Pinkie who greedily drank it down like it was a cup of chocolate milk.

“Pinkie, what do you remember from last night,” Rainbow asked her now, getting up from the bed and stretching her wings out.

Pinkie was silent for a moment. “Well, after Rainbow almost crashed into a bookshelf Jack spent most of the night keeping her on the ground. Twilight had fallen asleep on Simon's lap. Kat and I were talking about some of the human party stuff when Simon said that he was going to put Twilight in her bed. When he carried you by where Kat and I were hanging out, I heard you whisper something to him that he agreed to and then both of you disappeared upstairs.” Pinkie thought to herself for another moment. “That's about all that I remember.”

“Great, that didn’t answer anything.”Twilight frowned at how now she had whole new questions that she wanted answers for but thanks to the drunk escapades of the previous night her two friends were sadly of no help. That just left her with her new human companions, hopefully they could provide some useful information..

“Anyways judging by the sun I would say that we still have a while before we need to go over to AppleJack’s.”

Twilight looked over to Simon. She thought of waking him up but on the slim chance that what she was starting to think did happen, which only caused her face to erupt with color, then facing him right now was the last thing she wanted to do.

“I think we should let Simon sleep a little longer, he did just get out of the hospital. For now, let’s see if we can find where Jack and Kat are.”

Twilight barely waited for her friends to agree before hurrying out of the room and down the stairs, wanting to put as much distance as she could to avoid any potentially awkward conversations. On the way down to the main area of the library, the three of them would peek into each door they passed by.

“Where could they have disappeared to? It’s not like there’s a lot of rooms to hide in.” Rainbow Dash closed the newest door that she had opened before zipping over to the next.

“These humans must be wizs at hide in seek.” Pinkie Pie exclaimed joining Rainbow, “I mean they’re so big, but they can just vanish without any magic.”

“Over here girls,” Twilight shouted from a nearby room.

When Rainbow and Pinkie found where the shout came from Twilight was already inside. It was the door to Simon’s lab. However, once inside, the duo found that it was quite different than they had seen before.

Unlike before the wall of puppets was gone in its place there was a strange new door, twice the normal size and lacking any kind of knob..

“What the hay is that?”

Rainbow flew up to the large door giving a few knocks and only getting a hollow sound in response. ”Hey Pinkie, help me open this.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie,” Pinkie eagerly chirped as she bounced over to the door before the two made a vain attempt to open it. Twilight also followed suit, though opted to simply look around the door frame for an opening rather than rely on brute force.

A short time after starting searching Twilight found a small circular indentation in the wall. Reaching up she managed to push it with the tip of her hoof. There was a ding as the two large doors separated down the middle sliding along into the walls inside was a large empty room.

Twilight was the first to walk into this room as she looked at the entrance way she could see there was a defined separation between this room and the one they just came from. As Twilight turned to leave the empty room she noticed that on the wall near the entrance there was more circular indentation this time though they had markings. When she inspected it closer Twilight noticed that the markings were human numbers. Each indentation contained one number and they ran one through five.

Twilight reached up with her hoof and pressed the indentation that was marked with the number one, causing it to brighten for a moment before growing dim the moment she moved her hoof away. Twilight and the others waited for something to happen, somewhat on edge should something terrible occur...yet nothing happened.

Mildly disappointed, and still curious, Twilight opted to try her luck with the button marked two. This time, when pressed, it stayed lit even after she pulled her hoof away. Though proved ominous as the door immediately closed while the room began to shift.

“What's happening.” Rainbow moved up to the doors trying to up them in a panic.

“I don't know Rainbow.” Twilight sat down trying to stabilize herself.

“This is kinda fun, like a really slow slide.” Pinkie Pie excitedly moved about the room, sliding in every direction as if the ground was covered in soap.

The shifting lasted for a few seconds, before finally ceasing, much to everyone’s relief before a ding sound could be heard then the doors opened again.

“Oooo where are we now.”

Pinkie Pie ran out into this new room, finding it was decorated much like a living room, with a large table in the middle of a bunch of couches, covered with various books and papers.

Twilight moved up to the table looking at some of the papers they all had the same format but each one had different numbers and words written on them that appeared to be statistics on different people. Moving over to the pile of books on the spine it showed the title of each book but they all seemed to belong to a series called ‘Dungeons & Dragons’.

“Those guys have to be around here somewhere. Not like they have a reason to hide from us,” Rainbow Dash said, only to angrily moan as she opened another door to reveal a long hallway with several more doors “This is going to take forever.”

Pinkie Pie had moved over to a different door, upon opening this door there was the sound of running water.

“Hello, any humans here.” Pinkie called out as she entered the room. Twilight was about to follow Pinkie inside when she suddenly heard the sound of a curtain being moved, followed by Jack yelling.

“Hey what the fuck, haven't you ponies ever heard of privacy.” Pinkie quickly ran out of the room, her cheeks slightly red.

“Twilight I think I made one of the humans angry…” Pinkie then leaned in close to Twilight and whispered,“Also did you know that Humans don't have a sheath.”

Twilight didn’t bother to ask any further, able to fairly figure Pinkie had an awkward encounter with Jack, likely in a bathroom of some kind. She thought of what to do next when Rainbow’s voice caught both of their attention.

“Over here.” Twilight looked back to see Rainbow Dash’s head poking out through a doorway. With their conversation interrupted Pinkie and Twilight followed Rainbow, finding the room was relatively empty, save for a roaring noise with the occasional banging obviously coming from somewhere nearby.

Curious, Twilight drew closer to the wall, finding it strange that despite the noise and prior experience, there was no door of any kind on the wall. As Twilight moved up to the wall a holo-screen opened up in front of her, giving the purple pony quite a jolt.

Taking a moment to calm herself down, Twilight saw on the screen that there was a solitary spot that said, ‘Activate See-Through Mode.’

Feeling little reason to stop pressing on,Twilight reached up and pressed the button, and causing the wall to turn transparent as stated. To her surprise, on the other side of the wall was Kat, her mane was tied up in a bun and she was clad in only a small piece of clothing on her upper body and the strange cloth on her legs, which was even shorter than before.

Thankfully, Kat had her back turned towards the window, thus didn’t notice them and remained focused on what seemed to be her hammering something, though Twilight was unable to see what exactly it was.

“Girls, I found Kat,” Twilight yelled, getting Pinkie and Rainbow to turn back, momentarily stunned by the see through wall.

“Whoa, what’s she doing.” Rainbow flew up to the new window doing her best to try and see around Kat.

“I think she's making something. It looks like one of the blacksmith shops.” Twilight commented, looking further inside and spotting what seemed to be various tools strewn around the room. Ever curious she looked around to see if she could find a way in.

However, before she could peer in further, Kat turned in their direction and offered a wave, seemingly unbothered by having several eyes staring at her.

Setting down her hammer, Kat moved around the room and picked up something else, though it was obscured from view due to her position in the room. Grabbing both handles Kat walked back over to the anvil this time moving to the opposite side so that the ponies could watch her. Bringing the end of the machine down to the thing she was working on a sudden stream of sparks erupted from the object.

Throughout the entire exchange, Twilight and the others simply watched. Blacksmithing wasn’t exactly something they had many opportunities to see and their curiosity only served to further entrance the trio. It was only thanks to Jack’s voice surprising them that their attention was diverted.

“Pretty impressive huh. Kat’s always in there making something. Actually seeing her outside of that forge is a pretty rare occurrence.”

For some reason, Jack was currently clad in nothing but a towel secured around his waist, yet that didn’t even seem to phase him as he loudly knocked on the window like wall. “

Hey, while you're at it can you work on these.” A black spot opened near Jack as he caught the two daggers that fell out. Both weapons seemed to be in bad shape, with the blades covered in cracks and the edge chipped to where it looked more like a saw than a blade.

In spite of the loud interruption Kat didn’t respond verbally, simply setting down the tool she was holding before holding up one of her hands and then slowly extending her middle finger upwards.

“Fuck you.” Kat could just barely be heard yelling back.

“Awww, you know you love me.” Jack laughed for a while before he was interrupted by the sound of something hitting the window. When the ponies looked over they saw the hammer laying on the floor next to the window.

Despite the incredibly obvious show of hostility, Jack wasn’t phased at all, his smile only growing wider as Kat continued to angrily stomp through the forge.

“Um, is there something going on between you two? You seem to have a pretty hostile relationship,” Twilight pondered, recalling having read about something similar in books on relationships.

“Oh no, nothing like that,” Jack shook his head as he kept eyeing the window, “we’re just two people who met through our common friendship with Simon. That’s about as deep as our relationship goes.”

“So how do I get in there.” Twilight pointed to the room that Kat was currently working in. Twilight wasn't sure how open these humans were but she felt that she would be more comfortable talking to another female about the possibility that she slept with Simon.

True she could have talked to one of her friends about it but it wasn’t like Pinkie could keep a secret and she wasn't sure if Rainbow would tease her or congratulate her. Honestly, she couldn't tell which one would be worse right now and she didn’t feel like waiting for somepony else to arrive.

Jack pointed towards a door that was near the now see through wall. “You just go through that door. take a right then it's the first door on your right. Though, I should warn you it’s pretty hot in there.”

Twilight nodded then turned to her friends. “I’m going to go talk to Kat, can you two keep an eye on Jack, maybe wake up Simon so we can all meet back in the library and head to Applejack’s.”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash nodded turning to Jack as Twilight walked through the door that Jack had pointed to.

“Hey now don't push too fast you two you’ll make me lose my towel.” Twilight heard Jack say before the door closed behind her though without Jack wearing his translation device Twilight realized that those three wouldn’t be able to understand each other. Hopefully, they’d be able to figure it out on their own.

Following Jack’s instructions Twilight came up to the first door on her right.The moment the door was open an intense heat practically burst out, almost as if a dragon was suddenly breathing in her face. Twilight paused before opening the door the rest of the way. Looking into the room Twilight watched as Kat hammered away at the thing in front of her.

“Hey Kat what are you doing!”

In spite of Kat being so focused on her work, she still looked up and acknowledged Twilight’s call...helped that said pony had practically screamed in order to get her attention.

“Oh, hey Twilight. I was just working on fixing my hammer.” Kat lifted the item she was working on, Twilight recognized it as the head of her weapon that had split in half. Kat set the head back down and turned to Twilight giving her her full attention. “So, little pony, what do you need?”

Ignoring the playful, if slightly mocking jab, Twilight hesitated a little bit before she spoke. “Do you know what happened last night? I can't seem to remember anything after a few drinks of that stuff you brought out.”

Kat quickly broke out into a series of chuckles as she thought back, “Yea, that usually happens on your first time drinking.” Kat moved over to a large machine and pressed a button on it that caused the roar in the room to stop.

“That's the problem though I woke up in bed cuddled up to Simon and he was….naked,” Kat smirked down at Twilight, whose face practically exploded at the mention of Simon’s unclothed state.

“Congrats you've gotten farther with Simon then I ever did,” Kat then gave Twilight a thumbs up and started laughing at her companion’s distress.

“Please, this is serious, I can't remember last night if I really did have intercourse with Simon I don't know how to face him knowing that I can't remember it.” Twilight whimpered looking down at the floor.

Kat did her best to calm her laughter. “Look Twilight if my experience with that man is anything to go on I can safely say that most likely nothing happened, Simon knows what that drink does to someone. He wouldn't take advantage of anyone like that.”

Kat reached down and patted Twilight on the head. “But I guess the only way you are going to know for sure is to ask him yourself.” Kat moved over to the door holding it open for Twilight.

“Wait,what do you mean what that drink does to someone?” Twilight looked at her confused moving up to Kat.

“Well, that type of drink has a habit of lowering people's inhibitions, making them do things they might not normally do.”
Twilight groaned because this meant that she might have made a fool of herself in front of Simon.

Seeing little point in staying, the group made their way back out of the lab. They caught up with Jack and them back in the moving room. Jack was now fully dressed and wearing his translation device. Thankfully it didn’t take long to return to the library, though to their surprise when they opened the door leading out of Simon’s lab they found him just outside the door, looking fairly indifferent about the situation.

“Hey everyone, what’ve you been up to?”

As expected, Simon was fully dressed now and didn’t seem any different from the previous night, though Twilight still couldn’t help but feel awkward given the current situation.

“Everyone ready to do some work.”

“About as ready as I can be.” Rainbow Dash answered. Pinkie Pie and Twilight nodded with her, with Twilight doing her best to avoid eye contact with Simon. As they all left the library however, Simon hung back a little bit and stopped Twilight as everyone else headed out.

“Hey Twilight. Out of curiosity, do remember what happened last night. You said there was something you wanted to show me.”

While Twilight immediately felt her stomach drop at the mention of the previous night, her fear shifted to confusion, which Simon quickly picked up on.

“When I was carrying you to bed last night, you whispered to me that you had something special to show me up in your room.”

This did little to help as Twilight’s memory of the previous night was still a complete blank and she couldn’t couldn't think of anything that she had that she would want to show to him.

“When we got to your room I set you down, then you turned away from me and fell asleep with your butt up in the air. It was quite silly not going to lie”

While Simon chuckled at the memory, Twilight immediately realized what exactly she wanted to show Simon and immediately turned red. Granted, she was relieved that nothing happened between the two of them, but that didn't explain the rather, intimate arrangement that she woke up in.

“Before I answer that, why did I wake up in bed with you and why were you naked?” Twilight wondered, while also trying to divert the conversation away from the rather embarrassing situation.

“Well, the reason I wasn't wearing anything is that before I took you to bed you were sleeping in my lap. Don’t know if you’re aware but you drool in your sleep...quite a lot actually. It ended up soaking through my clothing so I discarded it,” Simon held back a laugh as Twilight grew redder with embarrassment, “And you were in my bed because after I laid down you crawled over complaining that your bed was too cold.”

Twilight took a sigh of relief, in spite of some less than desirable revelations, knowing that the most embarrassing thing seemed to be lost on Simon at least put her mind at ease. That just left one little matter to settle.

“As for earlier, I can't think of anything I could have wanted to show you, though I’m sure whatever it was wasn’t important. So how about we join the others heading to Applejack’s.”

Twilight started heading towards the rest of the group, Simon followed after, and thankfully not prying any further into something Twilight would ensure would remain forgotten for the foreseeable future..

As the group made their way to Sweet Apple Acres, they were greeted by the sight of Applejack and Big Mac in the process of moving several stacks of baskets towards the trees..

“Applejack,” Twilight called out to get her friends attention.

“Howdy Twilight,” Applejack shouted back waving her hoof at them,“Perfect time Y'all, we are just finishing the setup. Once we get these baskets set up I’ll tell you where we need yah.”

Applejack was about to go back to pushing the large stack of baskets when Kat walked over picking them all up.

“Just show me where to put them,” Kat lifted the baskets up above her head holding them by the bottom with a single hand, leaving the farm pony in awe of her impressive strength.

“You can just put them over there by my brother.” Applejack pointed over to where Big Mac was now unstacking the baskets and putting them in a line. Kat nodded heading over to Big Mac and started helping him out with setting the baskets up. However, before she continued, Kat reached up, removing her translation device and placing it on Big Mac’s ear then leaned over and quietly said something to Big Mac.

The big red stallion quickly shook his head as his cheeks turned slightly redder than before. As they got closer Twilight could hear Kat talking.

“Well how about once all this calms down you and I could meet up for some fun.” Big Mac quickly turned even redder and took the headset off, practically shoved it back at Kat making her laugh.

Kat placed her translator back on her ear. “Hey, Apple pony is your brother, always so shy, it's kinda hot.”

“Can you not talk about my brother that way in front of me.” Applejack, clearly not amused by the attempted humor, continued on past the human to finish setup, with Simon standing nearby and overlooking the vast farmland..

“So how much land needs to get done.” Simon raised his hand up and shaded his eyes as he looked out among the sea of trees. Applejack thought to herself for a moment.

“About ten acres worth of trees to cover.” Simon chuckled a little bit making Applejack look up to him. “What's so funny.” Simon smiled down at the small pony.

“Don't worry about it.” He said kindly as he looked back at the trees, “So how about you show us, humans, how you do this.”

Applejack looked at him confused but didn’t think much of it as she walked over to a tree. Simon had crouched down next to Twilight.

“Now watch closely.”

Perplexed, Twilight decided to follow with his suggestion though not sure what to expect. She’d seen AJ applebuck before, it wasn’t like it could really surprise her right?

“Now, I’m not sure how well this is going to work for you humans but this is how we do it here.”

Twilight watched as Applejack crouched down, she could see energy moving from the ground into Applejack’s hooves. As she reared her back legs in the energy built into her core and the moment she kicked out the energy flowed from her into the tree.

Twilight looked up at Simon who had his journal out, likely documenting what she’d just seen. Applejack, satisfied, turned back to the humans as the apples fell into a basket that she had sat near the tree.

“And that's how we do it.”

Twilight looked over at Simon's journal, inside Simon had drawn an illustration of Applejack as her hind legs made a connection with the tree, showing the flow of the energy that Twilight had seen. Happy with his work, Simon closed the book and stood up turning to the other humans.

“Alright, I think I got all the information I need.” Simon then turned to the ponies again. “If you guys could show Jack and Kat to those corners of the field that need harvesting we can get started.”

“Um, darling, what exactly do you mean?” Rarity asked, having looked over from where she was preparing to use her magic to move apples out of the tree like she and Twilight had in the past.

“Well, honestly when Applejack said she had a lot to do I thought she meant around one hundred acres or so. Really, with what’s left, this shouldn’t take too long.”

None of the assembled ponies didn’t know how to respond, though merely watched as Simon held his finger out in front of himself and suddenly it lit up in blue fire. “

If you ponies would be nice enough to show Jack and Kat to the corners of the field we can get this done in a jiffy.” Simon smiled trying to be as sincere as possible.

Kat moved quickly over to Big Mac. “I call this hunk.” Kat laughed but Big Mac seemed uncomfortable with the closeness causing Jack to immediately come between the two.

“Nah, he’s with me, last thing we need is you getting distracted and causing a scene.”

Jack quickly pushed the pair apart and blocked Kat’s path to Mac, much to his relief and Kat’s annoyance. Thankfully it was fleeting as outside of a brief pout she relented and moved away.

“I’ll go with them.” Rainbow chipped in from where she was talking with Applejack, taking to the air after Big Mac and Jack, leaving Applejack with Kat.

Alright, now if yer done being funny, we can get to work. Let’s get a move on” Applejack stated firmly, leading Kat the opposite direction of the first group while Simon began moving his hand in the air, the fire on his finger leaving a trail behind it.

“So what's the deal with Simon,” Rainbow asked as she took a quick glance back at the aforementioned human

“You’re gonna have to be a bit more specific.” Jack continued, following Big Mac, not bothering to look at Rainbow.

“I mean that he was stuck here for two weeks with no idea of how long he’d stay and it didn't seem to bother him at all.” Rainbow Dash said in a huff, frustrated that she still couldn’t figure out the reason inspite of how much time had passed.

“Oh that. Honestly I think Simon tends to just be a go with the flow kind of guy.” Jack said as memories of past times with Simon played out in his head. “For as long as I’ve known him, Simon has always preferred to let things happen naturally rather than interfere unless he absolutely had to. To him, this whole encounter is probably just a fun experience that he wants to see through for as long as possible. So long as it doesn’t cause any trouble, he’s happy to let things run their course.”

Rainbow and Big Mac said nothing as they moved on, both mulling over Jack’s words until they finally reached their destination.

Jack looked around walking over to the exact corner of the field of done trees and where they are supposed to be harvesting. Raising his hand into the air a light suddenly appeared on his hand then shortly shot into the air.

Moving back to Applejack, she was also in the midst of asking her own questions about Simon to Kat.

“I know it’s probably none of mah business but ah have to ask. When Simon was stuck here with no way home he didn't seem bothered by it. Doesn't he have family or friends that miss him when he does stuff like this.”

“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Kat said as she tried to think of the best way to explain it. “Simon’s always had natural charisma that has always made making friends easy for him, especially with others in the creator department. As for family, well if he has any, there isn’t any record of them or even Simon prior to his fight with Zack. Generally, deities are created in pairs, often with a relative or loved one to help cope with the inevitable loneliness that comes with being immortal.”

Kat took a quick glance in the distance on the opposite end of the field. “Jack for example has his sister with him and I was brought alongside a friend of mine from my childhood. However, Simon for whatever reason doesn’t seem to have anyone, and yet Simon doesn’t the least bit bothered by it.

This surprised Applejack who couldn’t even imagine being without one member of her massive extended family, never mind the idea of having no family at all. It was a sentiment that Kat seemed to share as she mournfully looked to the sky.

“Sometimes I wonder if I even know the real Simon or if it’s just a mask he puts on for everyone.” Applejack stopped in place lifting her hoof and placing it on Kats hip trying to console her.

“Look ah don't know much about Simon but ah know a thing or two about honesty and character. I know for a fact that you never carry around a picture of someone unless they really mean something to you. Of that, you can be certain.”

This seemed to help perk Kat up, if only a bit as the pair decided to shelf the conversation for a later time and focus on what they were there to do.

“Alrighty then, the place we need is right there.” Applejack pointed her hoof over and Kat nodded moving over she held her hand in the air where a light appeared and shot into the air.

Back at the center of the farm, Twilight watched as the string of symbols that Simon was putting in the air had gotten quite long. “

“So Simon, you never told me exactly what you’re doing” Twilight asked when Simon had stopped marking the air.

“I’m doing what Applejack did but I’m extending the range to encompass a marked area.”
Rather than elaborate further, Simon merely flicked his hand and the marking moved from the air to the ground in front of the trees.

“I’m sure you saw it, the magic that flowed through Applejack before she hit the tree. I don't know if she is aware of it but it’s not her kick that is making the apples fall. She channels magic from the ground and into the tree that seeks out only the ripe apples causing them to fall.”

Twilight listened intently, wishing desperately she had a notepad to take all this down, as it very likely could change Equestria’s entire understanding of Earth Pony magic.

However, before she could probe Simon further two bright lights shot up into the sky one right after the other. “Ah good, they're in position.”

Simon walked up to the markings and knelt down, touching the symbols causing them to explode rapidly outwards, extending in both directions on one side. However, the symbols quickly stopped and shifted directions, heading directly into the trees.

“Twilight!” Rarity and the other assembled ponies were making their way to Twilight’s location, taking only a moment to gawk at the rather impressive light show. “What exactly is going on here?”

Twilight however, didn't take her eyes off the markings, “I’m not exactly sure, all I can say is Simon has been setting up something that only I can see at the moment.”

Back at Rainbow Dash, she watched as Jack put on a pair of green tinted goggles that he had pulled from a black spot. “What are those for.”

Jack continued to stare out into the distance. “They’re special equipment that allow me to see the magic that is going to be coming my way, that way I can properly redirect it.”

“The what now.” Rainbow Dash asked confused.

Jack sighed as a black spot opened and two more pairs of goggles fell out. “Here put these on.”

Rainbow scooped up the goggles handing a pair to Big Mac she put the other one on herself. Watching in the same direction that Jack was Rainbow noticed a glowing blue light running along the ground at them. As the light got close Jack placed his hand down directly in its path. To Rainbow’s amazement the energy from the line traveled up Jack’s arm. Jack then placed his other hand down causing the energy to travel down and make a new line that shot out in the new direction.

Applejack, up to speed on what was going on, flipped the goggles around in her hoof a little bit before she put them on.

“So, not to sound rude or anything, but Simon isn't going to hurt the trees is he?” Applejack looked out concerned for the countless trees.

“Don't worry your cute little freckles about it, we’ve done this sort of thing hundreds of times,” Kat quipped in, kneeling down while watching one side intently. “Honestly Simon says that his specialty is the fourth dimension thing but his true strength lies in his ability to adapt magic to his will. Manipulating it to do a little farm work is hardly a challenge for him.”

This did little to ease Applejack who watched the lines heading for Kat with laser-like precision, ready to react should something go wrong. Kat placed her hand in the way as the magic connected with her, and much like with Jack it seemed to flow up one of her arms and down the other before shooting off into the distance.

“And Y'all are sure that this is safe.” Applejack, still nervous and trying to at least put her mind at ease, if only a little.

“Look, if you are that worried about it all you have to do is push me over, that will break the area marking magic. Right now I can’t move or use my magic to solidify myself as that would interrupt the whole process. So if you see something you don't like just give me a push and it’ll end without any fuss. Okay?.” Kat tried to reassure Applejack by giving her a way out, which at least seemed to calm her nerves somewhat.

“Is there anything we can do to help,” Fluttershy asked Simon after he had been kneeling for quite some time.

“Sure, if all of you could put the baskets in a straight line behind me that would be great.”

Seeing little reason to argue, the ponies all gathered near the baskets working together to separate the last of them and line them all up.

“Here it comes.”

Twilight looked over to the other side of the baskets and sure enough, she could see the line of magic moving across the ground until it came in connection with the other end. As the connection completed the magic spread, filling in the entire area that it surrounded. As the magic started to creep up the trees black spots could be seen opening up all around the field. When the magic finally reached the branches apples started falling from the trees into the voids. A few seconds later black spots opened above each basket, loading apples into each of them at an impressive speed.

Applejack could only look on in awe at the sight before her. “Wow if Simon is only a rank forty whatever then I'd hate to see the higher ranked ones.”

The entire process, which normally would’ve taken the group around an hour or two, was completely in a matter of seconds as the spots disappeared, leaving a line of filled baskets.

“Actually I don't think you could find a stronger magic user in our species. The only reason Simon isn't higher ranked is that he doesn't like fighting, so he never uses his magic for offensive purposes.”

“Wait but Simon's been in a bunch of fights since he got here,” Applejack quickly moved up next to the human, recalling some of their past encounters with the human before.

“Yeah, and I’m willing to bet he didn’t start any of those fights. Just cause he doesn’t go looking for a fight, doesn’t mean he won’t defend himself or others when the need arises.”

Applejack had to think to herself for a moment and realized Kat was right. All the fights that she had heard about or saw, Simon was only ever defending himself.

“Huh, guess I never thought about it like that before.”

The group continued onward, arriving just as the last of the baskets was finally filled.

“Wowee,” Applejack whistled as she looked over the baskets full of apples “You humans did a week's worth of work in just a half hours time.”

“So what do we do now,” Rarity asked, not having expected to be done so soon.

“Well, we just need to get these baskets into the barn then we're all done.”

Pointing over to said barn, Jack and Kat already got a head start on putting stuff away with Kat effortlessly holding a basket in each hand while Jack settled on carrying one. Everyone else each grabbed a basket themselves, with the exception of Twilight who was levitating several, and headed to the barn.

“Soooo, since we’re almost done anyway, what’re we gonna do next?” Pinkie Pie asked as the last of them put their basket down.

“We should all head home and pack whatever we need. We still need to find those other humans and it could take awhile.,” Twilight turned to the humans. “I don’t suppose any of you have an idea where we might find them do you?”

“Well, we're supposed to be studying your civilization so my guess is that they are probably near a town. However, with us being so distinctly different from your species they are most likely sticking to the outskirts to avoid detection,” Jack chipped in.

Twilight nodded. “So I think we should all pack what we need and meet up at the train station. We can discuss where we'll go from there.”

With the plan set, all the parties split off into different groups., Jack went with Rarity after she requested some help. Kat stayed at the farm to help Applejack and Simon went with Pinkie, though for what reason Twilight wasn’t sure as she headed home.

Back at the library Twilight was quick to pack as many essential items as she could think of when she came across Simon’s diary again.

“I’m sorry Simon I know that this is probably private but I can't help but feel that something important is hidden here.” Twilight stuffed the diary into her saddlebag. Walking back to the door she called out to Spike.

“Are you ready Spike we will be heading out soon.” Spike came down the stairs carrying his own small bag, packed to capacity.

“I’m all ready Twilight,” He called out, meeting up with Twilight at the door. Twilight nodded and the two of them headed out the door.

The duo were quick to arrive at the train station, finding everyone was present, save for Rarity and Jack. .

“Hey, Twilight,” Applejack called out to here, guiding the pair over, “We were just discussing with Kat and Simon that Appleloosa was maybe a good first choice since my cousin Braeburn lives there and since the buffalo roam that area they might have seen something.”

A loud groan stopped Twilight from replying as the group heard a rather familiar and vocal voice closing in.

“Did you really need to pack so much stuff? We’re late enough as it is.”

“Well, you certainly did not make things any better.”

The source was revealed to be Rarity, who was currently walking next to a visibly struggling Jack, carrying several bags of what Twilight could only assume was Rarity’s supplies.

Jack laughed “I wasn't trying to make things better.” As they approached Twilight noticed that Rarity was a little upset with Jack.

“What's going on?” She asked, getting Rarity to look towards her.

“Besides this one whining ever since we left my boutique?” Jack quickly gave Rarity the stink eye, which she returned with a hostile glare of her own, though she quickly dropped it with a sigh.

“As it turns out my parents were at my house to visit when we arrived. As I’m sure you can imagine, when they saw Jack, they...well panicked would probably be the appropriate word. Naturally I tried to explain to them, only for THIS ONE....”

Rarity quickly let out a loud and very unladylike shout while pointing harshly at the visibly amused Jack, before taking a few moments to calm herself down.

“Sorry about that, anyway, Jack here thought it would be a perfect idea in that situation to plant a kiss on my cheek then he had the gall to tell me to try and explain that to my parents.”

Jack started snickering as Rarity recounted the events. “And I spent the entire time that I was packing trying to come up with some kind of an explanation, until I just tossed together what I could and ran out the door, making sure to drag this little imp with me.”

Twilight had to stifle her own laughter. She was sure she was spending too much time with the humans cause she was starting to find entertainment in their humor, even if it did cause her friends some problems. Spike meanwhile, having heard everything, was doing his best to intimidate Jack by giving him an angry glare and failing as one would expect.

“I’m going to get our tickets then if we are all ready.”

Heading to the booth Twilight Silently thanked Celestia for the bits she had sent to Spike while they were helping Applejack for their travels. The plan was to purchase two private cars, if only to avoid a possible panic from the ponies seeing the humans. Thus the extra bits were greatly appreciated.

Once she had the tickets, she returned to find Spike sucking on a lollipop, likely from Jack as a way to make up for teasing Rarity. Honestly, if it kept the two from causing a big stir then what was the harm.

With tickets quickly distributed, the large group headed on board the train. Thankfully, despite their large group and the noticeable size difference between the humans and ponies, there was plenty of room in each car.

For the humans was a car complete with four full sized beds, as well enough floor space for them to move around. The car for the ponies on the other hand was a normal sleeper car for the seven of them. True it would be a bit of a tight fit, especially with all of Rarity’s luggage, but they could bear it for the time.

After packing their bags near the bed they all started to settle in for the long haul. Twilight, now free for the moment, approached Simon.

“I know I messed up last time but I would like it if you could try and teach me your magic again.” Twilight was nervous, afraid that Simon would tell her no.

Simon merely petted her head. “Twilight, you made a simple mistake there is nothing wrong with that as long as you learned something from it.”

Simon then motioned through the door leading to the humans' car. In the other car, it was just Twilight and Simon everypony else was in the other car talking. Twilight moved to the center of the room where she closed her eyes and held out her hoof and waited for Simon to start. After thirty seconds of waiting, Twilight opened her eyes to find Simon drawing on the wall with a marker.

“Wait, are you not going to lead my magic like before.” Simon turned around putting the cap back on the marker.

“Nope, now that I know you have All-Sight we are going to train you a different way,” Simon motioned up the marking on the wall. “First I want you to memorize this sequence. You can use any tools you like.Just let me know when you can recreate it without looking at it.”

Taking a seat on one of the beds, Simon pulled out a book and began reading, leaving Twilight to her task which she took to with her usual vigor.

For the next next few hours, Twilight worked on memorizing the marking, completely ignoring the occasional visitor, be they pony or human. A few times Twilight thought she had it but Simon was quick to point out several mistakes, though that only served to harden her resolve. After another couple of hours Twilight felt she’d finally had it down, though Simon had her repeat it a couple more times just to make sure.

“Good, now that you have the basics down you have everything you need to get started.”

Simon squatted down in front of her and placed his hand on the floor, from it sprang a small circle of markings. “Now I want you to recreate those markings inside of this circle.”

Nodding, Twilight looked carefully at the new circle of marks, which was noticeably smaller compared to her prior projects.Taking a deep breath to clear her mind then she used her magic to recreate the markings inside the circle but nothing happened.

“Not quite right. Try again.”

Simon touched the small circle causing it to glow for a second before it wiped the markings that Twilight had made. Several hours and attempts later, Twilight was getting frustrated.

“Gah, what am I doing wrong!” Twilight buried her head under her hooves in exasperation. Simon looked up from the book at the markings.

“From what I can see, it seems perfect,” Simon commented then went back to his book.

“Then why isn't it working.” Twilight turned back to him and angrily stared at him as if he was the problem.

“Well, I can't say for certain but from what I’ve seen your world’s magic is derived from emotions, feelings, which are the same regardless who you are. Our magic conversely is based on written language, which is naturally different for each person due to their own unique mannerisms and speech.”

Despite the explanation, Twilight seemed only more confused, prompting Simon to set his book down and move over to Twilight.

“Perhaps a visual aide will help here...JACK, I NEED YOU IN HERE.” Simon yelled out, prompting Jack to poke his head through the door.

“What'd you need Simon.” Jack stepped the rest of the way through.

“I just need you to open your fourth-dimensional pocket.”

While Jack looked confused at the request, he obliged and held out his hand. Near it Twilight watched as a circular band of blue magic came into existence forming a black spot in the middle. Simon did the same right next to Jacks a similar band of blue magic appeared.

“Now look closely at both of them.”

Twilight did as she was told putting her face almost into the black spot and once she got close enough she noticed something. Simon’s band was filled with markings that were a lot more compressed allowing more of them to fill the band, The second thing she noticed was that Jack’s markings were curvier than Simon’s. While the markings in Simon’s were very rigid and precise Jacks flowed and seamlessly moved from one marking to the next.

When both spots closed and the markings disappeared Simon resumed talking, “Let’s stop here, you can muse over what you saw and we can resume in a few hours.” Twilight nodded just noticing how much she had drained herself trying to create the humans magic.

“I think that's a good idea. I’m just going to go rest on my bed.” Twilight turned and left the car making her way to the bed that her bag was near.

“How did the training go darling.” Rarity lifted her head from where she was talking with Kat.

“Frustrating,”

“Yea it can be very difficult finding your style but once you have it, it will open up so many doors.” Kat tried to reassure Twilight, getting her to nod.

“I think I’m just going to rest for a while now.” Twilight used her magic to close the curtain to her bed and pulled the dairy out of her saddlebag. Opening the book back up to where she remembered leaving off she activated Ace.

“Ace, can you continue to translate these pages for me,” Twilight spoke quietly to make sure she wasn't heard.

“Of course Ms. Twilight.”

Immediately a blue light burst out from the device, sweeping across the pages for a few moments before Ace started speaking again.

“Dear Diary, it happened, I talked to them. At first, it was only one of them and it was an accident. I was just arriving at school when I noticed that the hall was covered in a thick cloud of the light. It wasn't the first time this had happened and I found that if I keep my head down while walking slowly enough will keep people from bumping into me. However,this time I ran into someone. I immediately went to apologize and without realizing I said I couldn't see them in the fog. When I opened my eyes in shock of what I just said and it was one of the twins that I bumped into. He seemed confused for a little bit before he seemed to have a realization.”

“That is when he rolled up his sleeve on his left arm and the fog started to recede into his arm . It only took a minute for the fog to disappear completely. I dumbly nodded after he asked if that was better, afterward we exchanged names, it turns out that the one l bumped into was Zach but get this, his last name is Liebe, that is so cute.”

Twilight was confused and made a mental note as to ask for a translation of that word later as she kept reading.

“Soon enough we had to go to class but he said he and his brother would like to talk to me. They said to meet them at the large tree near the school. Naturally I was very excited, but when I left the building there was another cloud that blanketed the school. I think I spent five minutes trying to navigate that stuff before it disappeared revealing both Zach and Rolf.

Zach had turned to Rolf and told him that he knew I wasn't faking. When I turned to them Rolf apologized to me and explained that they had to test me. When others heard them talk about the fog in the past they pretended to see it. I was curious so I asked them how they knew the fog would be here. Zach seemed pretty proud of himself when they explained that while Rolf could see the fog like I could Zach had the ability to manipulate it. Rolf explained to me that they have had their own ability since they were a child like me and that they like to call it the fog. We got to talking about what they think the fog really is when an alarm went off and they had to head home but they said they wanted to hang out again. I’m kinda excited to talk to them again.”

“The passage ends there.”

Twilight took a moment to collect herself, there was something here but she knew she didn't have enough information yet.

“Ace what is the translation for Liebe,” Twilight asked in the break between passages.

“Liebe a German word meaning ‘love or to love’.” A holo-screen appeared in front of Twilight presenting the spelling and translation of the word in English. As Twilight stared at the word she suddenly realized something.

“Ace how do you spell Simon.”

The holo-screen changed to the spelling of Simon's name. Twilight looked on as she saw a pattern and quickly removed the translation headset causing the holo-screen to disappear. On it next to her cutie mark was what Simon had called his symbol. It was a heart and inside of it were two markings...an S and an L.

“Simon Liebe.”

Twilight traced the heart with the tip of her hoof as she was trying to connect the dots. “Simon is somehow related to the brothers in this diary. Ace, can you continue?” Twilight figured if she continued some other things might finally be explained.

“Dear Diary, it has been a few weeks since I started hanging out with Zack and Rolf, and things have been rather nice. My parents think I’m getting better since I no longer complain about seeing things now that Zack can make them go away and I’m feeling less stress now that I have people that I feel like I can talk to about it. Admittedly, it was a little odd talking to them at first since they looked the same but, I have been starting to notice a difference between the two of them. Despite only ever seeing him sleep through class Zack seems to be the smarter of the two. Rolf told me that the only reason Zack doesn't move up to higher classes is that he thinks it would be too much trouble. But altogether things have been getting better so I might be writing in my diary less.”

“The passage ends there.” Twilight closed the journal deciding she would pick it up later, for now she wanted to take a nap.

Twilight found herself in a room that was dark except for a red light that was flashing periodically accompanied by an alarm. She had this large feeling of dread and anger. As she turned her head to the right she found herself staring face to face with Simon, he was standing in shock staring through a window into a room full of black smoke.

Twilight suddenly found herself talking, “What did you do?”

“I...I...I didn't do anything,” Was his response but Twilight didn't wait for any further excuse instead she bolted out the door that leads to the room full of smoke. The moment she stepped through the floor vanished and she fell, screaming the entire way down which only seemed to go on endlessly.

Yet, as she started to fear she would fall without end, Twilight hit the ground with a jolt, opening her eyes and she was in the train car. Looking up she could see the privacy curtain swaying a bit from where she must have rolled out of bed.

A cough quickly caused her to shift attention to other occupants of the car, all staring at her while she could only offer an awkward laugh in response.

“Are you alright darling?” Rarity asked, taking a step forward to help her up, only for Twilight to quickly shake it off.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Just a bit of a crazy dream is all, nothing to worry about.”

Everypony seemed to hesitantly accept the explanation and went back to what they were doing before. Looking out the window Twilight could see that the sun was just starting to go down meaning that she was asleep for about an hour or so. While part of her wanted to question what had just happened, it would have to wait for now as she still needed to perfect her magic with Simon.

Eager to get back to work, she headed back inside Simon’s car and spent the next several hours practicing, though making no further progress no matter how hard she tried. This continued well into the night, until the moon was high in the night sky.

“How about we call it a night?” Simon stood from the chair he was watching Twilight from and walked over patting her on The head. “You’re getting close but you seem to be missing something.”

“I know I have to find my style,” Twilight responded frustrated because Simon had been telling her that same line all day. Simon smiled and shrugged.

“Maybe you will get it tomorrow, for now, I think it's a good time to break for the night.”

Simon motioned to the window where it was already dark out. Twilight, having now stopped and feeling all of training catch up to her, collapsed on the floor.

Naturally, Simon was quick to come to her aide, carefully picking her up in his arms allowing Twilight the opportunity to nuzzle into the side of his neck. Walking over to an empty bed Simon laid her down covering her in the blanket Twilight relaxed falling asleep almost instantly.

Later, Twilight was awoken by a noise looking around. Save for a single small light coming from the opposite side of the car it was completely pitch black. Turning her head slightly she saw Simon messing with a holo-screen figuring that it was no big deal Twilight laid her head down to fall back asleep when Simon spoke.

“Yeah I got the file.”

There was a brief silence that followed before he resumed talking, “I'm opening it now. What is this supposed to be...a map... We don't need a topographic map. Look I'll just send you a copy of one of their maps that I have translated...Yeah, my first week here I was staying at a library they had a lot of books that I could reference though it did take some time to figure out their written language...I know right these ponies are a little too trusting.”

Twilight froze suddenly scared. If what she was hearing was true, did this mean that Simon was working against them this entire time. And if that was true, then what about Jack and Kat.

“Well, we're currently on our way to Appleloosa...Yes It's a horse pun if you look at the name of most of their cities they are almost all horse puns. Anyway, they were saying that there is a herd of buffalo in that area so if you can find them and let them catch a glimpse of you heading towards this area, then when the ponies talk to them they can point us in your direction. Yes, Jack and Kat will fight with those two...it doesn't matter who wins it will buy enough time...If they win I will restrain them...If we attack the guards then the big dog should come out from there it's just a matter of taking them down and making an example of them...who Jack and Kat no they don't know anything about what's going on but don't worry if I explain the reason for our actions they will accept it… Yep, and we will have to make sure one of ours stays to govern over things on this side...Alrighty, I will see you soon then.”

Author's Note

Sorry, it took so long to post the next chapter. Those of you who thought I was dead need to try harder because you only hospitalized me

Fractured *Edited*

Fractured *Edited*

Twilight remained silent, listening as Simon's footsteps moved over to the bed across from her. She could hear the bed groan indicating that Simon had finally decided to lay down for the night. As soon as Twilight was sure that Simon was out she got up from the bed and quickly moved over to the other car.

Evidently she must have been asleep for quite a while as the rest of the ponies were asleep in their beds. That however wasn’t a very pressing issue at the moment and Twilight was quick to move to Applejack’s side, trying desperately to wake her up.

“Psst Applejack, I need you to wake up.” Twilight shook her roughly enough to shift her body from side to side and seemed to get some reaction out of her.

“Huh….wha, what is it Twilight.” Applejack asked with a yawn, as she tried to rub her eyes open.

“Applejack, I think you might have been right about not trusting Simon.” Twilight was doing her best to keep quiet to not wake anyone else and potentially alert Simon.

“What are you talking about Twilight.” Applejack sat up so that she wouldn't fall back asleep though it was evident she wanted to.

“Applejack, I just overheard Simon talking to someone, it sounded like he was planning to ambush us along with the other humans.”

Applejack’s once drowsy expression immediately shifted to stern as she was told the story by Twilight. “And you’re sure that’s what you heard. After all that’s happened, you’re sure it’s not just some misunderstanding?”

While part of Twilight wanted to be offended by the implication, given all that had happened recently, it did seem like a stretch.

“Applejack, I swear that’s what I heard. I promise I’m not lying.”

Applejack didn’t respond, looking closely at Twilight’s eyes and facial expressions, looking for even a possible hint of deception. True Twilight typically had very little reason to lie to her or any of their friends, but this just seemed so odd.

Since the humans had arrived Twilight had gone out of her way to both vouch for them and learn from them in every way she could, almost to the point of obsession. And Applejack wasn’t blind, she could see that Twilight had more than a purely scientific interest in Simon, hence why even the idea she’d accuse Simon of all people of deception was so hard for her to believe.

And yet, try as she could she could, she could neither see nor feel any kind of falsehood from her friend. Which sadly, only meant something far worse for them all.

“Alright Twilight, I believe you, though I gotta say I’m really wishing you were lying right now,” Twilight eyes drifted down, forlorn as she recalled what she’d seen and the implications it carried while Applejack pondered for a moment.

“But something about this doesn’t make sense. We know Simon has more than enough power to take us all on and win, so why spend so much time trying to trick us. What’s he hoping to accomplish?”

“I heard him saying that they have to take out the guards to bring out the big dogs...that’s a human term for the leaders. I think he meant us, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, we’re the guardians of Equestria and if they were to capture us then no one would be able to stop them from going after Princess Celestia or Luna.”.”

Twilight's mind immediately began playing out numerous dark scenarios about the fate of Equestria should they be captured and the humans be allowed to run free. It only took a few seconds of this before the purple pony broke out into a cold sweat and started to hyperventilate.

“Twilight calm down..”

Twilight’s breathing steadied as she felt her friend's hoof on her shoulder. “Look, I won’t sugarcoat this and act like this isn’t serious, as you said we can't fight him much less Kat and Jack along with him”

Twilight again looked ready to enter another panic attack only for Applejack to force her to look the farmpony right in the eye, again calming her down.

“But Simon doesn't know that you know right? That means he won't try anything before its time.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay then, let's just rest for tonight. Tomorrow you and I will take everypony aside one at a time and we'll make sure they are all ready.”

The pair offered each other a calm smile and nod before heading back to their beds with another word, still in the midst of coming to terms with what they’d learned.

Laying her head down Twilight tried to get some sleep but found her nerve racked mind refused to allow it.

Using her magic Twilight pulled the diary out of her saddlebag, hoping that perhaps a little reading would take her mind off the current situation.

Opening the diary, Twilight quickly turned back to the page that she’d left off on and immediately activated Ace.

“Hello, Twilight what can I do for you.”

In spite of being happy to hear his friendly voice again, Twilight wondered if it was safe to be using Ace since it was something created by Simon. Then again, Simon had never bothered to approach her about said book even once, leading her to guess that Ace didn’t maintain constant communication with Simon...at least that’s what she hoped was the case.

Regardless, Twilight needed something to focus her mind on and this was the only option she had at the moment, thus was quick to press forward.

“Hello Ace, can you continue where we left off on?”

“Of course.” There was another pause as Ace scanned the pages before starting again.

“Dear Diary,

It has been almost a month since the last time that I wrote in this thing. I think it's safe to say that with the validation that I’m not hallucinating my stress levels have gone way down. I had such an embarrassing moment Zack, Rolf, and I was hanging out at my house just joking around in my room when Zack accidentally knocked a glass of soda into my shirt. In my infinite wisdom I decided that I would just change my shirt so I had them turn around while I did. It's wasn't that big of a deal those two had become like brothers to me, but my mom didn't think so because she chose that moment to walk by my open door. After I was able to explain what happened my mother finally calmed down she forced the two out of my room just so I could change my shirt. When the boys came back in I could hear Rolf say the curse strikes again. That was when I learned that ever since Zack was thirteen anytime he is with a female friend that some sort of misunderstanding like that usually happens. After that, I learned to be more cautious around him.”

“The passage ends there.”

Twilight yawned, starting to get tired but could see that there was only one more passage before the pages changed format. Thus as much as her body as telling her to stop, she pressed on.

“It has been two years since I last wrote, I honestly don't know why but something continues to compel me to write and I feel almost powerless to resist it. After two years of knowing those two I’m surprised to find that the three of us have become closer than I thought possible. However, I have been finding myself drawn to Zack more than I do Rolf. True, we do still spend time together, yet I find more of my time spent with Zack than I do Rolf. They are both very intelligent and funny but Rolf has a more competitive side while Zack is more gentle and kind. Oh, also Rolf accidentally let it slip that Zack isn't his real name it's apparently just a name that he heard while his family was on vacation in America and liked it so much that when they got home he started using it, His real name is apparently Simon. I actually kinda like it better than Zack. I think I’m going to start calling him that from now on. The passage ends there.”

Twilight stared in shock, all traces of exhaustion gone from what she just heard.

“So this diary belonged to someone Simon knew growing up before he became a deity.”

Twilight quickly put the diary in her saddlebags before laying her head down on her bed, yet part of her fear she wouldn’t be able to sleep.

With all the information she’d been given, now more than anything she wished she’d had someone to talk about it with, but knew there was none right now. For now this was something she’d sadly have to dwell on until the next day came.

Laying back down and closing her eyes Twilight suddenly found herself on the ground. Looking around she saw four humans to her right being illuminated by a flashing red light.

“Are you all alright.” Twilight found herself speaking again.

A few of the humans coughed but they all eventually nodded standing up as she looked through a window into a room that was filled with black smoke. As she looked inside, a sudden feeling of dread and anger filled her up. Then everything froze and Twilight was suddenly pulled from her own body.

Floating up above the scene Twilight heard a voice call out to her.

“We are sorry Twilight.” Twilight quickly turned her head to find Princess Luna.

“Princess Luna, what’s going on.”

Twilight looked back down at the scene she was just pulled from.

The six humans in the dark room, illuminated by the red light stood frozen in place, four of them still on the ground and two now looking through a window.

“Twilight what you are seeing is not your dream, you have been pulled here because it was the only way for me to get in.”

Luna walked up to Twilight to explain. “Ever since the human Simon arrived in Equestria we have detected a particular nightmare appearing almost every night and have been unsuccessful in reaching it.”

“Perhaps it is because they are a different species.”

“I’m afraid that is not the reason, I’ve had no such trouble reaching the dreams of the other two.”

Luna’s horn glowed with magic as she waved her hoof behind herself and two doorways appeared. Through one of the doorways, Twilight could see Jack, who was strangely just sitting in a completely empty, black room.

“The one called Jack seems to enjoy dreaming of peace and quiet, perhaps to an extreme extent but otherwise harmless.” Luna’s gaze shifted over to the other doorway, “The one called Kat meanwhile...oh...my…”

Luna’s sputtering speech caused Twilight to curiously look over to the other door and found herself feeling a mixture of embarrassment and regret.

Within the doorway was Kat, stark naked and currently licking her way up Big Macintosh's neck as she slid her body against his, as one of her hands started to veer downward.

Thankfully, the door immediately slammed shut before anything else could happen, Luna almost bright red and taking a few breaths to calm her likely racing heart.

Twilight debated saying something, when something caught both of their ears.

“Dost thou wish to see the royal treasury?”

Looking back to the doorway to Jack’s dream Twilight could now see that he was no longer alone instead he was being held in place by the magic of a familiar blue Alicorn.

“Or wouldst thou wish to explore my royal treasury.”

The obvious innuendo wasn’t lost on Twilight now redder than before, though that was minor compared to the real Luna, completely red from hoof to mane. With a flash immediately dispelled the doors, leaving the pair once again in the quiet void of the dream world.

Twilight looked up at Luna and could see that her cheeks were very red. Luna coughed clearing her throat

“Anyways, Simon’s mind is different, like there is something missing. The reason you are here is due to the connection you’ve made with Simon I was able to link your dreams.”

With a wave of her hoof, another door appeared before the duo.“Shall we see what plagues Simon’s dreams.”

Twilight nodded looking forward as everything started moving again. Twilight watched as the four humans on the right did their best to help each other get up. On the left there were two Simons, the one she had seen the previous time and the one that she was inhabiting.

The first Simon turned to the other.

“What did you do?”

“I...I...I didn't do anything,” The second Simon stammered. The first Simon took off running into the room full of smoke.

“Wo bist du, Hedwig,” The Simon said, stumbling about the room, coughing from the smoke calling out.

“Hier drüben.” a softer voice called out causing Simon to head off in that direction. soon he had found someone laying on the ground. Simon rushed over helping the person stand up.

“Bist du verletzt,” Simon asked looking over at Hedwig. After coughing a little she finally answered him.

“I'm fine you big goofball and I told you to use English around me, I don't learn as fast as you do so I need the practice.”

Hedwig gently smiled at him and used her finger to poke his nose.

“Alright, honey.”

Simon smiled at her and the two of them shared a passionate kiss. As Twilight watched she understood Hedwig wasn't just someone important to Simon she was his wife.

“Simon, Hedwig,” Another voice called out to them.

“Over here Rolf” Hedwig called out. Soon the second Simon walked out from the thinning smoke.

“Thank goodness you're alright. I’m so sorry Hedwig, I don't know what went wrong,” Rolf spoke as he walked over and hugged both of them.

Hedwig chuckled as she sank into the hug, enjoying the warm contact.

“It’s okay to make mistakes Rolf as long as you learned…”

Twilight watched as Hedwig stopped suddenly mid-sentence, her eyes glowed a brilliant golden color before she collapsed into Simons' arms.

Twilight recognized the sign of magic poisoning and from what she read in the diary they have little to no knowledge of magic making it a death sentence.

“Rufen Sie einen Krankenwagen,” Simon shouted to Rolf before he dropped to the ground to make it easier to hold her, “Hedwig...Hedwig.”

As tears started to drop from Simon’s face the world around them started to crumble.

“Twilight we must leave Simon is waking up.”

Luna’s horn glowed and let out a flash of light and next thing Twilight knew she was waking up back on the train.

Opening the curtain Twilight could see that she was the first one awake. Using her magic to pull the diary out of her bag, she looked back and forth between it and the door into the car that Simon was in.

In spite of all that was happening, Twilight felt worse keeping it now that she knew that it belonged to Simon's wife.

Even though part of her felt that due to what she’d heard from Simon, the diary should remain with her, the guilt she felt ultimately proved stronger as she moved towards the other train car.Twilight opened the door, she could see Simon sitting on the side of his bed with his face buried in his hands with Jack and Kat both still asleep.

“Simon,” Twilight called out to him, she knew Simon was going to betray them but she also knew she should at least apologize for taking something so precious, even if it was likely he wouldn’t do the same for her.

Simon lifted his head from his hands, a smile already on his face, not a trace of sadness in spite of what Twilight had seen in his mind.

Seeing such a thing left Twilight to wonder how he could so easily change his emotions after what she’d seen in his dreams. Twilight was already almost to tears herself and she barely knew him.

“I’m sorry Simon.” Twilight floated the diary over to Simon, “I was in your lab that last night when you were staying with me. I was looking for some more information on your culture and your magic when I stumbled across this.”

Simon’s smile turned neutral taking the diary back, opening it and running his hand down the opening page, barely acknowledging Twilight’s words.

“I’m sorry, I don't know what came over me. I had Ace translate it for me and I just couldn't stop myself from continuing... so I hid it.”

Twilight looked down at the floor in shame as she sniffled and began to tear up as the room remained silent for a moment.

“So how far did you get,” Simon finally spoke, his tone even and calm.

“She had just figured out what your true name was.” Twilight hesitantly spoke, still unable to so much as look in Simon’s direction.

“And did you find what you were looking for,” Simon’s tone remained unchanged, seemingly unmoved or even the slightest bit upset with Twilight.

“No, I learned some of your childhood but it seemed like everything that it revealed brought new questions.”

Twilight’s thoughts were interrupted as the diary slid across the floor so that it was directly in front of her. Twilight finally looked up at the smiling Simon.

“Then please, feel free to read on until you find what you were looking for,” Simon said as he motioned towards the diary.

“But isn't this special to you? That's why you kept it,” Twilight asked as she hesitantly picked up the diary confused.

“I appreciate your honesty Twilight and that you brought it back when you realized how special this was to me,” Simon said with a chuckle, “But it was a very, very, very long time ago and I have committed just about every word of that book to memory.”

Simon stood up from the bed and offered the still stunned unicorn a pat on the head.

“So how about we wake everyone and get some food in us.”

Twilight was too stunned at Simon's reaction to speak so she just nodded in agreement as Simon positioned himself between Jack and Kat’s beds.

“Jack, Kat time to wake up and get some food,” Simon just barely whispered, showing no visible effort in actually trying to wake them up. And as one could expect, there was no reaction from either party.

“Well, you can't say I didn't try,” Simon said with a mischievous tone, as he reached out, touching the two beds.

Twilight watched as runes spread from his hand out onto the back side of the bed, causing the beds to shrink rapidly, sending the sleeping pair crashing to the floor and jolting them awake.

“What the fuck Simon,” Kat yelled lifting her head up from the floor.

“I just thought you two would be interested in food.” Simon laughed as he removed his hand from the beds, allowing them to return to their proper size.

Jack groaned before picking up his head and shaking off some of the soreness.

“I like food.”

“Glad to hear it,” Simon said, still smiling as he gestured towards the other car, “So, now that everyone is awake, let’s go eat shall we?”

Seeing no arguments, the group made their way out towards the door, only for Twilight to stop Jack while Kat and Simon headed out.

“You need something Twilight?

“I'm confused about something, when Simon first got here he said that as long as deities had magic they didn't need to eat or sleep, but I’ve seen Simon sleep often, so…”

“Simon said that huh,” Jack muttered as he thought to himself for a moment, “Well while Simon wasn't exactly lying u I’m sure he was just trying to be nice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, while it's true that we're resurrected beings, we’re still living creatures just like you. So we require food, water, and rest just like any other living thing. Now deities like Simon can use magic to supplement their needs but you have to have knowledge of the chemicals in your body and its needs, otherwise you could overdose that is why most deities won't do that kind of magic without an enhancer.”

“Enhancer? What is that,” Twilight asked as she and Jack started making their way into the other car where Kat and Simon were waking everypony else.

“Well I don't know how to exactly explain it but it’s a type of equipment that helps with a range of things. Mostly they are used for more complicated types of magic because it takes longer to create strings of runes for specific effects. Though in the case of replacing meals and other necessities, the enhancer is a box that monitors your body’s needs.”

Twilight nodded doing her best to understand as the pair continued, growing more fascinated the further Jack elaborated on aspects of his world.

After waking everyone and moving to the food car they only got stopped a few times, it turns out that word of the humans had spread far and wide making them kinda like a celebrity and ponies kept stopping them to ask a question or two or for autographs. The humans took it fair enough even as ponies kept interrupting their meal.

After they ate they all returned to their car, Twilight went back to doing Simon’s training, though she was sure it was likely just a distraction he made up to keep her busy. However, for now she would continue to play along, already planning to tell the other’s what she’d learned once the group had a moment alone.

The group finally arrived in Appleloosa around noon where they decided to go straight to Applejack's cousin, Braeburn’s place, who was quick to welcome the rather large and diverse group.

“Howdy Applejack, what brings ya over to my neck of the woods,” Braeburn greeted his cousin.

“Hey there Braeburn, sorry to cut to the chase but we're in a bit of a hurry. Have you seen anything like these three humans around, there's apparently three more of them lost somewhere and the princesses hope that we can reunite them with their friends in a hurry.”

Applejack fought back a gag as she lied through her teeth about the danger the humans presented. Despite her inherently truthful nature, she also knew the potential panic such information could cause, thus opted to bite the proverbial bullet no matter how much it tore her up inside.

Surprisingly, Braeburn didn’t seem especially bothered by the unusual beings before him. Without even a hint of an issue he looked over the three humans from top to toe, thinking for any possible connections.

“Sorry cos, can't say I have,” Braeburn said with a disappointed shake.

“Shoot, thanks anyways Braeburn,” Applejack said, kicking a nearby rock in annoyance, “Don’t suppose you know where the buffalo are right now. Figure, maybe they might have seen something?”

“Well now that you mention it, I think Little Strongheart is meeting with Sheriff Silverstar today,” Braeburn said as he started walking, the others following suit, “Follow me, I’m sure that they can't be too far from here.”

“Let's split up Applejack, Spike, Simon and myself will go with Braeburn. The rest of you split into two groups each taking a human with you and ask the ponies around town if they have seen anything.” they all nodded splitting up. As their smaller group followed Braeburn they soon found the two they were looking for.

“Then it is settled, that will be the number of pies that we will have prepared for all of you.”

Silverstar shook hooves with Little Strongheart, just as the group was making their way over.

“Hey, Little Strongheart,” Braeburn called out, causing the little buffalo to turn towards them and offer a friendly wave.

“You remember my cousin Applejack and her friends?”

“Oh, from the whole squabble over our stampeding grounds,” Strongheart recognized the little drake more than the others since Rainbow Dash and Pinkie weren’t around.

“Yes and we’re sorry but we don't have much time to talk right now. The reason we’re here is we were wondering if anypony in your tribe might have spotted creatures like these three in the last day or so.”

Twilight had stepped forward to speak as she motioned to the human in the back, causing the small buffalo’s eyes to widen at the peculiar creatures.

“Well, I can certainly say I’ve never seen anything like them before. Although….” Little Strongheard pointed over in the direction outside of town, “Someone from the tribe might’ve seen them if you wanna ask, they’re just outside of town.”

Strongheart then turned back to Silverstar. “Hope you don’t mind if we pick up this conversation later, do you?”

“Not a problem, take as much time as you need.”

With a wave Silverstar headed back to town, leaving the rest of the group waiting for the others to return at the edge. Thankfully, they didn’t need to wait long as the others arrived in quick succession, and sadly with a similar lack of success at acquiring any useful information.

Thus now together, the group follow Little Strongheart outside of town towards her tribe, though among them they couldn’t help but notice the not so subtle glances the buffalo was making at the humans.

“Something wrong?” Spike asked waddling up alongside their guide.

“It’s just those...things, what exactly are they?”

“They're called humans,” Spike informed her, though her confused expression made it clear he’d need to elaborate a bit, “They’re sort of from outside of Equestria and we’re helping them find some other, really dangerous humans”

Spike’s pace almost came to a halt as he realized his slip of the tongue regarding the potential threat of the humans. And the scared look on Little Strongheart let him know things just became more complicated. .

“Wait, those things are dangerous. Why are we bringing them to my tribe then?”

“Oh no no no,” Spike stumbled to correct himself, “These humans aren’t dangerous, the ones we are looking for are.”

That didn’t seem to ease Strongheart’s concerns, still eyeing the trio of humans with suspicion as they continued on.

The group finally caught sight of the Buffalo Tribe not far in the distance, who were quick to react to the sight of the ponies or more specifically, to the sight of their human companions.

“I’m guessing this isn’t the first time you’ve seen creatures like these before?” Twilight inquired to Chief Thunderhooves, who’d been cautiously eyeing the humans much like Little Strongheart though with more familiarity.

The buffalo was quick to offer a friendly smile to the group as he nodded firmly.

“Yes, at the time we thought that they were perhaps some thinner type of minotaurs that had gotten lost. However, before we could approach them any further they headed to the west, though to where exactly I’m not sure.”

This new information left Twilight feeling uneasy as the direction the chief was pointing in was far away from any kind of civilization and by extension any possible help they could call upon.

As much as she wanted to deny it and not jump to the wrong conclusion, this was all but cementing it. Simon was going to betray them.

Yet, in spite of this she pressed forward with the group, knowing any action she took would just arouse further suspicion. Thus the only thing she could do now was play along and hopefully think of a solution.

As the group continued onwards for several more hours until much to their surprise and ever growing fear, they then came across a forest.

Applejack stared at the trees with confusion and a hint of outrage.

“The heck’s going on here? I’m not as familiar with the area as I’d like, but I know the closest forest to Appleoosa is the southern end of the Everfree Forest and that should be a couple days of walking away.“

Among the group, only Twilight could think of an explanation.

“It must be the other humans. They probably plan to separate us, just like Discord did with the hedge maze,” Her eyes turned over to Simon and the others, who all looked relatively calm about the entire situation, which only set her further on edge. “I need to keep an eye on them, hopefully once we’re in the woods I can warn the others before it’s too late.”

However, as they walked into the trees Twilight felt a chill run up the back of her neck, as if something was watching her. She turned to Simon to ask him if he felt it too but the first thing she saw was Simon quickly reaching out to her, magic flowing down his arm coating it like a second skin. She knew this was the moment of his betrayal but she didn't have enough time to stop him.

The moment his hand grabbed a handful of the mane, fur and skin at the base of her neck, time seemed to stop, memories flooding back to the incident in Simon’s lab and the rune that appeared before her.

In that single moment Twilight knew her only chance was to use the rune to break the strength magic on his arm so she could get out of his grip.

As she formed the rune in her mind, so too did it take shape and place itself on Simon’s wrist. In an instant she heard Simon grunt in pain and a loud bang as he swung her around.

There was a snapping sound and Twilight found herself flying through the air, watching the spot that she was just standing erupt with numerous spikes of ice that quickly fused together and formed a large dome surrounding everyone except for her and Simon.

Just as Twilight hit the ground something immediately slapped into her side. Looking down she saw that it was to her shock and horror, a blackened and decayed hand.

Looking back up to Simon she could see the questioning look in his eyes as he held onto his wrist, his hand missing.

“Twilight...W... ,” Simon started to speak when he suddenly stopped as an object burst through his chest.

“Poor, poor Simon, it seems that the ponies didn't trust you as much as you thought they did.”

A single glance allowed Twilight to see there was another human behind Simon, though who they were she wasn’t certain of. However, she couldn’t focus on that at the moment as there was still the issue of the object inside Simon’s chest, which was starting to move.

In a moment of surprise the object spread out into several fingers, revealing the unknown object to be a human hand. However, whatever it had planned to do was quickly halted as Simon let go of his wrist grabbing hold of the wrist of the hand through his chest and holding it firmly in place.

Oddly, in spite of being captured, the human just continued to chuckle and smirk.

“Even after you went out of your way to try and turn this ambush on us by circling around.”

Twilight could see Jack, Kat, and her friends trying frantically to break the ice that surrounded them.

“I see you’re making use of my quick regeneration.”

Simon smiled and coughed up some blood, “Oh, you know me, I find something I like and then make it my own.”

Twilight watched as a ripple of magic moved across Simon’s body.

“For example, did you know with just a few minor alterations to my DNA I can convince my cells that they are supposed to absorb foreign biomass and use it in my regeneration.”

The new human started trying to pull their hand free of Simon, only for Simon to quickly hold his hand in place with a sinister grin. “It cuts down the cost of magic by a lot.”

Twilight watched as the human continued to try and free their hand as they grimaced in pain as Simon’s blood seemed to flow from his chest wound covering both his hand and that of the other human.

By now the human was pulling furiously to get free and miraculously, with one final jerk they were finally free from Simon’s grasp. However, it was not without cost as Twilight could only stare on in horror at the now skeletal hand with only small chunks of muscle holding the bones together.

The stranger was equally horrified, putting as much distance as possible from Simon while pressing their now useless hand against their chest, struggling to stand despite the pain.

“Erma are you alright,” Another human on their left asked, though calling them human seemed a stretch given they were covered in scales and had a tail much like a lizard.

Oddly enough, the other human on the right seemed to be moving their hands around frantically without saying anything. They were smaller than the other two, just a little taller than Twilight and her friends, with a blue mane and was clad in a camouflage vest with numerous pockets.

That left the remaining human, identified as Erma, who was almost the same height as Simon, wearing plain clothing similar to Kat, with a long yellow mane and obviously an extremely damaged hand.

Simon meanwhile still seemed relatively calm, casually wiping the blood from his chest as another ripple of magic flowed across his body, closing the hole in an instant.

Now looking utterly untouched, Simon faced towards the humans calmly as Erma lifted her bony hand up in front of her face.

Without even a prompt, a large amount of red fluid covered the damaged limb, taking the shape of a proper hand before it seemed to absorb back into her, revealing a fully restored hand.

“I’m fine. “Don't forget we are dealing with the Demon of Magic. Make sure to watch your barrier, he's probably already weakening it.”

Twilight took the time to finally stand up looking to Simon and saw runes rotating on the ground at his feet flowing out from him and into the ice that held her friends captive.

”Now keep them busy I will deal with him,” Erma said to the others as she lowered into a stance.

The silent human nodded, pulling out a black metal object from a holder on their belt. There was a light click and something fell out of the handle as the human reached to their vest to pull out a similar item.

In an instant there were three loud bangs, with each burst resulting in a large circle of interlinked runes appearing in front of the object.

With a signal from the third human the reptilian stranger quickly retrieved the fallen item and tossed it into the air. The stranger quickly pulled back it’s fist causing three more circles of interlinked runes to appear.

Once the line made contact with the descending object it burst forth with tremendous speed, passing through the dome of ice without so much as a scratch yet forcing the occupants to dive for cover.

However, this proved only a distraction as the two beings quickly made their way to the dome and walked through the walls as if it were air.

Sadly, neither Twilight nor Simon could be concerned for their friends as Erma launched herself at Simon, who quickly took up his own stance. Using one hand he grabbed her wrist and placing the nub where his other hand used to be on her midsection, flipped his enemy hard onto her back.

Simon took a step back from them, placing his handless arm behind his back and holding his hand out in front of himself he waited.

“Come on Erma you can do better than that.”

Erma stood back up, taking a calming breath before they attacked again, Twilight only able to watch the two battle.

At a glance it seemed as though the two were fighting using roughly similar styles, though Erma was greatly favored by having both hands, landing blow after blow on Simon.

Shifting her focus over to her captured comrades, Twilight could only just barely see the fight as ice and other objects seemed to get launched from the dome. Yet, at a glance it seemed as Kat and Jack were giving it their all to protect the ponies.

Looking back to Simon's fight, it was not looking good as Erma had managed to land a couple of hard blows to his head making him stumble. Things only grew worse as it was clear Simon was slowing, no longer able to block or prepare a counter attack.

“I have to do something, but what?” Twilight thought to herself as more and more blood flew with each hit.

With one more hard blow to the face Simon fell to his knees. Erma smiling in victory as she grabbed Simon by his hair and pulled him up to meet her in the eye. She reached back to deliver the final blow when Twilight shouted.

“No!”

Without thinking the runes that Simon had been teaching her popped into her head. Suddenly feeling drained Twilight watched as a black spot appeared near Simon and Erma. There was a sudden force as a vacuum formed pulling everything towards the black spot.

Erma quickly tossed Simon away before she turned to the black spot, holding out her hand a ring of runes formed around it causing the vacuum to cease. Her eyes turned to Twilight a mixture of disbelief and outrage clear for all to see.

“You amateur! Are you trying to kill us all?”

The sudden shock from her words broke Twilight’s concentration, causing the black spot to vanish, revealing a small but deep crater where it had been.

“All that damage from just a few seconds?”

Erma looked between Twilight and Simon, stunned mildly by Twilight’s display yet, pushed it aside and with a wave of her hand a black spot appeared below Simon drawing him inside. She then reached down pulling a knife from her boot, throwing it to the side, burying it deep into a tree where magic rippled out from it. In an instant a door that bent and curved with the tree appeared, the handle of the knife acting as the doorknob.

“Well little pony, if you want him then come get him.”

Erma quickly moved over to the door and headed inside, though making sure to leave the door open for Twilight to follow, which she was quick to do.

Rushing through the door Twilight found herself in a room so dark she couldn’t even see her hoof in front of her own face. Thankfully, a quick light from her horn resolved that issue only for a loud click to draw her now illuminated gaze to another sudden light source. To her surprise it was a table with Erma sitting at it drinking out of a cup.

“Hello there little pony. Won’t you come and have a seat with me?” Twilight stood her ground not moving not wanting to take the chance of a trap.

“I’m not doing anything with you until you tell me what exactly you want and why it relates to Simon. Why’d you call him the Demon of Magic,” Twilight practically shouted while keeping her horn charged in case she needed to defend herself.

“Easy there little pony, I just want to talk and don't worry about Simon, he’s safe.” Erma took another drink from her glass. “Would you like some tea?”

Seeing as she had little leverage to argue Twilight approached cautiously sitting at the table, only to find she was just barely above the edge.

“Ah, sorry about that.” Erma raised her hand and snapped her fingers causing the floor under Twilight to her rise until she was at eye level with Erma. “Now about that tea?”

“I’m fine,” Twilight impatiently stated, on edge to take immediate action.

“Alright,” Erma chuckled as she finished off her own cup. “To answer your last question, in our world, demon is actually a title given to those who achieved rank one in the arena. Before Zack became rank one and Simon went on his little pacifist sabbatical he was the best fighter we had. Though I guess you wouldn't know that since the two younglings have only known one demon and Simon doesn't talk about his past. As to what I want, well I’ll just cut to the chase...I want you to join our side little pony.”.”

Twilight was taken back and confused, It must've been written on Twilight's face because Erma continued.

“You have a very strong ability in you.” Erma snapped her fingers again this time a black spot opened above the table and a black decayed hand fell out. “Do you know what this is?”

Twilight shook her head, she knew that it was Simon's hand but she had a feeling that wasn't exactly what Erma was talking about.

“That rune that you used is known as Erase, those humans that awaken with it are instantly sworn in to never use it and those that know of it are not allowed to talk about it. Do you know why.”

Twilight shook her head again.

“It is because of this.” Erma motioned to the hand on the table. “When you erase the magic inside of a deity you are getting rid of everything that is keeping them alive and their bodies begin to rot making it impossible to revive them.”

Twilight’s eyes shot up in fright and her mouth hung open, which only served to further amuse Erma.

“That's right little pony, if you’d placed that mark in a more vital spot you might have permanently killed off the smartest creator in human history. Scary to think about isn’t it?”

Erma snapped her fingers and off to the side something lit up. Looking over Twilight saw what seemed to be another window but on the other side, she could see her friends fighting alongside Jack and Kat out in the forest.

“Join us and your friends will be spared.”

Twilight turned back to Erma. “What, just betray my friends, my home, and everything that I love and care about?”

Erma in spite of the rather blunt rejection, didn’t seem the least bit bothered.

“Not exactly, we would give you domain over this world. I mean you would know it better than anyone that we could send. Yes, you would get orders from gods but it would be up to your discretion on how you carry out those orders.”

Twilight responded by slamming her front hooves on the table causing the glass to fall over.

“Enough, I would rather die with my friends than join your war world.”

In Spite of the outburst, Erma remained calm, though still stood up showing Twilight just how much bigger she still was, matched by an eerily similar large grin sweeping across Erma’s face.

With another snap of her fingers, the room lit up completely revealing something that looked very similar to Simon’s workshop.

“Then I just have one more question for you Twilight.”

Now Twilight found herself puzzled as for the first time since they’d met, Erma had opted to call her by her actual name as opposed to simply “little pony.”

“Just how long have you been in love with my father.”

“What,” Was Twilight’s only and rather loud response to a rather hefty bomb shell being dropped. Yet a loud knocking nearby prevented her from asking any further questions.

“Damn he woke up earlier than I thought he was going to,” Erma said as she moved around the table to a door. “We will talk about this later.”
When she opened it, Twilight was shocked to see Simon was on the other side.

“Daddy!” Erma’s voice temporarily took a higher octave before returning to normal.

“Hey, baby girl.” Simon said happily as he and Erma shared a hug as Simon entered the room.

“What?”

Twilight was too stunned to even move, not that it really mattered since the humans were mostly ignoring her.

“It has been far too long since our last meet up dad.”

Simon continued to smile as he looked at Erma with joy, giving her a light kissin on the forehead like one would give to a small child.

“Oh come on, it’s only been two thousand seven hundred fifty-four years, eight months, fifteen days, twelve hours, and twenty-three minutes since our last meeting.”

“Dad…” Erma groaned at his rather aloof response, giving him a playfully annoyed look. “You were missing for quite some time. You’re off by one year, thirteen days, and thirty-four minutes.”

Erma and Simon didn’t say anything at first before they both started laughing loudly, leaving Twilight more confused and now annoyed that she was being ignored. Thus figured it was time to step in.

“Okay, I’m not one to normally interrupt somepony, especially during apparently a long overdue reunion, but I’d very much like to know what the hay is going on here,” Twilight practically shouted, finally getting Simon to notice that Twilight was still half standing on the table.

“Oh, hey, Twilight, didn’t see you there.”

He then turned back to Erma. “Did you ask her yet.” Erma shook her head.

“No, I just finished testing her when you showed up.”

Again ignored Twilight stomped one of her hooves again trying desperately to finally get some answers.

“Will one of you two tell me what the fuck is going on.” Twilight tried to vent her frustration by using the swear word that she heard Kat using.

“Aw, she swore, that is so adorable coming from something so small and cute,” Erma spoke in a mocking voice one would expect when speaking to a child, which only served to irritate Twilight further.

“I just would like some of my questions answered,” Twilight stated as she tried to calm down, sitting back on her platform. “For starters, are you really father and daughter? If so, then were you really trying to kill each other, or if you are on our side what is with that conversation on the train I overheard and what questions was she supposed to ask me.”

Both Simon and Erma didn’t seem bothered by the questions, just calmly joining Twilight back at the table, giving her their full attention.

Once it was clear she was finished Erma opted to speak first. “Do you know a better way to fake a fight than to actually fight.”

That was certainly not the answer Twilight was expecting and one she honestly didn’t have a proper answer for. “So, that was all just an act? A staged fight?”

“That’s the basic idea, yes,” Simon said calmly. “As to why, the simple fact is no one in my world can know Erma is my actual daughter.”

Twilight wanted to respond by Simon was quick to cut off the question he knew was coming.

“The reason why they can’t know is connected to your last two questions.” Simon paused as Erma sat down a glass of liquid in front of him so that he could take a drink. “ Twilight there is a rebellion brewing in our world. Erma here is one of the leaders. The conversation you overheard was Erma and I planning this meeting with you as well as our plans for afterward.”

“Oh and don't worry about your friends Robert and Mikasa out there believe that we are under strict orders not to hurt the local life.” Erma quickly interrupted, which did seem to put Twilight at ease.

“Right.” Simon nodded. “Anyways, what we were planning to ask you is if you’d be willing to help us out with the Rebellion.”

“Rebellion? No, I...I couldn’t” Twilight’s voice stumbled as she tried to respond. “Sure I’ve used my magic to defend myself before, but you’re pretty much asking me to help you fight in a war. I can’t do that.”

This explanation did very little to curb Erma’s desire. “Of course you can. We’ve seen the kind of power you have. With your help, we could win this thing with as few casualties as possible even after you and your friends went and upped our time…” Erma was cut off by Simon as he raised his only hand for her to be quiet.

“Please forgive my daughter. She, like many, has suffered many losses in our world and it can cause her to behave a bit erratic even if her heart is in the right place.”.”

Erma looked away from the group but Twilight could tell that it was still a sore spot for her.

“You do not have to decide now and it is perfectly fine to say no.” Simon took another drink. “I understand what we’re asking goes beyond what would be considered reasonable, and even if you do agree we’ll make sure your Princesses agree before we take any further action.”

Despite his reassurances, Twilight was still nervous. On one hoof she did want to help them, though whether that was purely because of her good nature or her attraction to Simon was debatable, but on the other hoof, it meant that she would have to kill.

“I...I’ll think about it.” It was about the only answer she could give at the moment.

“Thank you for considering it Twilight.” Erma stood from the table. “Now onto other business.”

Twilight watched as Erma turned to a nearby cabinet and started digging around in it.

“As you know, father you have been missing for quite some time and because of this you have a fairly large amount of paperwork to catch up on,” Erma words became strained towards the end of her sentence as she lifted something up.

Turning around Twilight had to hold up her jaw at the tower sized stack of papers she was carrying, which landed on the desk with a rather loud thud.

The sight merit a sense of pity for Simon as Twilight recalled how often Princess Celestia was often brought to her wits end thanks to such heavy paperwork. However, that pity was short lived as she spotted him already halfway out the door before Erma could even get a word in.

“I better go check on Jack and Kat, talk to you later, bye” Simon quickly shouted as one long word as he shut the door behind himself.

“Damn it, dad, you get back here and do your work,” Erma angrily shouted before snapping her head to Twilight. “What do you see in him.”

The rather comical turn to such a serious conversation thankfully earned a chuckle from the purple unicorn as she thought of how best to respond.

“Well at first I couldn't stand the way he didn't take anything seriously. Really, if it wasn’t for his intelligence I doubt I would’ve had any interest in the beginning. Plus at the time I merely thought it was an appreciation for an intellectual equal. But after living with him for a whole week I started to enjoy his company and look forward to his non-serious moments.” Twilight smirked and saw a moment to joke with her. "And for another species all together he has a pretty nice…”

“Alright, I'm going to stop you right there. That's information I do not need to know about my dad.” Erma interrupted her before things delved too far. “God, no wonder you two get along. You have the same sense of humor.”

“Can I ask how you knew that I liked your father?” Twilight asked as she looked at the floor, slightly embarrassed that said information was apparently widely known.

“Not every human is emotionally stunted like my dad. Though personally, it was from how you looked at my father.”

A quiet silence fell over the two of them while Twilight stayed silent, still embarrassed over the situation.

“Well then, shall we go then.”

Erma walked over to the door that Simon just left through, which Twilight was quick to follow, only to stop when Erma’s expression became more serious.

“I feel I should warn you, there might come a time when you see a side to my father that you won't like. I hope you remember why you fell for him in the first place if that time comes.” Then she smiled. “Until then I’m rooting for you, stepmom or I guess step-pony.”

Erma started laughing as the lights went out and she threw open the door running out, leaving Twilight positively red.

Shaking her head Twilight cleared her thoughts and headed out the door. Adjusting to the lighting out there she found herself out in the Forest again.

Looking around Twilight saw all her friends standing in the area that was originally domed off, all looking otherwise unharmed while Kat and Jack were in the midst of conversing with Simon.

“See I told you we could take them,” Kat triumphantly spoke to Simon as she threw the unconscious body of one of the other humans off her shoulder followed shortly by Jack doing the same thing with the other one.

“What are you talking about, I had complete faith in your abilities,” Simon replied snarkily before leaning down and whispering rather loudly to Twilight, “No, I didn't.”

“I heard that,” Jack yelled and tried to argue further but Simon quickly cut him off.

“Relax, I’m kidding, if I didn't have faith in your abilities I wouldn't have left you two alone while I fought Erma.”

“Speaking of Erma, what happened to her,” Kat asked.

Simon sighed. “She got away but I wouldn't worry too much about…”

“There she is.”

Jack pointed somewhere behind Twilight but as Twilight started to turn to look she felt a sudden rush of air and found herself several feet away from everyone being held up.

“I’m sorry about this,” Erma whispered into Twilight's ear.

Twilight felt something sharp pressed against her throat causing all of her friends to freeze in place.

“Don't move! Do everything I say and no harm comes to this one,” She shouted to the rest of them.

“Why are you doing this,” Twilight whispered angrily, doing her best to make sure that she didn't get cut.

“Whether those two betrayed me or not I still have a mission to accomplish and I can't do it alone,” Erma spoke loud enough for the others to hear her before she whispered to Twilight, “Sorry, Twilight I gotta keep up appearances.”

Resuming her ‘evil’ persona, Erma grinned over at the group.

“Now, Kat I want you to throw those two over here for me.”

Kat gave a questioning look to Simon who nodded, prompting her to pick up and chuck two unconscious bodies where Erma was standing.

“Simon, I will have to inform Victor of your defection.”

Simon, fully aware of what was going on, simply shrugged. “If that's what you have to do.” Simon pointed towards them. “But you have to put the pony down first.”

“Of course.”

Twilight felt the blade slowly pulled away from her throat as well as a slight shift in Erma’s body then found herself flying through the air. Simon quickly moved over catching Twilight.

By the time everyone looked back to where Erma was she was gone with her companions in tow. All the ponies ran forward looking around trying to find her.

“Fluttershy let's go take a look above the trees, maybe we will be able to see them,” Rainbow Dash said quickly, preparing to take to the sky.

“Wait.” Rainbow Dash halted when Twilight yelled, ready to tell everyone there was no cause for concern. However, she quickly realized that she wouldn't be able to explain why. All eyes turned to her.

“Why should we wait, they are getting away?”

Rainbow was now in the air impatiently waiting for a response. Twilight went to open her mouth and give the first reason she could think of when Simon stepped in.

“Erma said that she can't do it alone, she needs her team and judging by the markings I saw on those two, they'll be out of commission for some time.”

Jack and Kat grinned as they nodded, clearly proud in the damage they managed to inflict.

“Besides, her mission was to obtain and bring back my body. So anywhere I go you can be sure she's not far from. The best course of action will be to go somewhere where you have the advantage.”

Twilight watched as several lines of runes sprang from Simon to each of her friends, quickly wrapping around their heads. The sight concerned Twilight for a second before they faded away, leaving the five with a look of clarity on their faces.

“He might be right darling, if we go back to Ponyville then we will know the area better than they will.” Rarity stepped up offering her opinion.

“Maybe we could set up some sort of signal that could tell ponies when danger starts happening,” Fluttershy added.

“I guess I could work with that.” Rainbow landed on the ground and joined her friends.

“We should all head home then if that's the plan,” Applejack added.

Nodding in agreement they all turned to head back the way that they came. As they walked Kat turned to Twilight.

“So Twilight, I saw that little bit of magic you put on, found your style did ya.” Kat playfully nudged the pony, much to her mild irritation.

“Honestly, I don't know, it was a spur of the moment thing. I’m not sure how I did it, I just knew that I wanted to help Simon.” Twilight looked up at Simon who seemed to be lost in thought.

“Actually I don't think the style was ever her problem,” Simon said to the pair. “From what I observed while Twilight was learning was that the magic that she harnesses doesn't have a dense enough structure to support our kind of magic.”

His explanation earned Simon several questioning glances, even from the other two humans.
“What I noticed about their magic is that it is more of a gas than a physical substance that their bodies absorbs through the air. Now if you think about our magic it's in a crystalline form making it much denser.”

“So you're saying that the reason I couldn't perform your magic before is that there wasn't enough in there to activate it.” As Twilight turned her head to look at Simon she saw a lot of confused faces. “So why was I able to do it just recently.”

“Well ,I think that is because you have already been exposed to the refined magic that was attuned to me, so when I grabbed you to move you out of the way your body automatically absorbed as much magic as it could from what it thought of as a source.”

Despite this explanation, the group ended up spending much of the trip back to Appleloosa trying to offer an easier to digest summarization. On top of that, Twilight also talked to her friends about the miscommunication and how the conversation that she had overheard was Simon trying to give them the advantage. Of course, she left out the part about Erma being Simon's daughter and the entire conversation that took place with her. Needless to say it was a good thing the trip back was rather long as the content of the explanation was quite dense.

As they continued on, Twilight started to space out thinking about that conversation, Even as they returned to the Appleloosa train station and Twilight got their cars reserved again she only participated in the most basic of conversations.

Once everypony had settled into their train car, Twilight made her way into the human's car.

“I need to talk to Simon,” Twilight mentioned as she walked in, her friends looking at her with concern at how off she’d seemed, yet chose not to voice those concerns.

Simon didn’t say anything as he saw the strangely dazed Twilight enter the car, almost as if he’d been expecting her. “Hello Twilight, do you need something?”

Twilight smiled calmly. “Could we speak alone please?” This got both Jack and Kats attention.

“Oooohhhh.” Jack smiled giving Twilight a wink before he stood up and headed towards the door.

“You go, girl, I’ll personally make sure that you two are not bothered for the next couple of hours,” Kat whispered at Twilight before she also stood up and joined Jack out the door.

“Okay, we are alone now. What did you wanna talk about?” Simon asked, giving Twilight his full attention.

“Umm well, it's about the question you asked me earlier,” Twilight opened her mouth to continue but Simon raised his hand asking her to pause. Placing his hand on the wall of the car, various runes stretched out, eventually covering the entire interior of the car..

“Figured you’d prefer a little more privacy.” Simon pulled his hand away from the wall, leaving Twilight to take a few breaths to compose herself. No going back now.

“Before anything I want to know what exactly you did to my friends earlier.” Twilight let a little bit of anger seep into her words.

“It wasn’t anything harmful I assure you. That was just a little mental suggestion to help them see things my way. I’m sorry if I crossed a line but I had to protect my daughter.” Simon seemed very calm and firm in his answer, though that did little to make Twilight feel better.

“Okay Simon, I will give you that but please don't do anything like that again.” Twilight tried to scold him but just looking at him she could see no signs of remorse for his actions.

“Of course Twilight, I don't take pride in manipulating others, I just do what I feel needs to be done.” Simon had moved over to sit down on one of the beds.

“Alright. Onto the other thing. Despite everything that happened recently, I do want to help you, I really do, but I need to know more about what is going on.” Twilight moved to sit down next to Simon.

“What would you like to know?” Simon calmly asked.

Twilight took a deep breath. “Erma told me you used to be a rank one combatant but you told me that to get higher ranks deities had to kill others, how could you do something like that?”

“Simon quietly sighed, sounding more in line with his actual age as he spoke. “You have to understand Twilight, not all worlds are like Equestria, even though I’m certain many wish they were. It was a different time back then.”.”

Twilight heard Simon take a moment to breathe as if he was about to speak of something painful. “Back then, the arena wasn't about killing, it was like a staged fight and the only goal was to make your opponent give up.”

“Then how did things get so bad in your world?”

“Simple answer, humans are a greedy species and that greed only grows when one becomes a God. Given someone enough power and it corrupts them, before long they can’t help but abuse that power. And one of those Gods decided to use his power to change how battles in the arena were fought.It was shortly after when I stopped fighting.” Simon immediately stopped himself as he quickly went back on his words. “I say I stopped shortly after but it was a couple of years after things changed that I stopped fighting willingly.”

“Can I ask why you haven't asked Kat and Jack to join the rebellion?” Twilight looked to Simon curiously.

“Well, you see it's not my decision. I’m not part of the rebellion my daughter is.”

Twilight was going to ask him why when he answered her question, “Don't get me wrong I don't like what the gods are doing any more than any of the others but as the rank one creator I am under too much surveillance to be of any assistance, and any help I provide would likely result in them being discovered. To answer your question as to why Erma hasn't asked them to join yet, they have yet to prove that they are not working for the gods. Erma is very careful to not take someone that she doesn't trust.”

“Then what about me.” Twilight was curious as to why she was asked but not two people that they have known for longer than her own lifetime.

“You are a special case Twilight,you have no connection to the gods and thus are infinitely more trustworthy” Simon reached over and patted Twilight on the head

“Oh well, thank you for talking to me Simon.” Twilight wanted to stop the conversation she had been told by the other humans that Simon didn't like to talk about the past and Twilight didn't want to press him further.

“I still don't know if I can bring myself to join your fight but I can help at least. I can set up a diplomatic meeting with the Princesses. It might take awhile before they can meet with you but it should help your cause.”

Simon nodded, he then took his hand placing it on the side of the car, Twilight watched as all the runes seemed to retract back into Simon's hand.

“So how about we work on your fourth-dimensional space.” Twilight nodded getting Simon to Stand up from the bed. “Good.”

Simon tapped his foot and runes sprang from it forming the ring of runes on the ground near Twilight. “Then shall we start where we left off.”

Twilight looked to Simon curiously. “But you said it yourself I don't have the right kind of magic to perform that on my own.”

“Well that's why I am here. I'm going to be acting as your own personal capacitor during this training.”

Simon squatted down and held out his hand for Twilight to place her hoof into. She stared at his hand for a couple of seconds hesitant after what had happened last time before carefully placing her hoof in his hand.

“Okay just let me know if you start feeling an uncomfortable pressure.” Twilight nodded and then waited after a couple of seconds she felt a flood of power through her body. As the power built up she started feeling the familiar sensation of pressure.

“Simon it's starting,” Twilight quietly said before the growing power inside of her stopped and she felt it drain just slightly.

“Alright, Twilight you know what to do next.”

Using the new found power that she felt Twilight once again drew the rune inside of the ring of runes, this time though a black spot appeared inside of the circle. The sight caused her concentration to break and the black spot to close. Though this didn’t stop her from prancing about the car like a school filly that had mastered her first spell.

“Focus Twilight, we’re not done yet,” Simon chuckled at the display

“Oh right.” Twilight stopped on the spot. “Sorry.”

“Don't be, it was a very adorable display.“

Twilight's cheeks turned red at the small display of affection before turning her attention back to the task at hand.

Placing her hoof back in Simon’s hand, she started concentrating, causing the black spot to open again. This time however, she felt adamant at maintaining her focus.

Twilight watched as another black spot opened near Simon where he finally took his hand back, placing his handless arm against her hoof. Reaching in slowly, he pulled out a large metal object.

“I have to ask, when you were fighting with Erma and I opened my fourth-dimensional space. Erma yelled at me about killing us all. What did she mean by that?” Twilight didn't look away from the black spot making sure that it stayed her main focus even while talking.

Simon moved the metal object over next to the black spot and shifted it to start sliding it in. “First, let me know if this gets too heavy for you.”

As he slid the object into the black spot Twilight could feel the weight of it evenly spread out along her entire body. However, it proved to be quite heavy, to the point where Twilight felt as though she wouldn't be able to move with its weight

“As to your question, when you first open your fourth-dimensional space it is an empty void.”

When all that could be seen as the last portion of the object Simon twisted something on it causing what sounded like a rushing of air.

“When it is first opened, you are exposing that void to the air causing it to rush and fill it in, effectively creating a vacuum that would suck in anything nearby. The ring of runes that I have been having you place your opening in is a safety ring that stops that vacuum from forming but we still have to fill that void before it becomes safe for you to use whenever you want. That's where this canister comes in. It's a simple mix of seventy-eight percent nitrogen, twenty-one percent oxygen, point nine percent argon and a mix of other gases that make up the last of it.” Simon had not removed his hand from the canister holding it in place even as his hand entered the black spot.

Twilight nodded she didn't understand everything he was talking about but she trusted Simon to know what he was doing. “Simon, it's getting really heavy.”

“Just a little longer Twilight this one is almost empty.”

After just a few minutes the sound of rushing air died down as Simon pulled the heavy object back out. The moment it was out Twilight collapsed onto the ground feeling physically exhausted from holding that weight for so long and the amount of magic she had just expended.

Simon placed the object on the ground and ruffled her mane like she was just a filly. “You did very well.” Simon stood up as another black spot opened, absorbing the container.

“Thank you, Simon. I don't know how you humans stand to use so much magic and not get tired.” Twilight stood shakily on her hooves.

“Well, it helps that we train for that exact reason. I don't know about your kind but we humans can train our magic like muscles. We use magic till we are about to die and that helps to strengthen us.”

Twilight nodded, which at the moment was about the only kind of movement she could perform. “I guess our species are similar in that regard.”

“You okay there Twilight,” Simon spoke up, noticing her sluggish movements.

“Oh yea I'm fine, just exhausted is all. I just need to rest.” Twilight turned heading to the door that leads to the other car.

“Here let me help you with that.” Simon stood up opening the doors leading to the other car for her. As Twilight entered the car Kat approached her.

“Someone looks like they had fun,” Kat smirked as they all turned to look at Twilight.

“It was definitely tiring,” Twilight lazily responded as she turned to head to her bed, the subtext of Kat’s comment flying right over her head.

“Wait, you're telling us you really did, how did Jack put it… go to the Bone Zone.” Twilight heard snickers of laughter coming from Jack and Kat.

“The what?” Twilight deadpanned.

“What Rarity is trying to say is that those two came out here sayin’ that you and Simon were knockin’ boots,” Applejack added.

“We were what?” Twilight’s exhaustion must have been getting to her mind because she wasn't able to understand the point that they were trying to make.

“They're trying to figure out if you and Simon had sex,” Pinkie Pie blurted out causing most of the ponies in the room to blush including Twilight.

“What, No!” Twilight shouted shocked, though between her apparent exhaustion and her now ruffled hair, it wasn’t hard to see how they’d think such a thing..

“Simon was just helping me refine my ability to use human magic, Twilight decided she was going to have to figure out to pay Simon back for that while also making sure to avoid any further misconceptions.

Deciding to change topics, Rarity shifted focus to still chuckling humans nearby.

“Forgive me for asking, are humans always so...open about relationships.”

“Well yes and no,” Kat answered, while Twilight took the distraction as an excuse to lay down. “Different humans have different opinions, though I have heard that since we became a dimension-hopping race humans have become a lot more relaxed about that sort of thing.”

Having already heard this before, Twilight decided to tune the group out and instead levitated the dairy over to herself and opened it to where she had left off at.

She recognized the shapes of the foreign language as she flipped to through coming to the blank pages. Turning just a couple more times she found the entries she hadn't had time to look at yet. Twilight was surprised as she took a closer look at this page, other than the first line the rest was in the human language that she had learned.

June 17, 1990.

After unpacking several boxes I have come across this old diary. I felt as though I should update with what has been happening.

In the last four years, Simon and I have graduated, got married and have been living in the U.S.A. for about a year. In other news, , I’m not sure what I want to do with my life. Simon, on the other hand, was accepted to Harvard, says he wants to help people. His main goal is that he wants to make artificial limbs just all around better than what is available now.

On an unrelated note, I haven’t heard from Rolf since our wedding. Simon says that the two of them got in a big fight before it though he won't tell me what about.

In more happy events, Simon and I also have a beautiful baby girl who has just recently turned three years old. She’s already showing signs of having her father's intelligence and has taken well to learning a second language so early on. Times are tough though with Simon going to school full time we don't have a lot of income. I have gotten a stay at home job so I can keep an eye on my little girl and we do get some support from our parents. Also Simon does some tutoring work between his classes to help so we get by. Sometimes it gets a bit lonely here but Simon’s parents said that the next time they come visit they will bring my parents along since they have never been to America before.

Twilight paused to yawn before noticing the next page had a piece of paper attached to it that looked like little foal’s style of drawing.

On it was three stick figure type humans gathered outside a house. Each figure had a label pointing to it and a color on top of its head most likely indicating mane color. The one labeled dad had red on top of it, the one labeled mom had yellow on top of it and the short one labeled me also had yellow on top of it.

The page had been attached in such a way that Twilight was unable to see if anything was underneath without tearing it, so she left it be.

Nov 14, 1990

Something really surprising happened, Rolf showed up today. It was a really big surprise to all of us, especially Erma, it must have been so weird seeing two dads.

At first, it looked like Simon and Rolf were going to start fighting but then Rolf apologized, though they still won't tell me what he was apologizing for but Simon accepted it and after some discussion, it was decided that Rolf would live with us for a while. Turns out that Rolf had become an accountant back home and talking with him had made me realize that I missed the way things used to be.

Speaking of the way things used to be, I got so used to Simon just removing the fog anytime he was around I never thought to test and see if our little girl is able to see it. I think I know what I want to do, I want to show everyone that the fog exists.

Twilight's eyes dropped heavily and she figured she was going to have to stop there.

Taking a peek at the next page before closing the book, she found it was another picture, most likely drawn by Erma as a child. This one was very similar to the first one but it had a fourth stick figure added with blue on top of it and a label that said, Uncle Rolf.

Barely able to stay awake any more,Twilight closed the book and set it off to the side she laid down to go to sleep.

Sadly, this moment of peace was brief as Twilight opened her eyes. To her surprise, she found herself floating in an empty, white void.

As she tried to orientate herself she heard distant screams of pain. Finding herself on her hooves she charged off in the directions of the source. As she grew closer she recognized the voice as Simon.

“Simon, where are you,” Twilight called out running with all her might.

Finally, she saw something off in the distance. Getting closer, she found it was indeed Simon but as she approached she noticed that he had a ring of magic wrapped around each wrist and one around his neck,forcing him to his knees.

“Simon what is going on.”

Some lightning flashed across Simons' neck making him shout in pain.

Simon lifted his head and looked surprised at Twilight. “Who are you?”

Heart broken *edited*

Heart broken *edited*

Simon’s words were slow and his voice was ragged as if he hadn't spoken in ages. However,Twilight was only shocked at how Simon could not know who she was. She was about to answer but before she could utter a word an excited voice came from behind her.

“Oh-oh-oh I know, that's Twilight.” Twilight whirled around to find six large glass tubes, each one bathed in a different color of light. Most were broken and empty, save one bathed in yellow, with another Simon inside, wearing the same large smile that she has seen many times.

“She's been helping take care of us the last couple of weeks.” He seemed to speak fondly of the purple unicorn, yet there was something off about him, though what is was none could say.

Twilight didn’t care however, running up to the tube, using it as a stand to hold herself on her hind legs and look directly into Simon’s eyes. She was about to ask again about what was going on when she heard the ragged voice start laughing.

“I guess I should thank you little unicorn.” Twilight turned around to the Simon being held on his knees.

“What is this place?” Twilight finally asked approaching Simon, on guard for whatever may come.

Simon opened his mouth to answer when he went wide-eyed and looked to his right. Twilight followed his gaze and found there was a large box bathed in red light.

“Run.” Twilight heard the ragged voice say. She wanted to ask why but when she looked back Simon was gone. A loud, sudden explosion caused Twilight to panic as she looked around all the glass tubes, all empty with no signs of Simon. She had little time to think about this however, as there was a second boom and Twilight saw a part of the box bulge out followed by maniacal laughter that sent chills down her spine.

Not wanting to see what would come, Twilight didn't hesitate in turning and running as fast as her hooves could take her. Yet, no matter how fast she ran, Twilight could hear more booms and laughter coming from behind her, seemingly getting closer. When the laughter was on top of her Twilight found herself waking up in bed.

Twilight groaned looking out the window, that the sun had only just starting to rise. Deciding to get out of bed and stretching, she tried to recall what her dream was, yet all she could remember was that there was some weirdness to it. Shaking her head to clear her mind she made her way to the food car to get something to eat. The rest of the day proceeded fairly normally, with Simon repeating what he did the day before, though this time after the canister was empty Simon released the safety runes around the black spot. When the vacuum formed Simon reformed the safety runes.

“Wow, it's bigger than I thought it would be, it might take awhile before it’s stable enough to use on its own.” Simon said, smiling as he placed the now empty canister back into his own black spot. Twilight slowly let the magic fade as she panted lightly, It wasn't quite as bad this time but it was still straining to have to deal with that much weight. However, she felt some relief as Simon stood up and patted her head, happily indulging herself with his touch.

“How about you go take a rest and we will start up again in a couple of hours.” Twilight, slightly annoyed he’d stopped petting her, nodded, moving back to the other car, climbing into the bed and pulled out her book, opening it where she left off.

Mar 22, 1991.

I am finally starting to make progress thanks to the help of Simon and Rolf. We have found that passing a current through some special glasses at Nine point two GHz can reveal the fog through a green spectrum filter. A couple of days after we started getting a reliably working pair of glasses Rolf told me that he’d managed to pull together some people that might be interested in becoming investors and have given us some seed money to put together a working demo. Thus, we started doing experiments, most of which revolved around Simon since he is the only one we know that can manipulate the fog.

The rest of the page was filled with sketches of glasses with words and numbers filling in blank spots. If Twilight had to guess, it was a diagram on how to reproduce the item. Intrigued, Twilight continued on.

July 7, 1991.

We have made some interesting discoveries, by having Simon siphon a small amount of fog into animals they show signs of not only enhanced cognitive abilities but also enhanced physical ability. This might very well explain Simon’s superior intellect, the byproduct of absorbing the fog for his brother since they were children. This still leaves the issue of the fog’s source and despite my research all I can determine is it seems to come from everywhere, little more than a dead end. Thus, instead of finding the source we decided that it might be better if we try to find a way to manipulate it other than always having to rely on Simon.

The next several pages were filled with several designs of different objects. Curiously, many of the words and numbers were scratched out while others were written down in their place.

Sept 22, 1991.

We did it! We were able to create a machine that is able to manipulate the fog similar to how Simon does. On another note, some of the animals have been showing signs that there might be some kind of side effect to absorbing too much of the fog. The most prevalent is that the enhanced cognitive abilities comes and goes in bursts, the rest of the time they are either normal or seem very sick. I have also finally pried the information on who the investors are from Rolf. While all four are from large corporations one of them has ties to the American military, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with my research being used as a means of waging war. Yet, we’ve made so much progress, I can’t afford to stop now. For now, we will continue and set up a demo for the investors. I hope everything goes well.

Dec 14, 1991.

There was an accident when we met and tried to show off our research. At first, everything was fine, we showed off the glasses though we didn't have any more lab animals to use and Simon was preoccupied with class and wouldn’t arrive in time. With no other option I volunteered,. We set the machine down to its lowest setting as a safety precaution, but something went wrong and the machine exploded, I woke up in the hospital the next day. While things seemed fine, I have been having strange dreams ever since, though I can never remember the details I wake up feeling unnerved.

The writing started getting scratchy making it harder to read.

Dec 21, 1991.

I find myself growing a little concerned as I've been having blackouts lately. I'll be doing one thing then suddenly I find myself somewhere else. The dreams have been becoming clearer when I wake up, I've seen a world, one that appears to be everything and nothing. I find myself just standing on the edge of a vast library that expands as far as I can see in all directions. Yet, I can’t concern myself with this for long as there is a bit of good news. I guess our presentation wasn't all for waste though I heard that the person with the military contact, I think his name was Victor. I heard that he got in contact with a friend of his and now America has put out a word that they are looking for more people that can see the fog. Simon and Rolf signed up for it, and I can’t exactly fault them for it. The contact paid really well for their time and it helps with all the medical bills that are stacking up since my accident.

The further she went, the more pages she found filled with scratchy drawing containing unrecognizable shapes.

Jan 23, 1992.

The blackouts are getting worse and the dreams have become so real that I can't tell them from reality sometimes. I keep having detailed visions where Simon is being tortured in all manner of ways so horrific I dare not put them to paper. What I can say however, is that they leave him in excruciating pain, his screams still echo in the recesses of my mind. Simon and Rolf have been coming home later and later and it with these visions, I’m growing more concerned by the day.

A good chunk of pages was filled with more scribbles that Twilight couldn't understand but some of the markings she recognized as runes. Sadly, there was nothing to explain what their meanings were and thus she kept reading further, hoping for answers.

Feb 8, 1992.

I woke up this morning and found I had somehow created two objects in my sleep. While I can’t identify them, they are both metallic in appearance and hovered about an inch from the ground in a spherical shape. Curiously, despite their solid appearance, when I touched them they rippled like water. Something in the back of my mind told me that they were meant for Simon and Rolf. While I was apprehensive to the idea, my curiosity won out and I gave one to each of them. To our shock, when they each touched the objects they absorbed into their skin. While there doesn't seem to be any negative effects, I still pray almost every second I haven’t poisoned or harmed my friends. However, while they are alright physically. Rolf has stopped coming home and Simon has become strangely distant like there is something on his mind that he doesn't want to talk about.

There were several more pages of scribbles but it seemed as though they were becoming more organized and more of them were recognizable as runes.

Feb 13, 1992.

I see it, everything the dreams are trying to tell me everything. I don't have long but I know what the fog is, I also know what has been wrong. Simon hasn't been the one coming home it has been Rolf. When I confronted him about it he admitted it was him, Rolf told me there was an accident with Simon and he has been unable to come home. I have convinced Rolf to take me to him, maybe with this new found knowledge I have. Hopefully, I will be able to fix what they did.

Twilight turned the page hoping to find what happened but it was just blank. Annoyed, she quickly flipped through several pages only to find them blank as well, though she did eventually come to runes forming some sort of shifting lock stopping her from turning to the last page. Closing the book Twilight figured she might ask Simon about it later, for now, she was rested up and ready to work with Simon to stabilize her fourth-dimensional space.

After several hours of doing the same thing as before Twilight found herself exhausted. After Simon pulled the metal container out of her dimensional space Twilight let it close before collapsing on the spot, practically inhaling air as if it were water in a desert.Twilight figured that since they were about to take a break now would a good time to ask about the last page.

“Simon do you know what is on the last page of the diary?”

Simon simply responded by patting Twilight on the head, it had become his signature for a job well done. “I'm afraid that I do not, it has been sealed in a way that I have not been able to undo.” Simon smiled down at her. “But you don't think as I do, who knows maybe you will find a way. For now however, you should rest up.”

Twilight yawned, being reminded of her prior exhaustion. “Yea.”

She slowly made her way back to her bed on the train. Pulling out the book she turned to the rune marked page. Twilight was confused Simon told her to keep reading till she found what she was looking for but there was no information about runes in it. She felt as though maybe Simon was wanting her to learn from this book but she couldn't find any sort of lesson to take away. Yet, let it never be said Twilight Sparkle would back down from a challenge.

The rest of the ride back to Ponyville followed the same cycle of training with Simon and resting in between. By the time the train pulled into Ponyville station, it was late into the night as they all piled out of the train before going their separate ways.

Rarity forced Jack to come with her to carry her bags and explain to her parents they were not a couple, though Twilight could guess by the look on his face when Rarity turned away he had no plans to be any kind of help. Kat meanwhile, went with Pinkie after hearing her talk about planning a party for them, Kat insisted on helping her.

Simon all the while, was carrying Spike as the three of them split off and headed towards Twilight’s home, or rather, Spike was simply asleep and Simon was examining him, but the end result was the same.

Once back at the library Simon placed Spike in his bed before opening the door to his lab and disappearing while Twilight wrote a letter to the princesses regarding about acquiring the paperwork needed to declare Simon as an ambassador and set up a diplomatic meeting with them. Taking a glance at the sleeping Spike however, left her little way to send the letter and would simply wait for him to wake up.

While part of her contemplated taking a nap as well, a strange sound reminiscent of somepony crying immediately halted such thoughts. Looking around, everything was dark but she could make out the silhouette of a human figure. Slowly approaching the crying figure Twilight heard it speak.

“I’m so sorry...I couldn't control it.” Twilight recognized it as Simons' voice.

“It’s okay, I knew this was going to happen but I had to see you one last time.” A new voice spoke, this one was soft and weak.

“Why, I’m sure they would have found another way.” Twilight heard Simon’s voice again, trying to be comforting.

“Because this was the only way that I could see you, and only for this moment.” The weak voice seemed to be growing distant.

“Please...Please don't go.” Twilight could hear sobbing between Simon’s words. “My happy ending doesn't exist without you.” Twilight just noticed that the entire time she was walking that she got no closer to the human silhouette.

As she continued to move Twilight heard the weak voice give a soft chuckle, then nothing, the room fell to complete silence. Eventually, the human figure stood up, Twilight heard laughing but it wasn’t normal laughter, it was off and had a hint of sadness to it. The figure moved towards Twilight, as it hit the light Twilight could see that it was Simon but he was different both of his eyes were red in the iris and the sclera. Tears of blood streaming down his face Simon held out his hand, a shiny fluid seemed to flow from his arm forming a large object. Twilight was unsure of what the object was but she knew it was a weapon of some sort. As Simon approached the object in hand Twilight tried to backpedal away but found herself stuck to the spot. Simon stepped up to Twilight lifting the object above his head as he brought it down on her Twilight quickly sat up in her bed.

Breathing hard Twilight was startled out of her sleep. Looking around she noticed that the room was empty except for herself on the table where her letter was, there was now a pile of papers. Shaking her head to clear away thoughts of the nightmare she just had, Twilight got out of bed and moved over to the desk, levitating the papers as she looked through them, finding the paperwork she needed. Sitting down at her desk she began to fill out what she could. After half an hour of working Spike, who’d woken up while she was sleeping, brought up some breakfast for her.

“Spike, have you seen Simon, I have some paperwork that I need him to fill out.” Twilight looked up from the papers and over to Spike.

Spike put a claw to his chin thinking for a moment. “Actually, I was going to ask you the same thing. I got up this morning ready to make breakfast for all of us but I couldn't find him anywhere, I didn't even see his door around.” This surprised Twilight, true the human always seemed to disappear in the night but he was always nearby.

“We should find him.” Twilight stood from her desk and left the room with Spike, who wordlessly put down the tray he was carrying. They spent the next hour searching every door in the library until Twilight noticed something through the window near her bedroom door. Walking out, she found Simon standing there, staring off in the direction of Everfree Forest. “Um, hello Simon, what are you doing?”

Simon didn't look away. “There's something coming...something bad.”

Twilight looked out in the direction that Simon was but she didn't see anything. “What do you mean something bad is coming, how do you know.”

“I don't have time to explain I need you to evacuate the town.” Twilight was stunned.

“What do mean evacuate the town, we haven't even set up a signal for that yet.” Twilight was freaking out, the way Simon was acting was scaring her.

Simon sighed. “Of course you haven't.” Simon finally turned towards Twilight and held out his hand. “Just hand me your headset then.”

Twilight eyed him suspiciously but used her magic to remove the headset from her own ear and passed it to Simon. He placed it on his ear and held the button on side of it. “Admin override Roger, Oscar, Lema, Fred. Alert to all nearby users, evacuate the town immediately.”
That's when Twilight noticed that something was wrong with Simon, he wasn’t smiling. In all the time Simon has been here Twilight has never seen Simon not smiling, not even for a second.

Twilight backed up a little from the human. “You’re not Simon are you.”

The human sighed lightly as he removed the headset from his ear and tossed it back to Twilight. “Hmm, I guess I have lost a bit of my touch.” A ripple of magic moved across his body causing his mane to change into a light blue in color and his red eye to change to blue.

“Uncle Rolf.” Twilight heard a familiar voice call out before Erma appeared next to the human and gave him a hug.

Rolf returned her hug. “Hello, Erma.”

“What are you doing here?” Erma pulled back from the hug.

The smiled that Rolf had gained from seeing his niece faded. “I was ordered to come I’m afraid.”

Erma gasped. “No, Uncle Rolf you can’t.”

Rolf sighed. “I’m sorry Erma I have no choice.”

Twilight looked to Erma. “What what is it?”

Erma quickly turned to Twilight with a worried look on her face. “Twilight you need to get everything living out of this town now.” Erma then turned back to Rolf. “Why do you always have to do what the gods say?” Erma started trying to hit Rolf using the same style that she and Simon had fought with, leaving him on the defensive.

“I am not my brother, I will not baby you as he does.” Despite trying her best to hit him Rolf seemed to dodge her every move with ease. Twilight could only sit and watch as everytime Runes started to form on Erma just a tap on her from Rolf would cause them to burst and disappear. Finally, Rolf caught Erma's arm, twisting it causing her to flip over onto her back. Before Erma could sit up Rolf was holding a weapon of some sort the bladed end was crescent-shaped with a point in the ground on both sides of Erma's neck making sure she doesn't move.

“You think I want to do this.” Twilight watched as tears fell from Rolf’s eyes, despite staying firm. “I do this to protect you. You think your little rebellion has gone unnoticed by the gods?” To emphasize his point Rolf pushed the weapon further into the ground so that the bladed end was now in contact with her throat, just barely scratching the skin.

“Victor knows who you are, the only reason he does nothing is that I made an oath that as long as he does not interfere with you I will obey his orders.”

Laying on the ground defeated Erma spoke up on the verge of tears. “This world is full of peaceful creatures...Father will never forgive himself if this happens because of him.”

“I do not like this any more than you do but I do as I must to protect the only family I have left.” Twilight watched as the weapon Rolf was holding shifted in shape and was absorbed into his skin. In the background, she could see Pinkie Pie leading a family out of their house and several other families leaving town, at least whatever Rolf did it had gotten her friends to start evacuating the town.

“Erma what is going on,” Twilight shouted this time causing Erma to sit up and face her.

“There's no time to explain you need to get out of town with the rest of your kind,” Erma yelled pointing off at a group of ponies running away, while Rolf’s own expression hardened as he turned back to the town.

“I suppose I have stalled long enough for most of the inhabitants have gotten away. Before I do however.”

With a flick of his wrist, a black spot opened near Rolf and a cage rose from it. Twilight saw Simon inside it as Rolf approached. “Hello, Simon.” Simon turned his head up from where he was sitting in the cage.

“I should have guessed it was you that put me in here.” Simon smiled standing up. “Are you here for some fun?”

Rolf shook his head solemnly. “I’m sorry Simon I’m afraid not I have orders I need to follow.”

“Oh, I see...Did you at least give them a heads up.” Simon took a deep breath, awaiting the answer.

“I have been stalling as long as I could.” Rolf stepped forward passing through the bars to the cage and hugged his brother. “Es tut mir leid, dass ich das wieder geschehen lasse, Bruder.” As Simon hugged his brother ripples of magic moved across Simon. Rolf and Simon let go of each other and Rolf left the cage before it was encased in magic that obstructed Twilight’s vision. Before she could ask further, Jack and Kat appeared, standing between her and Erma.

“What are you doing back so soon Erma?” Jack had pulled out his knives, ready to fight.

“And what are you doing to Simon in that cage.” Kat added, similarly eager to battle.

Erma glumly looked to Kat as if the energy had been drained from her. “Something bad is about to happen.” That is when Rolf walked up to the group.

“Who the fuck are you?” Kat shouted, more on edge than ever.

Rolf looked at Kat, briefly perplexed. “Hm, perhaps you might recognize me like this.” Ripples of magic washed over his form as he grew in height and width, his mane grew out to his shoulders turning a dark blue in color and his eyes became a piercing red color. Twilight heard gasps from in front of her looking up she saw both Jack and Kat standing there fear on their faces.

“What is going on.” Twilight watched as Rolf had changed his entire appearance.

“It’s...Zack...The demon.” Jack had dropped his weapons in shock, while Kat had practically fallen to her knees.

“Well, you’re half right anyway. I’m merely the face of Zack, I do his speaking appearances and generally anything that doesn't have to do with fighting.” Even Rolf’s voice had changed taking on a much deeper tone. “However, the real Zack is an actual demon and will emerge short.” Rolf motioned to the cage behind him as he returned to normal.

“No, you lying,” Kat shouted running at Rolf she threw a punch at him, runes streaming down her arm to increase her strength. Rolf caught her fist in his palm and as when he was fighting Erma the runes of magic burst and disappeared the moment their hands connected.

Rolf closed his large hand around hers and started twisting it forcing Kat onto her knees. “A noble effort, but you are facing Rolf Liebe, the second rank in the gods' arena, older brother to Simon by three seconds, the first successfully created deity and the only holder of the Cancel rune.” Rolf finally released her hand before pushing her to the ground.

“You should always know your opponent before you strike. A lesson you’d do well to remember in the future.” A ripple of magic washed over Rolf as he returned to normal. “If you still wish to fight I will not treat you like the child that he does. Though with Zack about to awaken I would advise you run as far as you can.”

Twilight approached Rolf. “Excuse me, Rolf, I need to ask how did Zack end up inside of Simon.”

Rolf looked down at the little pony. “You have it wrong little one. Zack is not a separate entity but merely the other side of the same coin.” At that moments a pained scream came from Simon.
“Zack was created to be the ultimate weapon in times of need.” Rolf continued on as though he heard nothing, while Twilight could only watch in distress at the sight of Simon’s screams. “Do not fret about Simon, he’ll be fine, he always is. His pain is coming from the fact that he is currently resisting the transformation to give more time for everyone to leave town.”

Rolf looked back at the cage and with a wave of his hand, the cage fell apart, the magic that had previously kept Simon hidden faded. Twilight watched as Simon was on the ground in pain as waves of magic danced across his entire body. He had both of his hands again and his scars seemed to be disappearing one by one. Simon suddenly lifted into the air causing Rolf to look at him then turned back to the group.

“Hide now!” Rolf held out his hand as a large circle of runes appeared in front of his hand and a very strong gust of wind swept them all around to the other side of the library. Twilight quickly moved over to the side and peeked around the corner just in time to be blinded by a bright flash of light. When her vision cleared Simon was no longer in the air, in his place was the large figure that Jack had called Zack. That was when the laughter started, it was a horrid laughter that sent chills down her spine but there was something hidden within the chilling sound. Looking to the ground she noticed that Rolf was no longer there.

“That was a close one.” Twilight heard the voice come from behind her. Turning around she found that Rolf was uncomfortably close to her, peeking around the corner too.

“What do you mean, ‘that was close’, I thought he was your ultimate weapon?” Twilight backed up a bit from Rolf, visibly irritated. “Wouldn't that mean you’re safe from him.”

Rolf never moved from his spot. “Well, the original plan was that I was supposed to have complete control over him like this but something went wrong. I have only been given the ability to unleash it but controlling it is impossible.”

Twilight didn’t have time to process this as the laughing stopped, making her peek around the corner again. Simon was still in the air, however, upon closer inspection Twilight could see a circle of magic under each foot. The pair watched as Simon looked around a little before holding his open hand towards the house that Twilight saw Pinkie evacuate earlier. Three large rings of runes appeared in front of his hand and began rotating in alternating directions while sparks of lightning danced from the outer rings towards the center. After a minute of nothing happening the rings finally stopped and a beam of light shot from it towards the house. Upon contact the beam expanded out, engulfing the house. When the light finally faded a portion of the house was missing while the rest of it was on fire.

Twilight gasped. “Oh no.” She then looked up to Rolf. “Can’t you stop him?”

Rolf laughed. “Why would I do that?” Rolf looked down at Twilight as she tried to plead with him.

“This is my home. My friends and neighbors all live and make their livelihoods here.” Twilight almost got down on her knees as she pleaded, but could see they had no effect on the human, thus had to try a different approach. “Is this what Simon would want?”

“Simon does not know what he wants.” Rolf’s answer was quick and fierce, like it was a touchy subject.

Twilight looked back to Simon. He had his hand up pointed at another house, the runes of magic already forming. Twilight had to come up with something quick. “Is this what Hedwig would have wanted?” The reaction was faster than Twilight could have responded to. She found herself being held in the air by her throat, her back being pressed against what she could guess was the trunk of the library, Rolf’s eyes burning like fireballs.

“What would you know about what Hedwig would've wanted.” With the way Rolf was holding her up by her throat Twilight could barely breathe let alone answer his question.

“UNCLE ROLF, STOP!”

Twilight could see Erma running up to Rolf and using her momentum to knock his arm away. Twilight collapsed on the ground gasping for air. “She is in love with father.” Rolf stopped looking at Erma then looking over at Twilight. “She was also reading mom's diary.” Rolf stopped and his expression calmed as he seemed to think to himself for a second.

“Aw fuck, this is going to hurt.” Rolf turned and started walking towards Simon.

“Where are you going?” Twilight coughed out her words still recovering.

“There's only one way to return Simon to normal and that is to run him out of magic.” Rolf kept walking as he spoke.

Twilight looked to Erma. “What changed his mind?”

Erma smiled. “Twilight, my mom's diary is full of powerful magic, to just about everyone it is just a blank book. In fact, the only other person to be able to read it is my father.” Twilight, stunned by this revelation, wanted to ask more questions about it when her thoughts were interrupted by shouting.

“Hey, zimtzicke.” whipping her head around Twilight saw Rolf out in the open staring at Simon. Simon looked down to Rolf and turned his hand so that the magic was now pointed at Rolf. As the beam of light shot out, Rolf put up his hand somehow splitting the beam in several directions on contact. Most of the smaller beams went upwards into the sky, the ones that hit the ground left scorch marks where they landed. The beam only lasted a couple of seconds before it faded without expanding. Rolf shook his hand, shaking off some of the smoke that was rising from it.

“That all you have?” Simon didn't respond with any words instead he started laughing again. Holding out both of his hands' several circles of runes appeared in an arch over Simon’s head. Water was quickly pulled from the nearby clouds and out of the air, transforming into spears of ice as they passed through the circles. Simon threw his hands forward causing each of the deadly spears to launch towards Rolf.

Rolf managed to dodge the first couple of them but several had curved to follow Rolf as he moved. Rolf’s hands quickly met the projectiles and with a simple tap, they changed direction and reverted back to water. However, while Rolf was distracted, Simon quickly closed the distance, leaving runes under his feet with each step he took. By the time Rolf had gotten rid of the last spear, Simon had reached the ground.

The last step down Simon took was a bit of a leap down to the ground, a circle of runes appearing in front of him. The ground under the runes immediately started to twist and turn before a large object burst from it, several rocks twisting and turning around within the debris. As the dust settled the rocks hung in the air, quickly mashing together and rotating into a new shape. As it turned towards Rolf the shape became more identifiable, Twilight able to make out something roughly half the size of a full grown dragon head.

Without a word, it rushed off towards Rolf, seemingly pulling more rocks from the ground to join in forming a long body and leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Rolf had been so distracted, he hadn’t seen it coming and was only able to see it when it was mere feet from him. Leaning to the side Rolf had managed to dodge the brunt of the attack but the dragon's jaw had clamped down on Roofs arm tearing it off as it passed by.

If it wasn't for the pool of blood Twilight would've thought that it missed because there was no outward reaction from Rolf. Instead of howling in pain or horror, the human simply stood back up before a mass of red erupted from where his arm was, eventually turning into a replacement appendage. Giving his new limb a few test waves, Rolf returned his attention to Simon, as if nothing had even occurred, leaving Twilight stunned again.

Shaking off what she saw, her attention shifted to Erma. “Won't you help him?” When Erma looked down at her, Twilight could already see the sadness in her features.

“Twilight, think about what you’re asking me to do?” The confusion must have been all over her face because Erma continued. “What you saw before, it wasn't real. I knew in the end that everything would be fine. But this is different, that's no longer my father out there but a machine driven for the single purpose of killing and destroying.” Looking back to the fight, Erma simply sighed sadly. “I'm pretty sure this fight is about to turn around anyways.”

Rolf was now approaching Simon, a sword now in his hand. As Simon lifted his hand, a ring of runes appeared, yet with a quick swing of the sword Rolf cut the ring in half, causing it to dissipate. Rolf however, pressed on with his attack, swinging his sword forcing Simon forcing Simon back with every step.

“Twilight!” Turning her head Twilight saw that it was her friends that had called her and she rushed to meet them.

“What in sam hill is going on?” Applejack asked being the first to reach Twilight.

“Yes dear, we got an urgent message from you calling us to evacuate Ponyville but nothing beyond that.” Added Rarity.

“But I didn't...Rolf.” Twilight was initially confused but remembered that weird thing that he had done to her translation headset.

“Who's Rolf?” Pinkie Pie asked, keeping one eye completely focused on the fight going on.

“Oh right! Rolf is Simon’s twin brother.” Twilight paused as her friends took a collective gasp. “But that isn't the important part, the important part is that Simon turned out to have some sort of living weapon inside of him and it has taken control. Rolf trying to stop him right now.” Twilight’s sentence was cut off the sound of an explosion drawing all their attention to the fight. In the small amount of time that Twilights attention had been drawn from the fight, three more buildings had been heavily damaged and she could see two trails of black smoke heading towards the center of town.

“Well, what if we use the elements, it might purify him as it did to Luna or worse case it would turn him to stone as we did with Discord?” Rainbow Dash asked, flinching at the sight of another explosion in the distance.

Twilight thought about it for a second. “I don't know, Nightmare Moon and Discord were powerful and evil, but they were also from our universe. I don’t have any idea how they might react to Simon.”

“Darling, we all know how you feel about Simon.” Twilight was about to protest when Rarity stopped her. “You don't hide it as well as you think. However, regardless of that this is our home and we are the Elements of Harmony, we have to do something.”

Twilight sighed, she had to admit that they had a point. “Alright, I'll go get the elements. If anything hopefully it will at least distract him long enough for Rolf to stop him. You all should figure out where Simon is, it shouldn't be too hard with all the destruction they are causing, just don't get too close.” The group nodded to each other before Twilight separated from the group heading into the library.

“Spike,” Twilight called out worried about the little dragon.

“I'm right here.” A timid voice called out from right beside her. Twilight turned her head and found the little drake next to the window. Judging by the stool next to it, along with the frightened look on his face, he’d clearly been watching what was happening. Twilight ran over and hugged him.

“Spike, out behind the house are Jack and Kat, I want you to stay with them, they’ll keep you safe while the others and I handle this.” Twilight knew it was a dirty trick but the last time she had seen Kat, she was broken by what she had just learned. Twilight hoped that maybe having a baby Dragon with them might snap her out of it.

“Twilight, what's going on?” Spike asked worriedly, taking short glances back at the window.

“A very dangerous human has shown up, The girls and I are going to are going to use the Elements to try and stop him.”

Twilight’s horn quickly lit up, removing the elements from their case before heading out the door. Cautiously leaving the house Twilight waited for Spike to move around to the back of the library before heading off into town. It didn't take too long before she found a trail of destruction leading to the fight. A quick scan and she spotted her friends huddled behind a nearby building. Quickly joining them, she handed each pony their respective element.

“Okay girls, we probably only have one shot at this so we have to make it count.”

However, several of the group, most notably Applejack, didn’t seem confident.“I don't know about this Twilight, we’ve been watching them for a while and something ain’t right. That other human hadn't used a single bit of magic against Simon, just that strange weapon that keeps changing shape.”

Twilight peaked around the corner spying on the fight. Twilight could make out a lot of details but she could see what Applejack said was the truth, as Rolf moved the weapon in his hand, which quickly changed to better suit the situation.

“That may be just the way he fights.” Twilight turned back to her friends, trying her best to reassure them. “Regardless, the elements are our best bet to put an end to this and we have to at least try.” Her friends nodded in agreement, even if there was some hesitation. Twilight turned back to the fight, waiting for a moment when the dueling duo paused.

“Now.” The six of them jumped out from behind the building quickly the charged up the elements of harmony.

“No, wait,” Rolf shouted as he saw the rainbow of magic launch towards Simon. With a wave of his hand, Simon encased Rolf in several large slabs of rock that jumped up out of the ground, with his other hand he held it out towards the quickly approaching magic causing it to ricochet just before it connected. The rainbow seemed to bounce around in an ever-shrinking confined space. Once the beam has been compressed as much as it would go, the space lit up with a quick flash of light, revealing a large crystal of magic that was quickly absorbed into Simon. Once the crystal was gone Simon had turned his murderous gaze to Twilight and her friends but when he started approaching a rock had flown over and hit him in the face.

Twilight turned just in time see some blond mane fall behind the granite box as the front of it exploded outwards regaining Simon’s attention. Twilight and her friends all ran preferring to put some distance between them and Simon, quickly hiding behind another building, desperately trying to catch their breath.“We can't beat him can we?” Applejack said, trying to hide her growing panic and fright.

“The Elements of Harmony are supposed to be the strongest weapon in Equestria and all it did was making him stronger.” Rainbow Dash sat, angrily slamming her hooves on the ground, whilst Fluttershy and Rarity looked about ready to fall apart.

“There has to be something.” Twilight looked around seeing all her friends looking like they had already lost.

“I just don't know Twilight, with how they fight it seems only a human can fight a human.” Rarity managed out, looking up from the ground.

“That's it! Kat and Jack, they were being trained by Simon. They just might be able to help us.” Twilight shouted, jumping up, getting some of her friends to follow suit.. She turned and ran, not bothering to see if they were following her. When the group arrived back at the library she saw that Kat’s situation hadn’t improved.

“Kat, Jack, Spike,” Twilight yelled out though only the latter of the two bothered to look over.

“Jack, Kat, we need your help. Simon has been training with you both to take down Zack right?” Twilight watched as Jack looked down at Kat who was just staring at the ground lost in thought.

“It’s not the same Twilight, we can barely hold our ground against Simon when he's holding back, we wouldn’t stand a chance against Zack.” Jack didn't bother lifting his head.

Twilight looked to Kat, a frustrated look on her face. “Didn't you make a promise to Simon?”

“Promise, what's a promise to someone that has been lying about killing your parents. Promises, promises, promises.” Kat started repeating that word over and over like a broken record.

“Kat, you know Simon, does he seem like the type of person that would do that sort of stuff willingly?” Twilight tried to be empathetic, hoping to get through to the girl.

“No Twilight, you don't understand.” Jack interrupted her. “For a living creature, your bodies fight to live, for deities our bodies don't do anything without magic, if Simon really did want this to end all he had to do is just stop taking his magic and he would die.” Jack was shaking, Twilight was unsure if it was out of fear of death or rage at Simon.

Rarity stepped forwards from behind Twilight. “Maybe none of us are seeing the whole truth. I know that I have not known him as long as the two of you, but I do know that the entire time he has been here he has shown nothing but kindness, even if a tad unorthodox in his ways. I am still glad to call Simon a friend and I don't know about your world but here, I can promise you that we help our friends in need.” As Rarity ranted Twilight could see all her friends joining up beside them.

“Fuck, of course!” The group was startled by the sudden outburst by Kat. “Rarity does your sister still have that locket that Simon gave her?”

Rarity, suddenly cut off from her speech, looked confused. “Yes, I believe she was still wearing it.”

Kat stood up. “Good I need you to take me to her.” Rarity looked to her friends confused but nodded in spite of it. She took off running looking back to make sure they were all following her.

They eventually made it to Fluttershy's cottage, given its distance from the town it seemed the safest immediate place to go. Most of the Ponyville residents that didn't evacuate by train were gathered here and many were quick to question the girls on the situation. Twilight, Rarity, and the two humans pressed onward, leaving the others to try and explain as best they could. The quartet eventually found Rarity’s family, who were quick to get to her side.

“Rarity what is going on.” Her father asked concerned, while her mother simply listened.

“It’s difficult to explain I’m afraid.” Rarity looked around. “However, I believe this conversation would be held in private.” Twilight nodded in agreement.

“I think Fluttershy’s room should be clear,” Twilight commented before she lead the way. Once inside, Rarity turned her attention to Sweetie Belle, who practically shrunk under her gaze, thought Rarity did her best to appear non-hostile.

“ Sweetie, would you mind showing me that locket Simon gave you?” Rarity held out her hoof but Sweetie reacted like any child about to get something taken away, taking a step back and shaking her head. “Please, Sweetie it's important.” Rarity was trying to keep things simple as to not scare her during this stressful time.

“No, Simon gave it to me, and you can’t have it.” She placed her hoof over the locket covering it. Rarity was about to ask again when Kat stepped forward next to Rarity. Kneeling down to the filly's level, she slowly held out her hand, revealing a translator. Sweetie seemed to understand what she was getting across and allowed Kat to place the translator on her.

“Hello Sweetie Belle,” Kat spoke softly in order to not scare the child. “Do you remember me? I was the talking cat from the hospital.” Sweetie Belle nodded getting a smile from Kat. “You're one of Simon's friends right.” She had nodded again, a small smile upon her face. “That's good, so am I but you see Simon is in a bad place right now. We think that locket could really help him. So it would mean a lot if I could have it, just while I help Simon, then I promise to give it back to you as soon as I can. Does that sound fair?”

Sweetie gave a moment to think before she nodded. “Thank you.” Kat reached forward, removing both the locket and the translator.

Kat stood holding the locket in one hand. “I'm not sure what is going to happen once it's activated so we should probably take this somewhere else.”

The group made their way from Fluttershy’s house picking up their missing members as they went. Once they were on the edge of town Kat paused and took a deep breath, as though she was nervous about what would happen. She held the locket out at arm's length before speaking.

“I promise that I will not hesitate.” For a moment nothing happened, Twilight thought that maybe this was for nothing that the locket was only to deliver the key but Twilight was interrupted from her thoughts by a voice.

“Hello, Kat.” Twilight looked up and saw Simon back to normal, standing in front of Kat. Twilight wanted to run to him but was stopped by Jack.

“It's not the real one, think of it as a letter or message of sorts,” He stated. Twilight turned back to watch this Simon

“If you are seeing this then you finally know the truth… unfortunately, it also means that you are not as ready as I wanted.” Simon reached up appearing to cup the side of Kat’s face. “I am sorry that you had to find out this way.” Simons' arm dropped to his side and he took a step back.

“To keep things simple, what you’re facing is a being known as Zack who was used by the gods in a war that I was told would help end all fighting and make the world a better place. I was young and naive so I followed their directions without question. In the end, we won the war and the gods took control of everything. Sadly, when I finally realized what they actually wanted, it was too late, I tried to take my own life after all the horrible things I did, unfortunately, they’d also programmed some form of self-preservation command, forcing both of us to come back despite my best efforts. I had hoped for a better life for you, but since you are hearing this then I wasn't able to talk you out of becoming a deity. Now I need your help, I can't stop Zack but I might be able to give you an upper hand. What you now hold in your hand isn't what it appears.”

Simon snapped his fingers and the locket melted, dripping down until all that was left was a floating sphere of silver liquid.

“During the war, it became known as the Blitzkrieg, the predecessor to all enhancers. It's a weapon that can enhance the magical abilities of the owner and takes the form of anything that they chose at a moment's notice. If you use it you should be able to stop me… please, Kat, you are the only one I can count on for this task.”

“Simon, where are you.” Another voice suddenly called out.

“I'm in here,” Simon called back. Another human appeared as if they had walked out from behind a building. They approached Simon quickly wrapping him in a hug. This human was just a head shorter than him and their mane was done in the exact same style as Simons down to the coloration.

“What are you doing, you promised you would take me out for my birthday today.” The human grabbed his arm and started trying to pull him away causing Simon to chuckle.

“Calm down we'll go in a minute, I just need to finish this message.” The human stopped pulling and looked over to where Kat was standing.

“Oh, who's the message to, what is it about?” The human asked, now seemingly taking an interest in Kat.

“It's to a special friend of mine.” Simon pulled the other human back as it was reaching out towards Kat. “And it's an apology message. I made some bad choices that hurt them pretty bad.”

“You think they will forgive you?” the human looked up to Simon who simply shrugged.

“That is up to them.” Simon had walked out of view as he was talking. The other human lingered after Simon had left looking curiously in Kats direction. “Come on Katherine let's go.” The human quickly turned to face the direction that Simon had disappeared, looking rather annoyed Simon’s last words.

“I keep telling you to call me Kat, I don't like when you use my full name.” The human stomped away. There was silence as they all waited for something else but nothing appeared. Twilight looked to Kat who was silent for a few moments.

“GOD DAMN IT SIMON!” She yelled as loud as she could as she fell to her knees. “THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH SIMPLER IF YOU COULD HAVE JUST BEEN THE BAD GUY!” Twilight watched as tears started running down her face before cautiously approaching her.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked, already knowing the answer. Kat shook her head.

“I never questioned it,” Kat said angrily getting confused looks from everybody else. Kat slammed her fist into the ground making Twilight take a cautious step back.

“What are you talking about?”

“That was me, in the video. It was my first birthday since I met Simon.” Kat paused. “When Simon came into my life he just seemed to know everything about me, and I never really wondered how. All I knew was, that things were better whenever he was around and that was all I cared about.”

Kat looked up the sphere of liquid hovering in front of her. She reached up with a shaky hand slowly drawing closer to it before her arm fell to the ground. “I can't do it.” She spoke softly, looking completely defeated.

“Kat no, you can't give up, Simon needs you he said so himself.” Twilight quickly move to her side.

Kat turned her head to face Twilight. “You didn't understand, Simon, he said that thing forces them to come back every time they die. Simon doesn't want a savior, he wants a warden to keep him in a prison of his own death… I would have to kill the most important person in my life over and over again. I can't do that.”

Twilight was stunned, she hadn’t understood the implication of until Kat had pointed it out and she could understand Kat’s reservation. It was a seemingly unthinkable decision for anyone to make...yet, she knew despite everything, it needed to be done.

Hardening her heart and a frown etched deep in her face, Twilight knew what she had to do.“I'll do it.”

Before any of them could stop her she thrust her hoof out to the blitzkrieg. The moment her hoof got close it grabbed onto her. She could feel as it made a small cut in her leg before it started pushing its way into her, but strangely there was no pain, only a sensation of magical energy enveloping her before her world went black.

“Please, let me see him.” Twilight heard voices as the world came back into view.

“I'm sorry miss but he is just too unstable right now.” Twilight heard a male voice say. When everything came into view she recognized Hedwig from Simon’s dream. In front of her were three humans, each one wearing the same uniform. More noticeable however, was Hedwig’s demeanor, seemingly upset about something.

“I'm sorry.” She spoke as she lifted her hand. There was a shattering of glass as the blitzkrieg came flying to her hand before she whipped it around knocking over the humans. Quickly she grabbed a card from one of them as she ran past them. Using the card like a key the door opened, revealing a small cell for keeping prisoners there in a corner sat Simon.

“Simon, I need you to stay calm.” Hedwig wrapped Simon in a hug as she approached him from behind. “The Fog it isn't what we think, we should have never meddled with it.” Twilight watched as a light began to flow from Hedwig into Simon. “I can fix this just hold still a little lo…” Hedwig was interrupted as the blitzkrieg stabbed through her.

The now injured Hedwig stumbled backward, away from Simon as he slowly turned around, his eyes were soulless for thirty seconds until the life suddenly came back.

“I’m so sorry...I couldn't control it.” Simon spoke, his voice full of sorrow and regret.

“Its okay, I knew this was going to happen but I had to see you one last time,” Hedwig spoke, blood leaking from her mouth as she raised her hand to his cheek, her voice was soft and weak. The light returned to Hedwig’s arm as it flowed into Simon. Their voices went silent as a new voice chimed in from behind Twilight.

“It was that moment I tried to give Simon all my knowledge so that he may heal himself but it was too much for him and it shattered his mind.” As Hedwig's arm fell away there was a bright flash of light when it cleared Simon was standing several octahedrons of different colors surrounding him. Twilight turned around to find that she was no longer inside the cell, Standing before her was Hedwig.

“Hello Twilight.” Her voice was gentle with a soft smile.

“Hedwig?”

The human chuckled. “That is a name I haven't heard in a long time.” Twilight looked around, finding they were now in the middle of a massive library with bookshelves spanning out as far as she could see in all directions.

“Where are we?”

“We are in a dimension that is beyond time. Though, if you want a proper name, the others who have visited have come to call this place the Grand Library. It is a place that records all knowledge, past, present, and future.”

Twilight stared around at the books in awe. A library that contained all the knowledge in existence, she could find anything she wanted like Starswirl the Bearded lost research. Even as Twilight thought it the library seemed to move around her until in front of her was a bookcase filled with scrolls. Twilight eagerly reached to pick one up when she heard Hedwig clear her throat.

“I know this is difficult for you especially Twilight, but you must not let yourself wander, those who stay too long never leave. All those who come here, come seeking specific knowledge, and should only seek that knowledge alone. Thus I ask, what is it that you wish to know?” Twilight paused, shaking off her previous stupor, shocked she’d almost forgotten what was going on at her home.

“I need a way to help Simon.” As the words left Twilight the library immediately started to move around her until she left facing a new wall of books. Hedwig smiled as she started floating up into the air and grabbed one particular tome off a high up shelf.

“The knowledge you seek is in here.”

Twilight quickly levitated the book to her and opened it. Inside she found a great number of unknown runes, yet somehow she understood them all of them.

She had little time to question her sudden knowledge, as this information was tied to the Blitzkrieg and would disappear when she lost it. Inside the book was a magic formula that would separate the Zack personality from Simon allowing her to safely remove it. Twilight turned the page and was astonished as it continued on.

“How am I supposed to memorize this.”

“If this is truly the knowledge you seek then it will follow you when you leave.” Hedwig’s smile faltered. “However, I must warn you that you must do this alone, if Simon helps you in any way then the formula will not work.”

Twilight shut the book, having managed to look it over quickly, finding Hedwig holding out a pink octahedron to her.

“Please return this to Simon... I accidentally took it with me.” Twilight nodded and picked the crystal up, surprised to find it radiated some kind of warm sensation, almost as if it were alive.

“I also have a personal request. When you see Simon, tell him I have come to terms with what happened, and now it's his turn.” Twilight didn’t question Hedwig’s words and simply nodded, earning a smile from Hedwig.

“Then, I wish you luck Twilight Sparkle. Save Simon, I know you can do it.” Without another word, the Grand Library was consumed by a bright light that blinded Twilight for a moment, before she found herself back in Ponyville again. Pushing herself back up to a standing position, she found all of her friends surrounding her.

“Twilight!” She heard her friends exclaim.

Twilight looked to all of them. “How long was I gone for?” This got questionable looks from her friends.

“What do you mean gone?” Applejack asked.

“Yes Twilight, you put your hoof in that thing and then you fell forward a little bit,” Fluttershy added.

Twilight was confused for a moment, theorizing perhaps all she experienced was all just a strange hallucination, only for the formula to flash into her mind and she knew it was real.

“I need to go to Simon.” She looked over at Kat who hadn't moved at all. “Kat. I found a way to save him.”

Twilight didn't wait for a response, instead running in the direction that she could now feel strong magic flowing from. Oddly enough, despite the magic constantly moving and her running for what seemed like an hour, she felt no sense of fatigue or exhaustion in her legs.

When she had finally caught up to them it seemed as though the fight had ramped up quite a bit, with Simon now throwing magic at Rolf in a far greater magnitude than before with Rolf seeming keeping up with little trouble. However, Twilight knew this couldn’t go on and she would need to act fast.The problem was that with the speed that they were now moving it would be hard, one miss and Simon would know of her presence. Then she was hit by an idea.

“Rainbow Dash, there are times when she is moving so quickly she can hit someone before they even know she's there. Now if only I could move as fast as her”

As the idea formed in her head she could feel the Blitzkrieg react, gathering up at her shoulder joints before flowing from her body, forming two skeletal-like structures that made up the bones of a pair of wings. From there magic started to flow from it, forming into feathers.

By the time the process had ended Twilight had to guess she looked like an Alicorn, now with new silver and blue wings attached to her. Were the circumstances different, she’d likely be geeking out over this, both in the shapeshifting properties of the Blitzkrieg and...well her being an alicorn. However, that was for another time, hopefully.

Attempting to give her new appendages a try she thought of simply raising the wings up and they quickly responded. With a large stroke of her wings, Twilight shot up into the sky but it wasn't how she had pictured flying felt, it was more like she was shot out of Pinkie’s party cannon.

Thankfully, when Twilight wanted to stop the Blitzkrieg reacted bringing her to a hover. From her elevated point, she continued watching the fight below until she saw a moment that she could act. With only a thought she dropped, giving her wings another powerful stroke, increasing her speed even further.

For a moment Twilight was afraid that she was going to hit the ground at her current descent, however, her wings quickly responded turning up, allowing her to fly parallel to the ground. Not interested in thinking further about this, she approached the fight just as Simon had finished creating a set of runes. Closing the distance she clasped her hooves together as she collided with Simon, wrapping him in a hug before another bright flash blinded her.

Blinking her eyes and adjusting to the light Twilight once again found herself in a familiar white abyss. Looking around she remembered the dream she had on the train. Coming to the realization of where she was she took a calming breath and she focused her mind, softly calling out. “Simon”.

“So we meet again little unicorn.”

Twilight opened her eyes seeing the bound Simon. “We are inside your mind right now aren't we?” Simon wordlessly nodded, still lacking his tradition smile. “That makes you the true Simon.”

“More or less.”

Twilight looked off to the side where the all the glass tubes now stood, the one closest to her being the only one that contained a Simon.

“Then these must be your emotions.” Simon nodded again.

In a flash Twilight remembered something else, she held out her hoof as the pink octahedron came into existence.

“She told me to tell you that she has come to terms with what happened, now it's your turn.”

The bound Simon’s face filled with surprise as the crystal glowed brightly and floated over to one of the broken tubes. Once inside the tube seemed to repair itself and began to fill with a pink light that slowly revealed another Simon. Unlike his bound counterpart, This Simon seemed calmer, having a soft but knowing smile directed at Twilight. As the tube filled with light Twilight turned to the bound Simon as she did she felt a surge of strength when she placed her hoof down runes carved their way across the floor to him. When they touched his binds they broke, freeing him and allowing him to stand.

“You know the consequences of your actions right?” Twilight nodded but Simon didn't seem convinced. “Zack will fight you the entire time, if you weaken he will take the Blitzkrieg and kill you before turning his sights on everything else.”

“I know.” Twilight took a deep breath then stomped her hoof causing her runes to surround the pair before a cruel laugh was heard as Zack appeared, looking at the two with wicked glee.

Twilight, however, stood firm, stomping her hoof again, this time runes started forming on the ground near Zack, much finer in detailed that greatly slowed their formation, time Zack wasn’t going to give.

Without a word, Zack made his move, with a wave of his hand the Blitzkrieg stretched out from Twilight to him, connecting the two. The sudden pull sent a harsh pain through Twilight’s body, almost breaking her concentration and stopping the runes. Zack’s grin grew wider as the Blitzkrieg pulled hard, pulsing and sending sparks of red lighting from Zack to Twilight, a cry of pain echoing with each jolt, practically brining Twilight to her knees.

“Give up little pony, far greater than you have tried and failed.” Zack taunted her, yet even with each spark ripping through her body, the unicorn managed to stand, a resolute-looking etched across her as she continued. Sadly, for her strength and bravado, she could feel her mind slipping, barely holding onto consciousness as she tried to finish the spell, feeling the Blitzkrieg was nearly gone.

With one last push, she mustered up what strength she could and finished the last rune, knowing full well Zack would strike her but was happy that she could at least save Simon before her death.

Closing her eyes, she expected her end, only for none to come. Opening her eyes she saw the Blitzkrieg had formed a point mere centimeters away from her face but something had stopped it. There was something that had taken the brunt of the hit stopping it before it could reach her. Taking a couple steps back Twilight gasped when she recognized it as Simon.

“WHY?!” Twilight was about to ask that herself when another voice had spoken up. Twilight looked around Simon to see the form of Zack evaporating. Underneath was another Simon, this one looking angrily at them bleeding from the same spot where the attack had been intercepted.

“I couldn't let it happen again.”

“Not that!” the angry Simon yelled. “Why must you protect the reality that has taken everything from us.” The Blitzkrieg retracted allowing Simon to walk over to the angry version of himself.

“Hedwig gave us a message, she has made her peace and now she wants us to as well.” Simon then turned to Twilight. “It’s time for you to use that rune for the purpose that I gave it to you for.”

Twilight was surprised. “I can't, the magic didn't work, I was unable to separate you.” Simon laughed.

“When I gave you that rune I never expected you to know how to separate us let alone come so close to it.” His laughter though sad was enough to reassure her. With a wave of his hand, Simon sent the Blitzkrieg back to Twilight.

Twilight took a deep breath. “Erase”

With a single stamp of her hoof she engraved the one rune that had been ingrained in her from the moment that she first ingested the refined magic.

As the world around them started to fall apart Simon waved his hand, two octahedrons, one pink, one yellow, flew over to Twilight.

“Something tells me that these two will be happier with you.” Simon then placed his hand on the shoulder of his angry counterpart as the light slowly consumed the two. “Looks like we are going to finally get some well-deserved rest.”

Twilight woke up as she felt the two of them hit the ground. While the Blitzkrieg wings caught her, Twilight was forced to release her grasp on Simon's body, tears starting to form in her eyes as she watched it roll lifelessly across the ground. By the time he had stopped Simon’s form had returned to normal, he was also quickly losing color. Much to Twilight’s unease, Erma ran up to her.

“You did it Twilight, you stopped him.” Her voice was excited, seemingly not noticing what was happening to her father. Rolf though went straight to Simon, quickly looking over the body and his expression turned grim.

“Twilight, What the matter?” Erma finally noticing the tears rolling down her face, her heart sinking furtherer.

“I'm sorry, he asked me to do it.” Erma’s head shot up to look at her father, and she could already see the signs of his decay. Without a word, she bolted over to her uncle, his arms wrapped around her to comfort her as she cried out.

“I’m sorry Erma, but this is what he truly wanted.”

As Twilight's friends surrounded her wishing to comfort her having overheard what had been said..

Sadly, the quiet moment didn't last long as Twilight felt something though she was unsure as to what it was, only that it felt menacing and it was getting closer.
.
Managing to stand up, she looked in the direction the feeling was coming from. At first couldn't see anything, but the Blitzkrieg quickly picked up on this and magnified her vision. In the distance she spotted a group of humans approaching them, with a single one radiating a massive amount of dark magic and that was all she needed to know.

“The god? But why?” Her confusion was brief and quickly turned to anger as she knew the answer. “It must be Victor, here to finish things after their mission failed.”

Sadly, she couldn’t ruminate on this long as she needed to formulate a plan that would deter him from taking action. In her currently weakened state, she wouldn’t be able to stop him in a fight. However, with that thought, she had an idea.

“I don’t need to fight him, just have to intimidate him enough into leaving. Heh, should be easy.”

She turned back to her friends, all looking at her with mixtures of concern and worry.“Quick I need you all to hide.”

Though the group looked confused, even offended for some given all that happened, they reluctantly complied.

With the help of the Blitzkrieg Twilight formed the runes to hide everypony from sight, including Simon’s body. She quickly started working on the next and more crucial part of her plan. One important thing she’d learned from her interactions with humans was that her species was not something they considered to be intimidating and she would need to change that. As expected the Blitzkrieg immediately set to work changing her appearance to be more frightening, and it worked...perhaps even a little too well.

Her body became larger, almost to the same height as the humans, while her coat took on a dark gray color and her mane had become black, save for its now pink tips. Twilight’s horn lengthened and curved back slightly. In all, she looked quite monstrous and if Twilight looked in a mirror, she’d likely scream as loud as Fluttershy.

Taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself, if this was going to work she needed to be calm, she needed to be confident, they needed to have fun. Twilight had to stop and regain her composure, silently pondering where that thought came from. With another breath, she teleported a book from her home, only to then use the Blitzkrieg to give it a more sinister look.

Strangely, she didn’t question change and proceeded, getting into a proper position she noticed a necklace hanging with two charms hanging around her neck. She recognized them as the crystals that housed Simons emotions, though now they were no bigger than a pair of flies. However, she needed to push those thoughts aside as she had one last thing to prepare. With a quick flick of her head she laid out several traps around her in case they decided to attack instead of talk, though hopefully it wouldn’t come to that

Once Twilight believed that she was ready she levitated the book over to herself, flipping it open she was happy to see that in spite of the cover change, the inside of the book remained the same and was easily readable.

As the humans made their approach on Twilight’s location they quickly came to a stop once she came into view. Twilight watched them from the corner of her eye, trying to make it seem as though their presence gave her no warrant to worry. She waited until she heard the large human, she assumed had to be Victor, clear his throat.

“Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to understand me would you.”

Twilight casually lifted her head from the book, closing it with her magic in a way that made sure they saw what the cover looked like. “I do, is there something I can help you with?” She tried to make her annoyance as clear as possible, though Victor didn’t seem bothered..

“Yes, well I was hoping that you might be able to tell me if others like us have come through here.”

Twilight stopped for a moment like she was thinking before giving her reply

“Yes, there was a noisy group of you that came through a while ago. They spouted some nonsense of taking my world so I disposed of them.” Twilight watched as some of the humans began quietly whispering between each other. She hoped that Kat and the others saw that she was giving them an option to stay and be free from their world. As Twilight felt compassion towards her human friends in trying to free them she felt a sudden burst of power course through her but it also came with a problem as the pink charm on her necklace began to glow and Victor seemed to take notice of it as well.

Victor grinned at her. “Well, we can’t really do anything about that now. However, I do believe that you have something that belonged to one of them which means it belongs to me.” Victor held out his hand expectantly.

Twilight looked to him confused. “Excuse me.” She took this moment to try and examine Victor’s posture, looking to see if he was preparing to attack her. The magic that seemed to emanate from him was intense but there was something else. His power was being filtered into him, from some other source. That's when Twilight noticed that the source was a pouch hanging from his side.

Thus, Twilight had formed a plan. She looked down at the necklace on herself and then back to Victor. “Ah yes, these are some very interesting trinkets. So full of wonder and power.”

She smirked at Victor. Her horn lit up with magic as she teleported the satchel from his side to herself, letting the bag fall to the ground leaving four crystals hovering, leaving Victor momentarily stunned as he reflexively reached for his satchel, but found it was gone.

“I will be keeping these though, think of it as the price for disturbing me and getting to live.” As she moved the crystals to her necklace they seemed to attach themselves to it. Victor now angry, quickly snapped his fingers prompting the other human to come to attention.

“Get those crystals back.” He angrily said to them.

As the humans started moving towards her, Twilight moved to stand up as her first hoof came into contact with the ground, sending lines of runes out towards the humans, having been hidden through an illusionary shadow. As it reached the humans a shadowy hand came out, covering the lasso of runes now attaching to each of their ankles. In just a fraction of a second, all the humans were now being dragged around on the ground.

Sadly Victor seemed unphased by the predicament, instead deciding to lift his hand, forming ruins in the air before him. However, with the help of the Blitzkrieg, Twilight was able to figure out what the runes were and how to quickly counter them.

A bolt of lightning erupted from Victor’s runes, dead set on Twilight, but her own runes had changed the positive and negative charge of the ground off to her side, forcing the bolt to veer off course. Bringing his other hand up, e he let out a burst of fire that Twilight quickly shielded herself from.

Seeing his magic had been rendered ineffective, Victor quickly shifted to full frontal attack, charging at Twilight head on. Twilight however, easily teleported from his grasp in a single moment, slapped another rune upon the tyrant’s back, specifically the erase rune. Victor seemed stunned for moment, yet his body didn’t fade, instead the rune simply crumbled as he stood up and laughed at the now stunned Twilight.

“I see now.” Victor laughed. “I'm sorry but that little back door trick won't work on me. I guess the last ones you killed never mentioned that. Pity. ”

Victor charged again, only this time there were no runes to enhance his body or give away his plan. Thus with a single move, he tackled Twilight to the ground, with one hand on her throat and a knee on her barrel, all but paralyzing her. Twilight tried to teleport away but the moment she charged her horn Victor had punched her in the cheek causing her to lose focus.

“ I figured as much, seems that no matter the world, magic of any kind still needs some degree of intense concentration and without that you might as well be powerless.” Victor laughed triumphantly.

“Now, let me take what is mine.” Victor grabbed the necklace and ripped it from Twilight, callously tossing it off to the side. The moment the necklace was removed Twilight felt the loss of power and her form evaporated back to normal, breaking her hold on the other deities as well.

“Simon taught you well but he did not teach you everything.” He smirked, standing tall and holding the now much smaller Twilight up by her neck. “Now, tell me where he is?”

Even face to face with this manic tyrant, Twilight could help but become saddened by the thought of Simon.

“He...he’s dead.” She glanced over to where Simons corpse was now revealed after her loss of power. Victor followed her eyes after seeing the state his body was in he turned back to Twilight with anger burning in his eyes.

“You have no idea what you have cost me!” Victor roar in her face, almost looking ready to end her there, only to pause before smiling at her.

“Allow me to show you.” Victor raised his hand as if he was going to strike her again. “Simon was the only holder of the most powerful rune of all, none could use it as he could.” Victor stopped as if gathering himself. “Create.” He spoke the simple word and a rune appeared in his open hand before A knife materialized from nothing.

“With that power, he could’ve done any manner or things and now he’s gone. You’ve cost me thousands of years of planning and now you will pay with your life.” Victor quickly brought the knife down only to be stopped when he heard a familiar voice shout.

“Stop!” Both Victor and Twilight's eyes were drawn over to where Simon’s body was. However, the greater shock came when they found it, no longer a crumpled up corpse, but a living body. on its hands and knees, currently gagging as it tried to speak despite the blood leaking through its teeth.

“Just hang on for one fucking second.” Simon wiped the blood from his mouth as he tried to stand, his knees shaking weakly as he worked to steady himself..

“I hope everyone saw that because there will be no repeat performance, that shit hurt.” As Simon straightened his clothes and dusted off some of the dirt Victor seemed to be growing impatient with him as he threw the knife into the ground, whilst keeping a tight grip on Twilight’s throat.

“Simon, so nice to see you’re still alive. Tell me why should I spare this creature that dared to insult all of humanity by threatening me?”

Simon simply smiled as he always did. “Because I will give you the one thing that you want.” Simon held up his left arm and rolled up his sleeve, revealing two bands of revolving magic that Twilight hadn’t seen before. “My loyalty.”

Victor looked between Twilight and Simon a little before he grinned and threw Twilight aside. Twilight suddenly found herself surrounded by not only her friends but the humans as well. “No don't do it, father.” Erma had shouted.

“What is he doing?” Twilight watched as Simon ignored his daughter and placed a finger on his now bare arm as he did a new magic band started to form.

“He is using a powerful magic that will bind his will to his own promise as long as the other person hold up their end of the bargain. He’s essentially making himself Victor’s slave.” The group looked horrified at the notion, while Victor merely looked on, still impatient but much calmer than before.

“Well, isn’t this fortuitous for me. Tell me, what are the conditions of your oath.”

“I want this dimension and everypony here to be left alone, as in we leave this dimension right away and never come back. In return, I will become your loyal deity, no more switching.”

Victor seemed to think this over as he approached Simon. “You will follow my every command?”

“As long as it doesn't breach our contract.” Simon quickly answered.

“Deal.” Victor grinned at Simon as the two of them shook hands the band of magic on Simon’s arm filled with runes until it looked just like the other two.

Twilight approached Simon as Victor walked away with a whistle to gather his missing deities that she had scattered. “What are you doing?”

Simon smiled down to Twilight, who was surprised to see that both of his eyes were now blue. “Saving your life is the least I can do for the girl who made me whole again.” Simon reached into his pocket and pulled out a torn piece of string that Twilight recognized as the necklace that Victor had ripped off of her just missing the crystals. Simon leaned down and hugged Twilight as he did she could feel the Blitzkrieg leave her body. Several runes sprung out from Simon forming a large circle that surrounded all the living being in the nearby vicinity, as he waved his hand they spread outwards in all directions as far as Twilight could see.

Twilight gave him a questioning look to which he responded. “It might be best if the general population doesn't remember us, humans. Don't worry I'm not affecting you or your friends and I'm pretty sure that your princesses will be able to resist it.”

“Not, that I don’t find this little interaction adorable, we must go now, so come on Simon.”

Twilight looked over to where Victor was standing there was a familiar looking swirling vortex next to him. Twilight watched as Simon went to each of her friends, taking their translation headsets before he moved over next to Victor, watching as the humans he brought with him started to file through the vortex followed by Jack, Kat, and Rolf.

Erma stopped next to Twilight and whispered in her ear. “For what it's worth I think you would have made my father very happy.” She then continued on where Victor stopped her.

“Where are the other two?”

“Don't worry they are in my pocket space I will release them as soon as we are back.” Erma then walked through the portal followed by Victor then last was Simon. Twilight sat down watching as the vortex closed on its own.

“Are you going to be okay Twilight.” Twilight turned back to see her friends all of them sharing the same sober face. Twilight did her best to put on her best smile.

“I’ll be okay, I just need some time to myself right now. Let's head home Spike, I think I need some rest.” Twilight levitated Spike onto her back and started the silent walk home.

Back at the library Twilight put Spike down before heading to her room to lay down. As her head hit her pillow she noticed something on her nightstand that wasn't there before. Taking a closer look it was the headset that Simon had taken from her along with Hedwig's Diary and the piece of refined magic that Simon had given her.

Moving the headset and the magic out of the way she saw that the diary was opened to the magic lock that kept her from turning the last page. As she watched it shift away she had recognized the shape the lock just formed. Twilight quickly ingested the refined magic then turned her back to the diary.

“Erase.” She focused her magic as she placed the rune into the lock then watched as the magic dissolved. Twilight turned the page and was surprised by the simple passage she found.

Dear Twilight,

I’m not sure who you are but I have seen that you will play an important role in Simon's life. I also know that you have feelings for him and that by the time you read this he will be gone. I would simply like to offer you my deepest thanks, he means a lot to so many at this point.

Sincerely, Hedwig.

Epilogue *edited*

Epilogue *edited*

One hundred years later

“And then the humans Simon and Rolf put aside their differences to fight together and defeat the evil demon Victor.” Twilight closed the book silently, pleased with the ending. Of course, she wouldn't be too disappointed by it considering she wrote the book. It was almost everything that had happened when Simon had appeared all those years ago, though she had changed parts of the story to make it more foal friendly and made it a story about friendship. Nothing wrong with a little embellishment.

Twilight lifted her head to look out among the young children of different species sitting out listening to her read. Soon the children started to bombard her with questions but a ringing bell interrupted them. “Alright, everypony don't forget your stuff on the way out.”

As the children all gathered their things together Twilight waited by the entrance to the school room, waving goodbye to them as they left and chatting with parents as they waited. At one point Twilight heard a conversation between a colt and his mother.

“I really did see a human mom, they used the secret language that Princess Twilight taught us and everything.” the colt whined.

The mother smiled at her son. “I'm sure they did, but I'm sure Princess Twilight is a busy mare so let's not bother her with this.”

Twilight chuckled to herself as she approached them. “Hm, I seem to remember a certain filly who would come to me with a story about a magical tea party she would have with a human.” Both ponies whirled around, the mother blushing even as she bowed to the princess.

“Well, I guess you can say that my son got his imagination from me.” She spoke embarrassed.

“And I never would have thought to stifle yours nor will I stifle his.” Twilight leaned down to the small colt. “Go on, what did you and the human talk about?”

The young colt seemed shy for a moment but soon spoke up. “Well, it wasn't a long talk, they simply asked me about some place called The Golden Oaks Library. When I told them I'd never heard of it they thanked me and walked away.”

Twilight was shocked hearing somepony so young mention her old home. “Where did you see this human?”

The small colt smiled at the thought of the princess believing him. “It was at the edge of town near the Everfree Forest.”

Twilight thanked the colt before leaving, drawing a few curious looks her way as she headed back to her castle.

Making her way to the door, Twilight offered a quick greeting to Spike, her oldest friend.

The young dragon had grown so much in so little time, he no longer fit inside because of his size being that of a full grown Dragon now, but he didn't mind just lazing about outside.

Inside the castle, Twilight went straight to her room where she used her magic to open a secret compartment. Inside were several objects, each one a token from a friend that had passed on. Using her magic Twilight moved several objects aside until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out two objects, the first was an unassuming book, the second was an object that hasn't worked since its maker disappeared.

Twilight smiled putting on the headset for old times sake. She placed the book back into the compartment and moved over to the mirror to look at herself. Sighing to herself, removing the almost invisible clip from her ear, as she did the magic that changed her iris back to its original purple faded, changing it to a more blueish color.

Twilight smiled to herself in the mirror, she had changed so much since back then. Most notably, she had become an Alicorn and was now an official Princess of Equestria, with the stature to match Celestia’s. On top of that, she was also the principal of the School of Friendship which had been an official school from some time.

Twilight removed the headset placing back into the compartment and sealed it with magic. Moving away from the mirror she sighed knowing full well that there was little to no chance of Simon actually being back and that thought served to cause a sense of loneliness she’d been working to bury, to resurface.

Twilight flew in the direction of the Everfree Forest, memories of flying with the Blitzkrieg came back and how much easier it was because it did all the work for her. She was certain if Rainbow Dash was still here, she’d call her lazy for thinking such a thing.

Soon Twilight was in the clearing where Simon had first appeared, looking around there were no signs of any kind of disturbance. Twilight let out a disappointed breath she tried not to get her hopes, up chances were that the colt had heard about the library since it was no secret where Twilight lived before the castle.

Perhaps it was foolish to dwell on long gone memories, but she just wanted to see him again, she felt so alone sometimes. Her friends and family were sadly long gone, the victims of time’s cruel fate. True she had Spike and as a dragon, he would live for many centuries, but eventually, even he would pass, leaving her all but alone. Upon learning of her immortality, she’d long given up any hope of having a family or a lover. They’d simply grow old and pass on like her friends, and she couldn’t bear that kind of pain. Even with her students, it was only a temporary solution as no matter how close they would be, they too would grow and age, while she remained the same.

Dejected Twilight started slowly walking towards Ponyville. As Twilight had cleared the forest and was now moving through the clearing to town she was stopped by a voice.

“Excuse me miss, you wouldn't know of a town called Ponyville and where I might find it?”

Twilight stopped, more surprised by the fact she wasn't addressed as a princess than the fact they were asking about the town they were just outside of. Twilight put on her best princess face. “Oh yes, we are just outside of it. If you would like I could give you a personal tour of the Castle of Friend…” Twilight stopped mid-sentence as she finally turned around and looked at the tourist.

“Oh good, I finally found it.” The tourist chuckled.

Twilight was speechless standing in front of her was Simon.

Simon stopped, looking intently at her face. “You wouldn't happen to be a descendent of a pony named Twilight Sparkle, would you?”

Twilight was frozen, she had gotten so used to foals wanting to use the fun language that the princess taught them, that it hadn't even registered in her mind that they were speaking the human language. Simon waved a hand in front of her face trying to get her attention. It only took Twilight a moment longer to clear the shock from Simon's appearance.

“Simon!” Twilight shouted tears starting to blind her vision as she spread her wings out and made a full body lunge at him toppling both of them over. Simon seemed confused at first them gained a gentle smile before patting the top of her head.

Before Simon had the chance to say anything Twilight started rambling off questions. “How did you get here. How long have you been here? What happens with the oath and Victor?” Twilight was only silenced when Simon pressed his finger to her lips.

“All in good time, but first.” Simon removed a small object from his pocket. Twilight watched as Simon pressed a button on it and a vortex opened up next to them.

“You wanna see what's on the other side?”

Something else *Edited*

Author's Note

This is part of a story that has been stuck in my head for a while so I’m putting it up also I’m sure there are a bunch of grammar issues because I’m not the best at English grammar so please let me know if you find something

Something else *Edited*

There was a bright flash in the throne room as Twilight teleported in. "Celestia, I came as quickly as possible like you requested." she looked around for her mentor, referencing the letter that she had just gotten from Spike.

"Thank you for coming Twilight," Celestia spoke drawing the young pony’s attention up towards the throne where her teacher was descending the stairs. "Over the last few months, my sister and I have been detecting the opening of rifts due to magic from another world. At first, were just assumed these rifts were an accident of some kind and could be easily dealt with. However, we can no longer deny that something is opening these rifts intentionally." Twilight was taken back by this. She knew the princesses had a tough job, but defending them against other worlds was not something she expected. Celestia continued, "But, with each opening, it has been getting harder to close each one, and we are afraid that whatever it is will be able to accomplish its task soon".

Twilight looked up at her teacher. "But what is it trying to do?"

Celestia shook her head. "We do not know, but we do know that not all worlds are as peaceful as ours. That is why I asked you to come here, I wish for you to gather together your friends and head over to the Everfree Forest where the rift continues to try and open." Celestia's horn lit up causing a map of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest appeared next to them. There in the forest was a small white dot indicating where to go.

"But if you and Princess Luna can’t close the rift, how are we supposed to help?" Twilight questioned.

Celestia merely gave her a comforting smile. "My sister and I are confident the elements of Harmony might be able to close the rift before any damage can be done...hopefully sealing it for good".

Despite her mentor’s words, Twilight could only feign confidence, still unsure about the daunting task given to her. "Very well Princess Celestia. I will gather my friends and the Elements and we will do all we can to avert this crisis."

"Please hurry Twilight, Luna and I will do what we can from here to hold the rift back, but I don’t know for how long," Celestia warned before Twilight teleported away.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an Unknown world

A small man approached a figure sitting on a throne bowing before them. "Sir, the world of magic, its defense is weakening. Soon we will be able to send an operative through. Who would you like to be selected?"

The figured smiled down on his subject. "It has been a while since we sent Simon to another world, I believe he’s more than due for a chance."

The small man looked aghast at the figure. "B...but sir should the portal..."

"ENOUGH! Are you questioning my word." the figure shouted, causing the fearful man to recoil and almost enter a blind panic.

"Of course not sir. It shall be done immediately." with that the small man left the room.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Outskirts of the Everfree Forest

"So I understand why the princesses called us but I don't know why we needed to bring the elements, I'm sure we can take anything that might come from a small magic hole easy." Rainbow Dash took a couple jabs in the air trying to emphasize her point.

Twilight sighed at her friend's usual cocky demeanor. "I told you already, the princesses believe that the elements will be able to close the portal permanently and I’d rather we go for a more permanent solution on this," Twilight spoke as they all rushed off to the spot Celestia had shown her.

As soon as they arrived they could see a swirling vortex of gray that was surrounded by a glow of yellow and blue, which Twilight presumed was her teachers magic.

"Alright, girls take your spot," Twilight looked to everypony as she readied themselves to use the elements the girls took a half circle positions around it. However, before they could do anything, someone poked through.

"Quick hide!" The group quickly disappeared behind the trees, peering slowly to get a glimpse at whatever was coming through the portal.

To their growing surprise, the thing in question was a black mass, silently wiggling as it popped the rest of the way through, flying forward a couple of feet where it stayed, it’s body some kind of black mass only slightly larger than a pony, topped by what Twilight could only assume was its head, which was all white save the black and red markings that made out a face. Soon a second one and then a third appeared, landing on either side of the first. Then the fourth one came through, this one though landing right in front of the vortex. It stood up, revealing itself to be much taller and slimmer than the others. The odd creature turned towards the vortex and started making noises, almost as if it was talking to the portal.

Whatever it was Twilight could see that it was intelligent and debated attempting some form of communication. However, she was startled out of her thoughts by Pinkie Pie suddenly appearing next to her. "Psst, Twilight I got a good feeling about this, I think we could make a new friend." She whispered while Twilight tried desperately not to scream at the sudden surprise.

"Wait, Pinkie no," Twilight whispered back but it was too late as the puffy, pink, party pony started approaching the four figures.

"Hi, new friend I'm Pinkie Pie." As she spoke the fourth figure turned around to face her, while the remaining three stood up very suddenly, causing Pinkie to stop in her tracks. They all looked the same except for their faces, each made out to look like a different animal. The rest of the girls jumped out from their hiding places to back up Pinkie. The three followed a similar tactic, spreading themselves out as if protecting the fourth.

"What do you want? Why have you come here?" Twilight shouted at them. The one in the back cocked its head to the side before making some noises of its own.

"Okay girls, I'm going to try and push these things back through the portal then we will need to act fast to close it," Twilight spoke to her friends.

"Uh, Twilight, are you sure it's a good idea to say our plan out loud like that?" Applejack asked feeling nervous about their current situation.

"It's okay AJ, I don't think those things can understand us. Just be ready for anything." Twilight said reassuringly to the others.

Twilight's horn began to glow for a few moments as she built up power before releasing a blast, intending to knock the one closest to the vortex back in. As the magic force was released from her horn the figure in the middle moved in front of the blast, taking it in full force, resulting in a large explosion. When the smoke cleared a little of the black mass was gone, revealing what appeared to be an arm and a hand similar to what a minotaur had, with a light blue, almost transparent vortex in front of it. Otherwise however, to her and the others shock, the creature was unharmed.

Before Twilight could charge up another spell, there was a rainbow blur and Twilight was off her hooves a few feet to the side. When she regained her senses and looked around, finding Rainbow Dash hovering where she had just been standing while the two remaining creatures were standing protectively in front of the fourth. Another glance revealed something shiny impaled in the ground where she had been standing, likely a weapon of some kind.

"Careful Twilight, whoever these guys are, they move really quick," Dash said before helping Twilight up. The two with the weapons moved back joining the one with the revealed arm.

"Girls, as much as I hate roughhousing, I don't think these, individuals, are going to leave peacefully." Rarity spoke.

The three strangers prove the posh pony right as they moved as one, rushing forward towards Pinkie Pie as she sat there, slightly stunned that her warm welcome was not returned. Twilight quickly shielded her, placing a protective bubble around her before the weapons landed.

"Listen Pinkie I know it's hard but now not the time." Twilight quickly used her magic to push Pinkie back, bringing her closer to her friends.

The three figures retreated again back to their original position, which The girls took as their chance to push back, with Twilight launching off another attack. Like before, it was intercepted by one of the creatures, but thankfully AJ and Rainbow had a follow-up. Aj had managed to wrap her rope around one of the creatures while Rainbow had sped in, knocking over the creature and taking some of the black mass with her, revealing that the weapon had taken place of its hand. Rainbow realized immediately that the black mass was actually some kind of fabric.

"Girls these things are just wearing weird clothing," Rainbow Dash shouted as she spat the fabric out before flying off, avoiding a swing from the remaining creature’s weapon. Sadly, this has the effect of the weapon it had cutting the rope that was tying the other down.

While the fighting was happening Fluttershy was in a nearby tree watching, yet unable to figure out how she could help her friends.. The figure that got knocked over stood back up before the three regrouped together again. It was then that Fluttershy had noticed something that might help but she had to get this information to Twilight. As the fighting continued like this Fluttershy took the moment to slide down the tree and move over to where Twilight was focusing on shielding her friends from the attacks coming at them while Rarity took over throwing blasts at them.

"Twilight those things, they move strangely," Twilight only glanced at Fluttershy for a moment before returning her concentration back to the fight.

"What are you talking about?" she questioned.

Fluttershy continued, "Well, um, they seem to either move as a group or one at a time." Twilight's eyes widened as she watched realizing that she was right. Suddenly her horn glowed and Twilight had teleported all six of them some distance away.

"Hey, we almost had them" shouted Rainbow Dash as she noticed their sudden shift in location. Rarity looked tired, not used to having used her magic in that way and AJ had a new hole in her hat from a close call. Twilight teleported in a quill and parchment and started writing.

"Listen, girls, I have a plan but I need all of us to get it to work." All the girls looked to Twilight including Pinkie Pie, having managed to snap out of her shock by the sudden teleportation.

"I think that those three figures are being controlled by the one in the back." Twilight paused "Fluttershy I want you to take this and, should anything happen to us, give it to Spike and have him deliver it to the princesses right away." She quickly rolled up the parchment before passing it on to Fluttershy.

"Now Rarity, you and I are going to continue to attack with magic from two different angles, both directed at the one in the back. Hopefully, we should be able to lock down two of those puppets while AJ and Rainbow incapacitate the other. Once that’s done Pinkie is going to attack the side, hopefully knocking the main one down to where we can then use the elements to close the portal." Everypony nodded in agreement, now more confident that they had an actual plan ready.

Back at the vortex, the group moved silently closer, noting the strangers had returned to their original position of facing the portal, now adjusting some strange objects around it. Quickly getting into their agreed positions, Rarity quickly struck with a powerful blast directed at the figure near the portal. As expected the puppet in the middle moved quickly, blocking all the shots before the puppet on the right followed up with an attack with its weapon. Twilight acted quickly, placing the attacker inside a bubble, halting its movement entirely. That only left one puppet, to which Rainbow Dash rushed at its side causing it to spin to avoid contact, only for it to find itself bound in a rope, courtesy of Applejack, who quickly tackled it to the ground and finished binding it up.

The last figure, now alone, showed a change in its body language, nervously taking a step back, as if preparing to flee into the portal. However, it’s body started to stumble when it found itself assaulted by party supplies, followed by a loud voice suddenly ringing out as Pinkie charged in full speed.

"YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND," She screamed as she headbutted the creature square in the forehead, sending it on it’s back and rendering it motionless.

"Now girls," Twilight yelled they all gathered around, quickly charging the elements before letting off the signature rainbow blast, causing the vortex to quickly shrink before it faded away into nothingness.

Once the portal was gone, the girls and their elements stopped glowing, allowing them a chance to breathe and smile at their handy work.

Sadly, their moment of victory came with one hiccup.

“So, Twilight, what are we supposed to do with this fella? We can’t just leave him.” Applejack asked as the girls gazes turned to the still unconscious stranger. However, before Twilight or any pony could respond, a loud cracking sound silenced them, finding the source to be being itself.

"Oh no." was the only words that Pinkie spoke as they all watched as its face cracked apart, starting at the point where Pinkie had headbutted it. Fluttershy was quick to rush to the creature’s side, concern etched all over her face as she gave it a look over. However, after a moment, her concern was replaced with relief once something was made clear to her.

"I think it will be okay girls." Fluttershy quietly used her wing to wipe at its now cracked face, causing pieces to fall to the ground, revealing a face unlike any creature they had seen before. It was very flat with no visible marks save for one large red mark from where it had been struck.

"What about the others?" Twilight asked. Applejack moved to the one she had tied up using her hoof to remove its mask.

"Uh, Twilight, either these things are a whole different species altogether or they were never alive to begin with.” Twilight trotted over to Applejack and found, to her surprise, the other creatures lacked any features at all underneath their masks, just a single blank face.

"Well I think we need to move them away from here, judging from how they moved I believe that they are controlled by sight.”

She turned her attention to the still unconscious main creature. “As for this one, we'll take it to Celestia and she can decide what to do with it." As Twilight quickly sealed the creature in a protection bubble the others moved the puppets.

"My goodness, would you just look at this" Rarity spoke up all the girls quickly swiveled their heads towards her. "These things are basically dressed in giant garbage bags, how utterly wretched.” The fashion pony started gagging and attempting to cover her mouth, almost as if she was ready to vomit.

Applejack just rolled her eyes. "Ah think we can discuss this creatures choices in clothing later Rarity, for now, let's just move these things."

The girls quickly placed the puppets behind a group of trees nearby, only for Fluttershy’s attention to change for a moment and notice something. "Uhh, girls, I think it’s waking up."

Twilight was quick to return to the creature, with the others following suit while Rainbow remained with the puppets. "I'll stay back here, just in case these things start moving again," she said.

The creature groaned lightly, its hand moving to its forehead as it sat up and tried to regain it’s bearings, only to find itself trapped within Twilight’s bubble. As it slowly became aware of its situation, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a nagging sensation in the back of her mind, like she’d seen this creature somewhere before. When it had looked towards where the girls were it did something she wasn't expecting... It smiled and waved at them.

Taken back slightly, Applejack was the first to speak up, "Um, girls, are any of the rest of you getting the feeling like you know it from somewhere." Twilight's eyes went wide as she looked around at all the girls nodding.

Thinking quickly her horn started to glow. “I’m gonna put up an anti-magic shield, if this creature is influencing us with some kind of spell, this should short it out.” A lavender colored shield quickly encircled the girls, and suddenly the feeling of familiarity vanished.

“What was that,” Fluttershy asked looking to Twilight since she was the one to have the answer. All the while the creature was silently pacing around it’s cell, running it’s hand along the shield.

“I think that was some sort of defense mechanism, just think, if this thing is supposed to infiltrate new worlds then a sense of familiarity would help to stop it from drawing attention to itself.” Twilight guessed. The creature suddenly made a wide sweep motion with its hand.

"Uh, something's happening over here," Rainbow shouted out. The girls all turned their head to where Rainbow was. Black spots had appeared on the ground underneath the puppets and they were slowly sinking into it until they were completely gone. Rainbow Dash quickly flew over inside of Twilight's bubble. When the girls turned back to the creature, it was no longer in the bubble.

"Over there," Pinkie shouted the girls all looked where Pinkie was pointing, the creature was over where it had originally appeared from the vortex and then, it did something none of the girls expected... It started laughing.

The creature turned towards the girls a big smile on its face and started walking towards them. Twilight quickly put up a bubble of protection around them all but it didn't stop. Once it had reached their bubble it reached out to touch it but right before contact was made its hand disappeared into a black spot where it began digging around.

"What is it doing?" Fluttershy asked but before anyone could answer it suddenly pulled its hand back out, revealing a couple small black rectangles with what looked like a clip on the side.

It affixed one to what Twilight could only assume was its ear before taking the second one and placing it on the ground near them and backing off. "Oh my gosh, I think it really does want to be friends" piped up Pinkie.

"Hang on there Pinkie, this could be a trap." Twilight interjected as she wrapped the object in her magic and brought it to her. Wordlessly, she started putting the object on her ear just like she saw the creature do, but once in place, all she could hear was a beeping sound.

"Well Twilight, what is it doing," Rarity asked. As she spoke the thing continued with another soft beep.

"Yeah, don’t keep us in suspense here sugarcube," added Applejack.

"Hang on girls, it’s making some sort of noise." Twilight silencing them, as they all stood there in silence nothing at all happened. "Wait, now there’s no sound at all." As Twilight spoke another soft beep came through, confusing Twilight further as she did her best to try and connect the dots.

"Wait girls, I think this thing is trying to translate our language." Twilight looked back at the creature, finding it was just sitting on the ground rubbing the red spot on its head. “I think we just need to keep talking and hopefully we’ll be able to communicate with it.”

"Are you sure that's such a good idea egghead, I mean, we did just beat the thing up. Might not be in the best mood to talk," Rainbow voiced her opinion. The girls continued to discuss whether or not this was a good idea but the object made a new noise suddenly there was a monotone, masculine voice in her ear.

"Translation complete." Twilight stared up at the creature as it stood up stretched out after staying sitting this entire time. Sometime while they were talking it had removed the black cloth covering its body, revealing it still had clothing covering its entire body, but now it was two distinct pieces. The creature again started waving, trying to get her attention and it started moving its mouth, resulting in a new voice in her ear.

"Hello, my name is Simon. Also, I'm sorry about earlier." Twilight’s eyes went wide as she stared in disbelief. The voice in question was different than the first and not only was this thing suddenly using their language but it was also apologizing for attacking them.

"Hello, Equestria to egghead, we were just talking about how we think we should destroy that box thing when you spaced out on us," Rainbow said to Twilight while she was waving a hoof in front of her. Twilight shook her head snapping herself out of.

"It..it just spoke." Twilight said slightly stunned.

"What!?" All the girls said in unison.

"It just spoke to me," Twilight said just as stunned.

"Well, what did it say darling?" Rarity asked.

"Was it a threat?" asked Rainbow.

"What did it sound like," asked Fluttershy.

"Hold on girls." said Twilight still trying to process all this information. "It told me its name is Simon but it also said that it was sorry for attacking us."

"Well, of course, it's sorry for attacking us, it lost." Rainbow interrupted, a hint of pride obvious in her voice.

Twilight ignored her comment instead she walked towards the front of the protection. "I want you girls to wait here, I'm going to try talking to it."

"Na-uh sugarcube, if you're going then so are we." Applejack said as she stepped up next to Twilight.

Twilight smiled. "I understand wanting to help but I'm afraid that if we all approach at once it might think we are going to attack again." Her friends saw little point in arguing as Twilight dropped the shield and moved towards Simon. Once she had covered half the distance between the girls and Simon she stopped. Now up close she could see Simon’s features better, with it having a short but spiky mane that was colored to look like actual fire while its eyes were two different colors, it's left being blue and it's right being red. She was about to ask if this creature was able to understand her when the answer came from the device.

Simon started to speak, with the translation coming through a half second later. "You know, your friends could have come up too." Simon sat back down so that he was just about eye level with Twilight. Twilight figured if this thing was translating for it then maybe it was doing the opposite for them. "Also you can tell them that I was not making any kind of threat, technically you all attacked first and you can tell them that I sound dreamy, Egghead." Simon wiggled his eyebrows then started laughing at his own joke. Twilight was confused before she remembered that Rainbow Dash called her egghead after it had done its job.

"What?" Twilight started to question before she realized what it was referring to the question that her friends asked and had to face hoof. She had only just started communicating with this thing and she already wanted it to be over with. Twilight waved back at her friends for them to all join them. The rest of the girls joined them at their own pace with Fluttershy nervously trailing behind. They all watched him nervously but Simon stayed sitting on the ground with a smile on his face.

Simon spoke and Twilight heard the voice again. "So, now that we’re all here I can only assume you have some questions for me. So, what would you like to know?" The rest of the girls all gave confused looks to Twilight.

"It said, so what...Wait, am I going to have to translate for you the entire time." Twilight shot a slightly annoyed look at the creature. Simon thought about this for a second then shook its head reaching out to the side its hand disappeared into the black spot again. It rummaged around for a bit before pulling at a different, small black box. This one was more recognizable because it looked similar to the speakers used at some concerts. Simon then proceeded to remove the object from his ear and placed it near the box. He then held out his hand towards Twilight. She was confused for a second before he pointed at the object he just removed from his own ear. Twilight grabbed the object with her magic from her ear and placed it in his hand. Simon took it placing it near the speaker he grabbed some strings that were attached to the speaker and attached each one of the objects.

Simon spoke again this time half a second later a voice came out of the box. "There is this better." Simon looked at Twilight.

"Yes, much better." Half a second after Twilight started speaking she heard her own voice but it was speaking this creature's language. This unnerved her a little but she put it aside. "Why are you here." she asked.

"Because I was told to come here," He answered simply. Twilight face hoofed again.

"Look we need you to come with us we wish to take you to our princesses where you can explain everything," Twilight said with a sigh.

Simon shrugged "Sure."

Learning *Edited*

Learning *Edited*

The morning after the reveal of his secret dimension proved to be surprisingly calm and normal. All of the girls eventually made their way back to their homes, having their own responsibility to take care of on top of getting ready for Celestia's official introduction of Simon to the rest of the town.

Once the library was mostly empty, Twilight thought that this might be the best time to ask Simon about the photo that she had found in his workspace. “I'll be right back I gotta run up to my room for something” Twilight got up from the table and headed for the stairs while Spike and Simon continued conversing. It turned out that they had a common love for comic books and had quickly gotten into a complex conversation regarding the different comics of their respective worlds. Twilight had gone to her room where she retrieved the photo from the stand next to her bed. As she looked at the people in the image, she felt a sense of hesitation creep in. There would obviously be some difficulty in talking with Simon about loved ones he likely never see again and there was even the possibility it could damage the trust they’d built up. Yet, Twilight’s thirst for knowledge easily overwhelmed any potential guilt she felt, as she made her way back downstairs. Coming back down the stairs to the table where Simon and Spike were, Twilight levitated the picture over to Simon. “So Simon, can you tell me who the other two people in this picture are.”

“Hmm.” Simon lifted his eyes to Twilight, reaching out, he grabbed the photo and brought it closer to his face. “Where did you find this photo?”

“Oh, um, when we were in your workspace it fell out of one of those books you have. I wanted to ask you about it at the time but you seemed busy so I kept it to ask you about it later. I hope you don't mind.” Twilight blushed a little in embarrassment

“Hey, don’t worry about it, I don't mind.” Simon smiled to Twilight’s relief. “It's just a photo of me and a couple friends while we were roughhousing.”

Simon set the picture face up on the table and slid it across to where it landed between Twilight and Spike. Once Twilight got a good look at the photo she noticed it had changed, now it was different, showing Simon laughing and sitting on top of another human. It was hard to tell the features of the other human, save for the short dark mane while the other human sitting on its knees behind Simon with his arm wrapped around his neck had a long red mane.

Twilight looked up at Simon confused. “Wait, this isn't the…” Twilight started to say but got interrupted by Simon.

“Isn’t it time that we go the meeting place for the announcements,” Simon asked, clearly diverting attention away from the photo.

Twilight's head snapped to the clock, the topic of the conversation completely forgotten. “You’re right, we need to get going.” Twilight stood up, quickly leading the Simon out the door of the library while Spike stayed behind. At Ponyville town square, a stage was set up with every pony gathering around to hear Princess Celestia's announcement.

At the moment, Simon, Twilight, and Celestia were inside City Hall, doing what they could to keep Simon out of sight for as long as possible. All that was left was to proceed with the event as a whole.

Celestia turned her gaze to Simon, who looked otherwise unaffected by the current situation. While part of his calm demeanor did concern her, she put that out of her mind for the moment, knowing that she needed to present the situation in a calm manner, lest she start a potential panic.

“I trust you are ready for this Simon. In a few moments, everypony’s eyes will be on you.”

Simon simply continued to smile, looking out at the crowd through one of the windows. “Trust me, your highness, I’m more than ready for whatever comes next.”

Nodding, Celestia made her way out onto the stage, a quick glance to acknowledge her sister on the side before reaching the edge of the state.

“Good day my little ponies” Celestia’s voice, amplified through magic, easily reached the ears of every pony in attendance. “I am sorry for the short notice for this meeting, however, circumstances required so, and thus I trust that you will indulge me with a few moments of your time.”

Most of the ponies in attendance showed little concern over the matter. Though obviously, they were slightly curious. As some of you may have noticed yesterday, Twilight and her friends were escorting a minotaur through town. Well, I have come here to say that it was no Minotaur.” She paused giving time for that to sink in. “In truth, It was another creature, one that due to unforeseen circumstances is currently displaced her in Equestria. His name is Simon and we would now like to bring him out so he may answer a few questions. I imagine some of you may be surprised by his appearance, but please try to restrain yourselves until he begins taking questions..”

Luna and Celestia both lit up their horn’s pulling apart some curtains revealing nothing. Several of the ponies on stage quickly moved through the curtain calling out for Simon leaving only Luna, Celestia, Twilight, and a few guards standing on stage, awkwardly looking back at the crowd.

“It appears that our guest has gotten his times confused. Though I can assure everypony it will only be a moment longer.” Celestia tried to reassure the ponies but her response was met with a few nervous chuckles and murmuring out in the crowd. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were in the midst of searching the town hall in case he got lost while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took to the air. All the while, Applejack searched the ground around the town hall in case he wandered off.

It was about five minutes later when Dash yelled out, “I found him.” She was pointing down at a spot towards the back of the crowd. Twilight looked out, trying to see, and sure enough there he was sitting among the crowd, though only the ponies sitting near him had seemed to notice his presence.

“Simon what are you doing out there,” Twilight shouted to him standing on the end of the stage.

“I didn't want to miss the important announcement,” Simon spoke but had turned the volume up on his speaker so that she would hear it. This caused a few of the ponies in the crowd to laugh, including both princesses. All the shouting had drawn the rest of the girls back to the stage. Twilight face hoofed at the comment, debating whether Simon was simply trying to be funny or if he was truly that oblivious.

“You are the important announcement, now will you please get up here.” Twilight stomped her hoof for emphasis. Simon, seeing little point in arguing, stood up, allowing all the ponies in the crowd to get a good first look at the alien creature. Many of those were stricken mute by the surprising site, some simply choosing to remain silent while others couldn’t find the words. As Simon made his way to the stage he offered friendly waves towards ponies that he passed by. Arriving at the stage he hopped up, allowing Twilight to whisper to him. “Now remember, we don't want to make anypony afraid, so please refrain from mentioning anything about the possible hostility that your world has.”

“Okie Dokie” Simon spoke quickly, giving her a thumbs up.

Celestia cleared her throat. “It would appear our guest is here now while we may not have as long as we originally hoped for questions we can take a few before we end this meeting.” Among the crowd, a few ponies stood up that wanted their questions, with the first being a brown pony with an hourglass cutie mark.

“Time Turner you may go ahead.”

“Splendid,” the stallion said with a noticeable accent.“I find myself very curious, what sort of technology do you have back in your world”

“Well to be quite frank, it’s miles ahead of yours,” Simon said, though seemed to regret his words once he saw that some ponies seemed almost offended by the implication. “That's not to say that you ponies are primitive or anything, it's just that magic isn't quite abundant where I come from and we had to compensate by focusing more on more advancing our tech in order to live more comfortably.”

“Fascinating, perhaps you could give me a glimpse of some of your words science when you get the opportunity. I would relish the chance.”

His question answered Time Turner took his seat, allowing Celestia to pick the next pony, this time a mint colored mare with a harp cutie mark. Twilight immediately recognized the mare and was about to object, fearing that her outgoing personality might lead her to ask something that the young foals shouldn't hear.

“Do you have something special you look for in a friend and if ponies want to be your friend where could they find you,” Lyra asked smiling hopefully.

Simon smiled recognizing this pony as the one that was flirting with him the previous day. “Well, for now, I will be staying with Twilight and her friends until a proper residence can be acquired for my tall stature.” Simon motioned his hand towards Twilight. “As for becoming my friend, I suppose it's just as you would make friends with your own kind.” Twilight let out a sigh of relief, while Lyra sat back down, giving a hoof bump to the mare sitting next to her.

Looking out into the crowd Celestia gave a little giggle as she saw three fillings clambering over each other, trying desperately to get their hooves higher into the air in order to be noticed. “Yes, the three fillies.” The crowd around them made some space, allowing them to be better seen. Looking over, Twilight of course, was able to immediately recognize the three as the Cutie Mark Crusaders and actually found herself curious as to their questions.

“How long are you staying for.”

“Isn't their anypony that's going to miss you while you're here.”

“Why Are you wearing clothing.” The three questions all came at the same time, though Applebloom and Sweetie Belle quickly shifted their looks to Scootaloo for her rather surprising comment.

“Scootaloo you can't just ask why he’s wearing clothing,” Applebloom said giving her a small push.

“Well why not I’m curious.” Scootaloo gave her a small push back.

“Because it's rude that's why.” Sweetie Belle answered this time.

Simon cleared his throat gaining the attention of the three. “No need to fight, it’s a perfectly valid question. As to why, you see I wear these clothes because I do not have fur to protect my skin from the elements, so I, along with others of my kind wear these as a form a protection.” Simon gestured to his clothing. “As for how long I plan to be here, we are unsure at this time. As to the last question, I’m sure that some people will miss me while others will probably be happy about the vacation from having to deal with me. So it evens out I guess.”

Celestial looked around the crowd one more time. “Alright, we have enough time for one more question.” Immediately, she spotted a spastically waving hoof in the back. “Yes you in the back,” she pointed at them.

Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped out from the crowd. “Do you enjoy parties?” Her eyes almost seemed to stretch from her sockets as she awaited his answer, a wide smile on her face.

Simon smiled out to the crowd. “I can safely say that I do love parties.”

For anypony in Ponyville, they were not surprised when Pinkie immediately gave a loud cheer before she took off running.

Twilight approached Simon, taking a passing glance at the pink smoke trail left behind by her friend. “You’re probably gonna regret telling her that.”

Simon only chuckled. “Maybe, but I’m not worried. I do enjoy a good party and your pink friend seems like a lot of fun.”

The duo quickly made their way off the stage, followed by a pair of guards while Luna took her sister’s place at the front of the stage.

“With that, I would like to end this meeting. We thank all of you for being so patient and understanding regarding this situation. Any further questions you may ask either Simon or Twilight at the library. However, we do ask that you remain polite and cordial. Thank you.” Luna quietly made her way off the stage as the crowd dispersed.

Twilight and Simon meanwhile made their way back to the library, the rest of the girls had already left to their own homes as they had their own matters to attend to. Spike was waiting for them to return and opened the door to greet them. “So, how did it go?” he asked Twilight as she entered.

“Everything started out great, at least until Princess Celestia tried to introduce Simon and he suddenly disappeared.” Twilight sighed remembering that moment.

“He disappeared? Were you able to find him, where’d he even go?” Spike asked rapidly, almost developing into a full-on ramble.

“Relax Spike, we found him pretty quickly. Turns out it was a simple miscommunication, even if it did cause a little trouble at the time.” Twilight waved a hoof behind her as Simon came, ducking in through the door, allowing Spike to take a calming breath. Twilight went to her table and promptly, laid her head down, already feeling exhausted after this morning's events.

“So what is next on the list of things to do.” Simon asked as he took a seat next to Twilight. Spike shrugged and went back to his work around the library.

Twilight looked up at him without lifting her head. “Well, other than keeping you here and out of trouble I’m supposed to be studying your familiarity magic. Though I’m currently at a loss of how to do that since it doesn't affect anyone that has been introduced to you.”

“Well I’m sure, not everypony in town was there, why don't we just ask some of those ponies to come over where you can study them.”

Twilight head lifted completely off the table, exhaustion replaced with the feeling of smacking herself for not thinking of such an obvious solution. However, before she could start jumping for joy, another thought occurred. “That’s a sound idea I suppose, though I don’t know how comfortable I am using other ponies to test unknown magic on.”

Simon looked almost puzzled at her comment. “I understand what you’re saying Twilight, but you remember how science works right? Once you have a problem you want to work out, you need to perform an experiment to test our your hypothesis.”

Twilight stared wide-eyed at Simon, surprised by his statement. “Wait, you mean you are a scientist.”

Simon held his head up, beaming with a small degree of pride. “Oh yes, I've always been into all the science's since I was a kid and not to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty good at it.”

“Me too,” Twilight laughed suddenly filled with more energy she stood up with her front hooves on the table to be more eye level with Simon. “The others use to call me bookworm and egghead all the time. Rainbow Dash still does.” The last part she muttered under her breath, though Simon was still able to easily make it out.

Simon laughed, mostly at the former part. “Oh, I completely understand that, bullies used to laugh at me all the time, though I hardly let that stop me.”

Suddenly the pair found themselves engaging in a long and very informative conversation, going over shared experiences as well as random little events of their lives and it carried on for far longer than even had anticipated.

“You know, you're not as annoying as you seemed at first.” Twilight quickly placed her hooves over her mouth. “Oh, I didn't mean it that way.” She quickly said, now feeling ashamed of her rather callous remark.

Simon however, simply laughed it off. “Trust me, once you get to really know me you'll find that I am much more annoying than before.” His face then quickly lite up into an even larger smile.“Oh, you wanna see something really fun.”

A little hesitant after his previous comment, Twilight nodded her approval. Simon reached out towards Twilight and at first, she assumed that he was just going to pull something out of his fourth-dimensional space again, but no black spot appeared. Instead, she felt Simon's hand brush against her ear. As his fingers wrapped around her ear holding it still they sent pleasant feelings through her body making her understand why Pinkie was so insistent about having her head in his lap during the train ride. Twilight felt some pressure before she heard a couple of clicks through the translation device that she was wearing then there was another voice.

“Hello, Simon what would you like of me.” Twilight looked around confused trying to find the source of the new voice. Twilight opened her mouth to ask Simon where this other person was but he shushed her before any words came out.

“Hello Ace, please execute admin command add user security level three.” Simon was looking straight forward behind Twilight causing her to turn her head around finding nothing there she looked back to Simon.

“Commencing scan please hold still.” The ground around Twilight lit up as a blue disk appeared on the floor surrounding her. As it slowly rose from the ground the light from the disk covered her until the device was completely above her before it came back down to the ground. Once it touched the ground it disappeared. “Scan completed, new user please speak your name.”

“Uh… Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight said still confused as to what was going on.

“Registration complete.” Twilight looked around starting to get frustrated at not knowing what was happening.

“Okay, I’m normally a pretty patient pony, but I’d prefer to not be kept in the dark. Who is this other voice.” Twilight voiced her annoyance at Simon

Simon merely grinned at the purple pony’s plight. “That other voice is Ace, an artificial intelligence or A.I. that I created and have now given you access to.”

“Artificial Intelligence?” Twilight put a noticeable amount of emphasis on the world artificial as she spoke.

“Yes, Ace is a collection of programs which enable it to perform a great number of functions, even enabling it to make some decisions for itself.” Simon explained, though Twilight still appeared confused.

“What's a program?”

Simon stopped to think about it. “I guess you could say a program is a written language that machines from my world use to make decisions.” Twilight nodded only partially understanding the situation.

“Okay, so how do I use it?” Twilight asked, still wondering what even she was supposed to be using.

Simon removed the device from the side of his head bringing it close enough for Twilight to see but stayed in range so the device could continue translating, bringing his face uncomfortably close to her’s. “What you do is you press this button on the side twice then you just make a request of Ace. If the request is within its capabilities, it should comply with it.” Simon pointed to a small outward indentation in the middle of the translator. However, before either of them could move the door suddenly burst open with an explosion of pink.

“Surprise.” Pinkie Pie loudly proclaimed, bursting through the door, only to immediately silence herself as the sight of Twilight and Simon's face so close together. The party pony had to bite her lip to stifle her laughter. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn't know I was interrupting. It’s okay, I’ll just come back later.” Pinkie started slowly backing out only for Twilight to quickly pull her back with her magic, while pushing Simon away.

“Pinkie, it's not what it looks like, Simon was just showing me how another one of his devices worked.” Twilight spoke, seemingly maintaining her composure, though a quick glance showed her blushing. Simon meanwhile was laying flat on the floor where Twilight had pushed him

“Geez Twilight, I didn't know you were so forward,” Simon said laughing, fully taking advantage of the situation.

Twilight blushed more, her composure starting to falter. “Don't you start too.” she shouted only causing more laughter from Simon and Pinkie.

“Whoa, Twilight calm down, I was just teasing you. But I bet you know why I'm here,” Pinkie interrupted her while Simon simply looked confused between the two

Twilight sighed, knowing what was coming next. “A party?”

“That's right.” Pinkie exclaimed excitedly, swinging the rest of the door wide open and walking inside.

“You two are the last of the party guests, so come on.” She quickly began pulling Simon up from the floor before grabbing Twilight by the hoof and dragging them to Sugar Cube Corner. The group, however, didn’t need to get close to see there was an entire party already set up that managed to actually stretch both inside and outside the building.

Once inside everyone cheered out a welcome to Simon, with a wide range of treats, all from the pastry shop, along with streamers and confetti already scattered about. However, Simon didn’t have much time to indulge in such delights as he was quickly bombarded by questions from every pony who hadn’t gotten a chance prior, pushing Twilight out of the way, much to her annoyance.

Before Twilight could make any attempt at retaliation, Pinkie quickly pulled her aside and practically shoved a cupcake in her mouth. “Relax Twilight, it's a party, all six of us are here so we will make sure that he is always within sight of one of us. Plus Applejack said she would take first watch. So, just have some fun.” While Twilight felt compelled to argue against such a decision, a quick glance around confirmed what Pinkie had said, with Applejack already helping out Simon with answering the many questions being thrown his way.

“Okay Pinkie, I guess it would be nice to not have to worry about him for one night. Especially since I’m gonna have to keep an eye on him for the next six.”

Twilight started to walk away, taking one last look at Simon she suddenly got a strange feeling. Given the situation, she figured it was simply her being in high-stress mode and opted to ignore it, even though a part of her still felt uneasy.

The party continued for several hours until eventually, the sun was starting to go down. Twilight, having enjoyed her moment of peace, was now searching for Simon with little success. Thinking back, she recalled the last pony he was talking with was Lyra and quickly picked her out of the crowd.

“Lyra have you seen Simon?”

The mint colored pony thought to herself for a moment. “I think the last I saw him he was being dragged upstairs by Pinkie Pie.” Twilight, after a quick thank you, made for the upstairs, ignoring Lyra making a comment about Simon escorting her home. Once she reached Pinkie’s room door, she was able to make out voices from inside.

“Wow, that's a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.” Pinkie's voice said, causing Twilight’ to immediately freeze in place as she heard the sounds of Simon's voice as well. Any curiosity/suspicions she had regarding what was happening quickly devolved into paranoia as Pinkie spoke again.

“Oh don't worry, a lot of stallions don't have much in terms of stamina when it comes to this so as long as you last longer than them you will be fine.”

Twilight took a step back, her jaw hanging out wide. “They couldn't be.” Twilight knew that Pinkie was a forward mare but she didn't think she was that forward. Twilight was about to try again when a thought occurred to her. She used her magic to press the spot on her device that Simon had showed her twice and a voice came through to her.

“Hello Ms. Sparkle how may I be of assistance.” the voice stated

“Umm yes hello...Ace.” Twilight paused, trying to remember what Simon had called it. “Is there a way you can translate what Simon is saying for me right now?” Twilight asked, unsure of how exactly she was to pose the question.

“Certainly Ms. Sparkle, I can connect your headset to Simon's so that you two may communicate from any distance.” the voice said calmly.

“Wait wait,” Twilight spoke hurriedly, halting any action being taken. “I mean, I want to hear what he is saying but I don't want to interrupt him in what he is doing. So it would be best if he didn't hear me.” It was only after Twilight spoke that she realized just how creepy everything she was doing sounded.

There was a short pause before the voice spoke up again. “Very well Ms. Sparkle. Now activating Creepy Stalker Mode.”

“Well, can’t say I didn’t earn that.” Twilight quietly thought to herself, slightly ashamed at what she was doing, only to hear something else from the room.

“Hang on a second, I could see how this positioning is better for your kind but it's a little awkward for me do you mind if we change it.” Pinkie's voice came through very clear on her headset.

“Sure thing Pinkie, let's just adjust really fast.” There was a pause where Twilight could hear some shuffling, though no words were spoken.

“There, is that better.” Simon's voice had asked.

“Mmmmm.” A pleasured hum came through. “Yeah, that's a lot better, let's keep going, this is A-mazing.” Pinkie’s voice, speaking as if she was in a dream-like haze.

Twilight figured she had heard enough. “Okay, Ace that's enough.” Part of Twilight wanted to pursue the issue further, but her concern of being found out and potentially causing a rift with her friends, caused her to quietly head down the stairs. Of course, she wasn’t done with the matter and would hopefully get a clear explanation once the duo left the room.

Once Twilight was gone, Pinkie’s door came crashing open as the party pony rolled out of the room. “Wow Simon, I don't know what your race has with spinning their dance partners but it sure makes me dizzy.” Pinkie laughed getting up on her hooves.

Simon nodded in agreement as he was folding up a large dance mat that was set out in the middle of Pinkie’s floor. “It's called the Tango Pinkie and the spin is actually a very important part of it. Also, you're the one that dragged me up here to teach you some dances from my world, so you should’ve expected things to be a little intense,” Simon responded, laughing in return. Half an hour later Pinkie and Simon both came down the stairs finding the store was mostly empty, with many of the partygoers having since departed. Thankfully, their small group of friends had remained, taking a seat at a nearby table, with the duo making their way over to join them, though Twilight was quick to divert her gaze.

Simon gave a yawn. “Well it looks like the party is winding down, how about we head back to the house Twilight.” Twilight nodded still unsure of how to process what she’d heard, to which Simon remained blissfully ignorant. The two of them bid farewell to everyone as they left the party and returned to the library.

“So is there somewhere I could sleep at,” Simon asked looking around, taking a better note of his surroundings.

Twilight thought for a second. “Well I think I might have a spare bed upstairs, never really needed it up until now but it should suffice.” Simon nodded motioning for her to lead the way. The pair quickly moved up to Twilight’s bedroom, which Simon found had two floors, with Twilight’s own bed being located on a small flat just above the stairs entrance. Below it was a larger open area surrounded by bookcases and with a quick flash of magic, the floor opened up, allowing another bed to rise up from a secret compartment.

“After I had a bit of a chaotic sleepover, which included a lengthy argument about bed space, I figured it would be best if I had a spare when I had guests over. Looks like it was a smart decision.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” Simon smiled at her, his voice carried a kindness and sincerity that she hadn't heard from him before. Simon moved over to where the bed was and removed his top layer of clothing though he kept on a pair of what looked like shorts that he was wearing underneath everything. Simon climbed into the bed throwing the blankets over himself. Twilight had to stifle a laugh at how undersized the bed was compared to him. Simon looked over at Twilight. “Are you going to join me?”

Twilight’s face immediately became aglow. “J..J...Join you?” ”Wasn't he just with Pinkie Pie earlier is his race insatiable.” Twilight's mind was going a mile a minute before Simon interrupted her thoughts.

“Yeah, you know, go to sleep too.” Simon motioned up to the second floor to where Twilight's bed was. Twilight felt relief but there was also something else nagging at the back of her mind.

“Not quite yet, there is still some stuff I want to get done before I go to sleep.” Twilight moved over to her desk that was nearby and started reading several books, though Simon seemed to pay her no mind as he laid down and rolled his back to her. After a few minutes of studying she looked back at Simon. “Are you still awake?” When she didn’t receive an answer, she figured he was likely asleep.

Looking back at her books, and then at Simon, she had an idea, activating Ace again.

“Hello Ms. Sparkle, how may I be of assistance.” It spoke in the exact same manner as it had before.

“Well for starters, you can just call me Twilight. I was wondering Ace would you be able to teach me Simon’s language. Figure it would make things a little easier if I could talk to him without the translator.” Twilight spoke quietly trying not to wake anyone up. At first, there was no response, making Twilight think that maybe she spoke too quietly.

“Username registration complete.” Twilight had to clamp her mouth shut with her hooves to avoid shouting as the voice responded before there was another brief pause afterward before the voice came back. “Of course I can Twilight. Would you like to start now?”

Twilight nodded before realizing that this thing couldn't see her. “Yes, I would like that very much.” She used her magic to bring over some blank papers as well as her quill and ink, preparing to take notes, only to quickly become surprised at the sight of a strange blue object flying in front of her.

“What is this?”

“This is a holoprojector we will be using it to teach you.” Twilight was confused about what it had meant by this, but before she could raise a question it continued on as symbols appeared through the holoprojector. Of the symbols, one became much larger in size.

“This first letter is A, which is pronounced with an ah sound.” Twilight paid close attention as the lesson continued well into the night. Twilight ended up being so engrossed in learning a new language she failed to notice that the sun had started to rise and that she’s been up all night.

Eventually, exhaustion had set in and Ace, thankfully, had opted to stop the lesson around when they managed to get to the letter S. By the time Simon had finally woken up, he caught sight of Twilight with her face planted firmly in her notebook, snoring loudly for all to hear.

The next few days went rather well. Naturally, they first made sure to get Simon a properly sized bed the next day. Of course, Simon would do the occasional annoying thing but Twilight was really starting to enjoy her time with him. Every now and then ponies would show up that were curious about Simon, some would even show up from other towns that had heard about Celestia's announcement. Thankfully for Twilight some of them were even willing to participate in experiments to examine the effects of Simon's familiarity magic. Meanwhile, on most nights Simon would disappear into his workshop and Twilight would continue her lessons on Simon's language and was making substantial progress, confident she’d have it down soon.

Of course, in her efforts to master Simon’s language, Twilight had made it an unfortunate habit of staying up well into the night and thus would sleep in beyond her usual wake up time. Thus it was well into the morning when Twilight was awoken from her most recent language binge by the smell of food in the air. A quick scan revealed that Simon’s bed was empty prompting the unicorn to head downstairs. To no surprise of her own, she found Simon had music going on he was dancing and singing to it while in the process of making breakfast. From the sight, Twilight couldn't help but laugh alerting Simon to her presence.

“Aw, you ruined the surprise.” He feigned annoyance.

Twilight looked confused at him “Surprise?”

Simon nodded. “Yep, I was making breakfast. Now, go leave the kitchen and wait for your food, it's almost done.” Twilight saw little point in arguing and seated herself out of the kitchen. It was only a few seconds before Simon came out with a plate of food and set it down in front of Twilight. She looked at the questionable meal in front of her. On the plate was several recognizable fried vegetables but on top of the vegetables was a bunch of small white cubes all covered in a dark sauce, It smelled edible but it wasn't any kind of food that she had before.

“Aw, come on, don't be such a baby about it,” Simon whined out much to his roommates' annoyance. He quickly picked up the fork scooping up some of the food and held it out to her. Figuring she should at least try it, Twilight leaned forward taking the fork into her mouth.

It was in this exact instance that the front door burst open. “Hi Twilight, how’s my favorite sister doing?” Shining Armor’s massive smile quickly melted away at the sight of his sister sitting at the table while being fed by some creature.

“Oh, I’m sorry Twilight I didn't know you have your boyfriend over.”

Twilight blushed heavily at that. “No, it's nothing like that.” Twilight quickly spit the fork out as she stood up and started walking to her brother, preparing some kind of excuse.

“Relax Twilight, don't take everything so personally. Just a little big brother humor there.” Shining approached his sister and gave her a hug. Twilight immediately relaxed returning his hug.

“So, what brings you here Shiny. I don’t mind, it’s just I thought you were busy in Canterlot” Twilight asked stepping back after hugging her brother.

“Well, I would be lying if I said it was only because I missed you. I'm actually here because of…. him.” Shining motioned to Simon.

Twilight looked perplexed at the notion, eyes darting between the two males in the room. “What do you mean?”

“Well first off, I wanted to make sure he wasn't giving you too much trouble. As soon as Celestia told me what was going on and that he would be staying with you for a week I had to come make sure for myself. Also, my guards tell me that they got their flanks handed to them by this guys and now they lost any motivation to train.” Simon looked over the conversation finally covering an interesting topic for him.

“From what I’m gathering, your brother wants to help get his soldiers motivated again by showing that he can beat me in a fight. A friendly duel I’m guessing?.” Simon looked over to Shining who just gave him a confused expression at Simon’s odd language.

“I don’t suppose you understood any of that?” Shining asked looking back to Twilight.

Twilight, having been able to understand Simon perfectly, found herself frowning at the idea Shining was proposing. “I did, and to be honest I’m not crazy about what I’m hearing. You essentially want to use him as a sparring partner right?”

Shining gave a shocked look to Simon. “How did you know that's what I came here for?” Simon pointed behind Shining who turned around, right outside the window Twilight could see a couple of guards were peering inside.

Despite being essentially called out on his intentions, Shining simply laughed at his subordinates actions. “I guess there's no more use in hiding come on in, they can see you staring,” He yelled out towards the door, prompting several guards to shuffle into the small library.

“What's going on?” Twilight asked looking around at everyone.

Shining sighed, an action mirrored by several of the guards present. “Look, sis, after your new friend easily took down some of my best soldiers, it pretty much destroyed their confidence. I figure dueling him will at least show we can win or at least hold our own against unknown opponents.”

While Twilight could see some of the merits in what Shining was saying, she didn’t seem especially happy about the idea and prepared to retort, when Simon’s voice cut her off.

“I accept.”

Twilight looked back to Simon. “No, you do not accept.” She then turned to her brother. “Shining, fighting against Simon won’t prove anything.”

Shining sighed walking away from the guards and Simon. “I know that Twilight, but this is way beyond just me. My troops won't drop the subject and this could be a real boost to morale and get some of the slackers more serious about their job. Please, just this once, let us do this.” By this point, the Captain of the Guard was almost begging on his knees.

Twilight sighed in defeat, knowing that there was little point in arguing now. “Fine, I’ll allow it but I will be the one overseeing the dual.”

Shining gave a brief, silent cheer, before regaining his composure. “I wouldn't have it any other way. Thanks, Twily.” Shining put his hoof around his sister's shoulders, only for the pair to find themselves lifted off the ground. looking around, they found find that it was Simon now holding them under his arms, both of them unsuccessfully flailing to get free.

“Alright, now that everyone is in agreement on what to do, let's get this party started,” Simon shouted turning towards the door.

Shining looked to Twilight still not knowing what he said.

“He’s excited for some reason.” Both of the siblings had stopped their struggling, resigning to their fate of being carried.

“So how do you understand...Simon was it?” Shining asked his sister as they were carried away.

“Simon has some kind of translation device, we’ve been using it since he first arrived.” Twilight motioned to the thing that was on her ear. Shining nodded his head, Simon ducked out the door that the guards had opened up some of them snickering at the situation that their captain was in.

Simon stopped once outside the door. “Wait, where are we going to hold the duel at.”

Twilight sighed, slightly annoyed by her houseguest’s apparent lack of insight. “Well if you would put us down we could prepare an area.”

Simon nodded, embarrassed that he hadn’t figured that out as he quickly set them down. “Yeah, I suppose that might help.”

“Alright everypony, let's head around back to prepare an area for this duel.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an Unknown world

The large man stood upon a stage high in the air, with a massive crowd of thousands before him. A small man approached, handing off a microphone to him.

“Attention my deities, starting tomorrow morning we will be holding a tournament, the winner of which will be awarded a year's supply of magic as well as a secret reward. Be prepared as this competition will be dangerous and intense. That is all you may all return to your jobs.”

As the large man walked off the stage and everyone started leaving, murmurs of excitement or sharing thoughts of what the prize is going to be echoed throughout the crowd. Yet none present noticed a grin stretching across the face of the tall man as he departed the stage.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ponyville

Simon and Shining stood in a ring of guards, with a small assortment of weapons neatly arranged next to them. Shining was now fitted with one of Simon's translation devices feeling it was important that he could communicate with Simon and was looking at Simon, eager to get started.

“Since I challenged you, I’ll let you have the first choice of weapons.” Simon looked over the assortment of tools, which included long swords, short swords, and spears.

Simon thought to himself for a moment. “Would it be okay if I bring in one of my own weapons?”

Shining, however, shook his head. “Unfortunately no. All of these weapons have special enchantments on them to keep us from injuring each other.” He reached out his hoof as it came close to the blade of one of the swords when a shield suddenly appeared around it.

“Also an alarm will sound if it registers a lethal hit, that is how we will keep track of points.” Simon nodded in understanding looking over the weapons, quickly grabbing one of the long swords and gave it a few test swings to get a feel for its overall weight. Shining walked over picking up a short sword in his mouth.

Simon looked over at Twilight. “What were the rules again?”

Twilight sighed angrily. “This is the third time I’ve explained this to you. It's a three-point match, meaning that the first one of you to score three points is the winner, no magic allowed.”

Simon looked over to Shining seeing him holding the sword in his mouth. “I would like to make a request, I’d prefer it f he could use magic to manipulate his weapon.”

Both Shining and Twilight looked at him confused. “Why?” Twilight asked.

“Well, it just doesn't seem fair that he has to use his mouth while I have arms, which give me an advantage in reach and dexterity. Just doesn’t seem right to start off with such an obvious edge in the fight.” Twilight looked to Shining and shrugged.

Shining pulled the sword out of his mouth with his magic. “I’m okay with it if that's what he wants.” Simon smiled taking his place across from Shining.

“Alright.” Twilight took up a spot off to the side between the two of them. “I’m going to count to three and when I say go you start, understand?.” Shining nodded lowering his stance preparing to strike, Simon, on the other hand, was busy balancing the tip of the handle to his sword on his fingertips, an action that made Twilight almost scream at his brazen lackadaisical attitude, but kept her composure.

“Alright, ready. Three…. two….one….GO!.”

Shining launched forward at Simon, his sword pointing straightforward for a lunge attack. Simon suddenly overextended his hand causing him to fall off to the side making Shining's strike miss, while the sword Simon was balancing fell, striking Shining in the back, signified by a loud noise suddenly ringing out notifying of a point strike. Said Royal Guard Shining looked around confused, watching the sword slide off his back and onto the ground.

Shining then turned back, confusion still etched on his face while Simon simply shrugged. “Lucky hit I guess,” He chuckled lightly, as he dusted himself off and got back to his feet.

Shining moved back to his spot grumbling about a lucky shot, before getting into his stance again, only to again find himself struck almost stupid by the sight of Simon, now leaning on his sword like it was a cane.

Ignoring his confusion, once Twilight gave the signal, Shining slowly approached his opponent, watching his every move all the while Simon just stood there watching leaning on his sword like they weren’t in the middle of a fight.

Irritated, Shining closed the gap and swung at Simons midsection the blade a few inches away from hitting. However, he didn't move an inch like he recognized the shortness of the blade would render the attack pointless. Shining couldn't figure it out but his attitude towards the duel was starting to upset him. Shining charged with a downward swing, to which Simon swung his sword up finally seeming to take an interest.s The two blades connected, with Simon taking the moment to go on the offensive with cross strikes, swinging back and forth every step forward forcing Shining a step back as he tried to find an opening.

As they approached the ring of guards Shining saw an opening in the pattern that Simon was following. Shifting his blade so Simons blade glanced off, Shining had just enough time to push his blade in, hitting Simon in the gut causing the alarm to ring and the guards surrounding them cheered out.

The two of them returned to their starting positions before the match began. This time Simon was the first to make a move, swinging his sword around above his head then brought it straight down, with Shining managing an upward block, only to be forced down from the strength of the blow. Shining quickly realized something wasn't right if this guy had this much strength than he shouldn't have been able to parry his sword so easily from the previous point. However, he didn't have much time to think as he felt the weight being lifted off his magic as Simon had pulled back and was now lunging forward.

Quickly sidestepping to avoid the attack caused Simon to fall forward allowing Shining a moment to get a body strike and his second point.

Simon stood up, stretching his back and rubbing the spot that just got hit he smiled down to Shining. Simon reached up with his empty hand and touched the translation object.

“Twilight can you hear me?”

Shining looked over to his sister but she had no reaction at all. “Good, she can't hear me right now. Shining just want to say, you’re a very capable warrior, much stronger than what I was giving you credit for.”

While Shining took the compliment in stride, it was apparent Simon had more to say.

“Sadly, I can't let you win I can't look bad in front of my future bride now can I.” Shining gave a confused look to Simon as they both returned to their starting positions. “You see your sister and I are to be married to unite me people with yours but your sister wasn't exactly happy about it. Of course, she isn’t going to question the princesses, thus her only request was that she had to be the one to tell you.”

Shining was stunned. “So then why are you telling me this.”

Simon faked shock. “Because if I had a sibling I wouldn't want a last minute invite to their wedding.” Shining looked over to Twilight and could see there was definitely something on her mind. “But I tell you what, let's bring this duel to a close. If you tell Twilight that you want to change the rules to allow both of us to use any magic and make the next point the winner then I agree that if you win I will call off the marriage to your sister.”

Shining didn't like this one bit but the thought of his sister marrying this arrogant creature was clouding his better judgment. “Fine.” He spat out. Just before Twilight started the next match Shining spoke up. “Hold up Twilight I wanna change a few things.” Twilight looked at her brother confused. “I’m getting a little tired of this so I want to make this the last match and remove the magic restriction. The next one of us to score a point is the winner.” Shining gave an angered look to Simon who just smiled back at him.

“Umm if that's what you want,” Twilight said confused Shining nodded. “Okay, this is a one-point elimination round all magic will be allowed as long as it is non-lethal.” Twilight gave Simon a look of suspicion pretty sure that he had something to do with this Twilight moved into her spot to watch the fight before calling out the start.

“Three...two….one….GO.”

The moment Twilight said go, Simon threw his sword in Shining's direction. Shining quickly put up a shield only for the blade to disappear before impact, leaving the royal guard confused. Looking at Simon, who was just standing a short distance away with no weapon, Shining charged at him thinking this was his chance to strike. Simon, ever still smiling, pointed up to which Shining saw a black spot hanging above, out in front of him he managed to move just in time as Simon’s sword came shooting out of it before it vanished in another spot on the ground.

When Shining turned to Simon, he was pointing down this time, with Shining now finding a spot directly below him. He barely managed to dodge the sword as it erupted from the ground, picking up speed with each attack. However, Shining had no time to pause as Simon was suddenly in front of him, grabbing his sword out of the air and bringing it down forcing shining to go on the defensive.

This duel continued for a bit, with Shining noticing that Simon’s strikes lacked the same amount of force as previously, while he seemed to be able to always avoid every strike thrown his way. Regardless, Shining charged trying to close the gap the Simon had put between them but after a few steps, his front hoof seemed to fall through the ground, causing him to lose balance and stop in place. Simon threw his sword straight up pointing up after it another spot appeared absorbing the sword before disappearing. However, by now, Shining had a clear idea of what exactly he was doing.

“He must have to point where he wants the spots to open.”

His theory seemed to be verified as Simon pointed out with both hands prompting two holes to open up where he was pointing, one on each side of Shining, all but forcing him to make a decision on what to do... Shining chose to move forward and to the right. This proved to be a wise decision as the sword came out the one behind him.

Shining looked back to Simon who was now pointing to the right, sadly Shining wasn’t able to react as quickly and only managed to get a shield up mere moments after, only for nothing to come.

For a moment Shining thought he was safe then a force struck his shield, almost shattering it. Shining turned his head back to Simon who was now right in front of him, sword in hand. Simon flipped his sword around in his hand and dug it into the crack, piercing through towards Shining, almost hitting him in the face.

By this point Shining knew he was running out of options, Simon was expertly keeping him on the defense with each move he made and if he was going to turn this fight he had to make a risky move. Thus he closed his eyes and started pumping magic into the shield until it finally burst in both force and light throwing Simon back without his sword, leaving him blind.

Leaping forward at the first moment he could, Shining struck but knew something was wrong when he felt it hit but there was no resistance from the barriers and no alarm ringing. There was a gasp causing Shining to open his eyes in front of him was Simon sitting still, with Shining’s sword stuck inside Simon.

Simon laughed a little but it ended with a cough a little bit of viscous red fluid coming out of his mouth. “I guess this means you win.” Holding himself up with one hand he put the other in his pocket near the sword and threw confetti into the air.

Shining looked at him in shock and confusion as Twilight ran over to Simon's side. “Simon are you okay.” She asked, though from appearances it would seem the opposite was true.

Simon smiled to Twilight using his empty hand to gesture to the sword stabbing through his lower abdomen. “Well considering that my kidney is currently trying to pass a sword I can say I have been better.” Simon tried to laugh but just ended up coughing up more of the red fluid.

Twilight figured that it had to be his blood. “This isn't the time to be joking around.”

Twilight's concern for Simon snapped Shining out of his shock, who quickly ran to his injured opponent’s side. “I’m so sorry Simon I don't know what happened, I personally enchanted these weapons and the spell should have lasted for the rest of the week.”

Simon looked to Shining, grinning in spite of the blood. “That's easy, I have a natural magic absorption field around me. Every time you swung my body took a bit more of it off the sword until your enchantment finally broke.” Simon groaned a bit as he shifted his body a little. “That's why I was trying to end this early. In hindsight probably not the best idea.” Simon laughed again, only to cough up some more blood.

Twilight was by this point freaking out trying to figure out what to do. “This isn't the time to be joking around we need to get you to the hospital as fast as we can.” Twilight lit up her horn lifting both Simon and the sword at the same time.

“Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there.” Simon held out a hand to Twilight the moment he was airborne. “It's not as bad as it seems just put me down and I'll show you.”

Against her better judgment, Twilight compiled, concern still written all over her face. Simon grabbed the sword handle with a single hand and turned so they could see both sides of the sword through his body. Simon suddenly started doing his best to run away.

“You’ll never take me to the hospital alive.” Sadly, his antics only got him a couple of feet before he groaned and started to fall over. Twilight quickly used her magic to lift Simon back up into the air so that the sword didn't hit the ground and make things worse.

Twilight quickly approached where she was holding Simon. “Are you out of your mind? Now’s not the time for stupid pranks, you could die if we don’t do something.” Looking up at Simon she could see that he was barely conscious, only adding to her panic.

Simons' eyes were only half open, yet he still managed to laugh. “Haha, you do care about me.” He spoke slowly almost like he was just waking up. Twilight gave a frustrated grunt and started moving him towards the hospital, Shining, and the guards all following with them.

The group was quick to burst through the doors of the nearby Ponyville Hospital, getting the attention of both the staff and many of the patrons present.

“Quick, we need a doctor, there's been an accident.” She levitated Simon through the door as the nurses came charging up with a stretcher. Twilight carefully set Simon down on it, he was unconscious and no longer putting up a fight allowing the nurses to take him away, though Twilight was required to stay behind.

Shining came in after telling his guards to return to Canterlot Castle and tell the princesses what happened as well as fetch the rest of Twilight's friends. Shining approached his sister and gave her a hug. “I’m so sorry Twilight this is all my fault after he told me he would call off the wedding if I won I got so focused on winning that I didn't notice the weakening magic on my weapon.”

Twilight separated herself from Shining’s hug and looked him directly in the eyes. “What wedding, what are you talking about?”

Shining gave a confused look to Twilight “Simon told me that you two were going to be married to unite his people with our people just before the last match, but then he told me if I won that he would call it off.” Shining looked down to the ground slightly ashamed. “I noticed that he had to point to open those spots that he was attacking me from I got so focused on exploiting that.”

Twilight sighed as the pieces all fell into place. “Shining I’m about to tell you something that you can not tell your guards.” Shining turned his attention to Twilight as she explained.

“Simon comes from a world where fighting for your life on a daily basis isn't unnatural.” Shining gave her a confused look making Twilight sigh. “He threw the match, he wanted to lose and so he actively antagonized you because he knew it’d help you win.” Shining’s expression turned to one of shock. “I was there when Simon stopped the guards and he didn't move an inch to stop them it was an automatic reaction. He probably heard you talking about how it demotivated your guards and wanted to make up for it, thus figured if you beat him in a fair fight that would boost you soldier's morale back up.”

“But but but.” Shining was in shock it suddenly all made sense to him the weak blows, the near misses, the wedding lie, all of it clicked. Shining suddenly felt even worse about accidentally stabbing him.

Thankfully, before he could mull over it too long A caramel colored pony in doctor’s coat came out from the back and approached Twilight.“Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, I’m Doctor First Aid, regarding the patient you brought in, could you please follow me.”

“How is he, doctor,” Twilight asked worriedly.

The doctor gave her a reassuring smile. “Don't worry, in spite of the stab wound and blood loss, he should be just fine. However, that's actually something I want to talk to you about.” The doctor waved his hoof for them to follow him as he made his way to the patient rooms. The doctor opened one of the rooms the pair shared a quick laugh at Simon who was once again stuffed into a comically undersized bed. Once the doctor stepped in he closed the door behind himself.

“So what was it that you wanted to talk to us about?” Shining looked back to the doctor from Simon.

First Aid moved over to the side of Simon, directly to the area that previously had a sword sticking through it. “This.” He used his hoof to slide up Simon's shirt revealing a small wound just a little bit of the red fluid trickling out of it.

Twilight gasped in surprise. “That's amazing doctor, you must be an especially talented unicorn to be able to heal him that quickly.”

The doctor, however, shook his head.“Don't get me wrong, I along with several of the other unicorns here are quite skilled but this isn't my work.” Twilight and Shining gave the doctor a confused look. “You see we had him in the operating room, everything prepped to stop his bleeding, yet when we removed the sword a bunch of this red fluid gushed out.” He used his gloved hoof to smear the red fluid that was leaking out back into Simon's wound. “By the time we got it all wiped down his wound had mostly closed itself. Originally, we thought it was blood, but after analyzing it, we now know it's heavily saturated with magic and is probably what is healing him.”

“Okay, so if he is healing so fast, then why is he unconscious?” Shining asked passing a glance at the sleeping Simon.

“I’m sorry, but I don't know. If I had to guess, it would be that the rest of his systems shut down to help speed up the healing process. However, regardless, at the rate he’s going at, it should only be a few hours until he's back to one hundred percent.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s a relief, thank you, doctor.”

First Aid nodded his head. “Well I have other patients to deal with, so I’ll leave you alone for now. Though try not to disturb him if possible.” With that he stepped out of the room leaving Twilight and Shining alone with Simon.

“Wow, he is something else isn't he?” Shining commented, still amazed at what they’d learned.

Twilight gave a quick laugh. “Trust me, if we could do half of what I've seen him do Equestria would be a completely different place.”

As the pair continued to laugh at the prospective potential of Simon, the remainder of the Mane six burst into the room, several demanding to know what happened.

”Hold up everypony, just calm down and I’ll explain what happened.”

After a quick summary of the events that took place, the group seemed satisfied with the answer. It seemed most of them had mainly come to ease their own concerns as Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy had to leave to finish taking care of personal matters. Twilight promised to let them know when he woke up.

“So, if I understand this correctly all this came about because Simon wanted to help Shining prove himself to his troops?” Rarity questioned and Shining nodded. “My my, it would seem our new friend is quite the noble-hearted fellow.” All those still conscious in the room nodded in the affirmative.”

Simon suddenly groaned from his bed, muttering something but due to his translator having been removed prior only Twilight was able to understand him and even then it was only one word. Looking at the charts present near his bedside pertaining to the red fluid with Simon, Twilight couldn’t help but take a closer look. Pinkie Pie all the while, who’d been resting her head against Simon’s legs, quickly shot up in excitement at the noise from her newest friend.

“Simon!” Both Pinkie and Twilight shouted at the same time and quickly moved over hugging him.

Simon gave a grunt of pain as he grabbed his headset and placed it back on his ear. “Careful, I’m still healing.” The two mares immediately got off of him both of them muttering apologizes under their breath. Rarity and Shining were also close to his side, though thankfully with much more restraint.

“Simon,” Shining spoke up garnering his attention. “I owe you an apology, I really didn't mean to hurt you.”

Simon rose his hand silencing Shining. “It's no problem, I know you didn't mean too, and in your defense, I did kind of goad you into it.”

Shining nodded. “Still you have earned my respect.” Shining gave a small pause before he smirked up at Simon. “And it would be an honor for you to marry my sister.” This caused both Shining and Simon to start laughing, while Twilight facehoofed, annoyed that the joke was persisting, leaving the remaining two room occupants confused. The group chatted for a bit until Simon was able to get out of bed, a new scar seen underneath his shirt, while First Aid was giving him a look over...

“So are all of those scars from a fight you lost,” Twilight asked, remembering that he was covered head to toe in scars.

Simon smiled somberly and shook his head. “No, not all of them.”

“Well, scars aside, Simon you seem well enough that I’m going to release you into the care of Twilight, but please take it easy until at least tomorrow.” First Aid said the last part almost as if it were a command.

Simon nodded his approval. “Sure thing doc.” Gathering together they all left the hospital together.

Stopping outside of Twilight's library Shining gave his sister a hug. “I’m going to head back to Canterlot and update the princesses before they freak out too much. See you soon sis.” With that he turned and started walking towards the train station.

Rarity turned to Twilight.” Pinkie Pie and I are going to fetch the rest of the girls then we will meet you back here.” Pinkie Pie nodded before she walked over and gave Simon another hug before they left. Twilight and Simon turned to the library upon entering they were greeted by Spike questioning what happened after relaying everything that happened to him. By the time she was done explaining everything, Twilight gave a yawn from her exhausting day

Simon approached behind Twilight. “So Twilight, are you ready?”

Twilight spun around seeing Simon looking over her, causing her to back up a bit. “What do you mean, am I ready for what?”

Simon grinned down at her. “You asked me to teach you how to do what I do.”

“Oh right. Are you sure you wanna start it now, you just healed and the doctor said you needed to rest.” Twilight was still a little on edge from the day’s events and she still had some unanswered questions, mainly where he went during the initial announcement of his presence and more noticeably why he was so calm with being in an alien world.

“Why not now, seems like a perfect time to me since we have some time to kill before your friends show up.”

Simon moved past Twilight sitting down at the table in the middle of the room, reaching out he pulled out a book from his fourth-dimensional space, which she recognized as one of his research journals.

“So how about we start with something simple, I just want you to shoot a small amount of magic at me.” Simon flipped open the journal to a random page he pulled out a long thin round object from between the pages pressing something on the back it made a soft click. Simon looked up from his book Twilight was about to agree when she thought of something. Simon put the small object down and held his hand out indicating for Twilight to use that as her target.

Twilight moved to the stairs that lead downward. “While I don’t think this is a good idea, can we at least do this in my lab and not where there are books that can be destroyed.”

“..Yeah, probably a good idea.”

The duo descended into Twilight's lab and she quickly made additional space by moving most of her equipment aside. “There we go, you think this will be enough room for this?”.

“Well, I mean yeah but the practice isn't going to take that much room,” Simon spoke moving across the room from Twilight. Simon held out his hand again “Okay, whenever you are ready just send a magic blast at my hand here.” Twilight nodded confusedly as to why he said they wouldn't need much room when he wants her to shoot magic at him.

Seeing little point in arguing, Twilight filled her horn with magic before letting it go, making sure to watch as the blast traveled hitting Simon's hand. As expected, the same light blue vortex that the puppets had used to block her magic before was now in front of his hand but it was smaller than before. Simon hummed to himself as he picked up the journal and the small object and began moving around on the inside of it. Twilight figured it must be his version of a quill and ink.

“What are you doing there,” Twilight asked curiously moving over towards Simon.

“Oh, I’m just taking a few notes.” He looked down to Twilight as he finished jotting down. “Alright, now could you hold onto some magic as long as possible?”

Twilight nodded. “Sure, I think I can do that.” Twilight took a more sturdy stance as she started to build up magic in her horn, this time focusing on holding it. Simon stared at Twilight, writing in his journal for a few minutes or so while moving around her.

“Alright, I think I’ve got the information that I need.” Simon stood up from where he was crouched down next to her writing in his book, allowing Twilight to stop focusing and let her magic return to its normal level.

Twilight looked up at Simon “So what is it you are writing.”

“I’m just making a few notes and some diagrams.” Simon flipped back a few pages and turned his book to Twilight, in it was drawing of Twilight from different angles as well as a few words here and there.

In all honesty, she was flattered that he actually took the time to draw her in so much detail until she flipped the page on the next page was the pose she was just doing holding the magic from different angles. Though it wasn't her concentration face that he captured that bothered her, rather it was that while behind her he had caught a glimpse of her genitals and had sketched them in as much detail as the rest of her.

Twilight entire face turned red, her face a mixture of outrage and embarrassment. “Why did you draw that.” Her voice practically shaking the entire lab as she shouted.

Simon turned the book to himself and gave a confused look. “Huh, I guess I didn’t notice. My apologies.”

“What do you mean you guess?” A bit more anger creeping into her voice. “I was right here I saw you drawing in the book.”

“Oh, you see that was magic.” Simon flipped his book forward a bunch to an empty page. “Watch my eyes closely.” Putting his quill to the paper again he stared directly at Twilight and she did as he asked, watching his bichrome eyes.

There was a flash of blue that shimmered across both pupils before his quill began moving rapidly across the book. After a few moments he stopped, turning the book back around and on one page was a close up of Twilight’s face.

“It's an automatic drawing magic that I had learned from another Deity As you can see it effectively copies whatever I see in more detail than I could ever hope to copy. It’s pretty helpful for drawing and diagramming, but as you just saw, I don’t have control of what it’s drawing beyond what I see.”

Twilight though still embarrassed seemed to understand, recalling how scientists, herself included, had a tendency to act without thinking. “Alright, you can keep the diagrams, but in return, I would like to study your species as well.”

“That seems perfectly reasonable. Though for now, let’s focus on why I was drawing you in the first place.” Simon flipped back to the page that they left off on, though looking at them caused a little bit of redness to return to Twilight's face.

Simon turned to the next page which contained diagrams that Twilight recognized, specifically an image of the inside of her body, but with arrows and lines inside. The image actually mirrored the magic theory book that she had read in school which explained how magic flowed through a unicorn’s body.

“As I’m sure you’re already well aware all the magic in your body accumulates in your horn.” Simon pointed to her horn in the book with his quill. “So this is the point where we are going to focus on trying to open your dimensional space.” Simon sat down next to her. “However, I’m going to have to direct your magic since you have never done this before, so this part is going to feel a bit weird.”

Twilight gave him a confused look. “Feel weird how exactly?”

Simon held out his hand palm up. “Well, I’m not entirely sure but I can assume you have never had someone guide your magic before. You’ll understand soon, so just place your hoof on my hand.” Twilight nodded, hesitantly placing her hoof in his palm.

“Okay now take a few deep breaths and focus on the feeling of magic, after this you are going to have to reproduce the effect yourself.” Twilight breathed in and out a few times before nodding that she was ready Simon closed his hand on her hoof and closed his eyes. There was a warmth that flooded into her hoof and she was suddenly very away of movement of magic in her body.

Twilight had to admit it was definitely weird, when she cast spells before she only felt the magic at the point of build up, but with him in control, she could feel every turn and ripple of the magic through her system. While it wasn't painful, it wasn’t exactly comfortable either, like the magic was being yanked in every direction inside her body.

Twilight closed her eyes to focus more on what she was feeling the magic, but in the darkness of her mind's eye, she saw the magic in her was forming runes. Yet, she had no idea why as this was advanced magic theory, something not even the most talented unicorns in history were able to pull off. Yet, it also made Twilight curious about what she could do with it.

She tried widening her mind's eye so that she could see more, yet the runes in her vision were growing smaller and she could see tendrils that were forming them, one purple while the other was blue, the later wrapping in a spiral pattern all the way till the tips met. Twilight followed the combined tendrils to the point where they met together there she saw a vast swirl of purple magic being lead by the light blue, in contrast, the light blue lead further along.

Allowing her curiosity to lead her further she followed the light blue magic when she got to the source of it, it was much larger than the purple had been and had tendrils coming out of every direction. Twilight expanded her view again finding that each tendril lead to large sets of runes. Focusing directly on the runes, she found that a large amount of magic was filtered into them.

Peering even further, she noticed there was another, red-colored magic that was pulling energy though only enough to barely keep itself visible.

Twilight felt a sudden urge to touch it as it grew larger in her vision while a purple tendril of magic appeared drawing nearer the red magic before it suddenly latched onto it, only to turn red as the runes began draining magic at an enormous pace.

Twilight could feel herself grow weaker by the moment but no matter what she tried she could no longer move the purple magic away. Twilight’s eyes shot open looking to Simon his eyes were wide open, seemingly shocked as well as anger appearing on his face. Twilight quickly removed her hoof from his hand thinking she might have done something wrong, causing the weakening feeling to suddenly disappear.

“What did you do,” Simon stood up his voice filled with angry, matched by a menacing aura around him.

Twilight backed away from him afraid that he was going to attack. “I...I don't know I was seeing these runes and I sorta just followed them.

“I have to go.” His tone had turned back to where it was before, yet lacking his usual mirth as he stumbled towards the door. As he walked he held the placed he’d been stabbed earlier with one hand, reaching into his pocket before producing a key. He quickly stuck it into the door and turned it, causing waves of magic to ripple across. Opening the door he leaned against the frame before looking back at Twilight.

“Don't meddle in things you don't understand.” Twilight saw the fury in his eyes as he spoke but there was something else, as his blue eye had gone red now matching his other eye. He disappeared into his lab the door not completely closed. Twilight was frozen in place not understanding what just happened, only pulled from her stupor by the sound of thumps from inside the room followed by a pained scream and one last thump before everything went silent. After a minute of quiet Twilight cautiously approached the door.

“Simon, I’m sorry,” Twilight called out as she gently opened the door. Walking in she looked around. “Simon, what was that scream I heard...I’m worried now.” Moving further in and looking all around the area there was no trace of him in his room.

Arrival *Edited*

Arrival *Edited*

Twilight was confused, she could've sworn that she saw him enter, yet now there was no sign of him. “Where did you go, Simon?” Twilight hollered, as searching through one of the piles in the room. After a minute of quietly listening for a response, Twilight heard a voice yelling for her.

“Twilight are you down here?” Twilight recognized it as Rainbow Dash’s voice, a tinge of disappointment at it not being who she’d hoped for..

“So sorry for intruding on you like this, but Spike said you were down here and we thought it best to take a look.” It was Rarity this time who decided to chime in, her voice echoing through the basement.

“I’m down here girls come quick,” Twilight yelled out this time from behind the door. She moved to the entrance to meet them. When she opened the door the rest of the way she found all of her friends waiting for her, varying looks of concern on each of their faces.

“What's wrong Twilight you look a little distressed,” Spike asked, zeroing in on Twilight’s downcast eyes..

“It's Simon, I don't know what happened. It sounded like he was in pain and now I can't find him.” Twilight was scared for her new friend.

“Now don’t start panicking on us Twilight. Just think for a second, Well, did he say anything before he disappeared,” Applejack asked as they all walked into Simon's lab. Twilight shook her head not wanting to mention how angry Simon was.

“He didn’t really say anything, though he was acting strange before stumbled into this room. Then I heard a couple of thumps and he screamed. By the time I came in here he was gone.” Twilight gave them a quick version of what happened, making sure to leave out the undesirable parts.

Rainbow Dash quickly took to the air. “Well, what are we waiting for, he has to be in here somewhere.” The group all nodded agreeing to help search, quickly splitting up and taking different sections of the room to search. A half an hour later, the group found themselves with little to show for their efforts.

Spike, in the middle of looking near the bookcases,noticed that some of the books had fallen over on the top shelf.

Spike climbed onto the bookcase to fix them when the whole thing shifted downwards slightly before jerking back upwards flinging Spike off. “Umm guys, I think there's something over here”. Twilight was the first to make it over followed shortly by everyone else.

“What is it, Spike?” Twilight asked looking over the bookcase not noticing anything different about it.

“Well, I was climbing the bookcase to see if there was anything on top of it when it moved all of a sudden.” Spike demonstrated his point by climbing on it again this time ready for it to move.

Twilight stared at the bookcase as it bounced. “Get down Spike, I wanna try something.” Spike quickly obliged and moved back behind Twilight, who quickly ignited her horn and encased the bookcase in her magical aura. Giving it a small push upwards, the entire bookcase slid up, creating an entryway.

Looking at the bottom of the bookcase Twilight noticed a small hook. “It's a latch, it must not have caught when Simon went through last.” Twilight looked back to all her friends but they were all staring past her with their mouths hanging open. “What is it?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy just pointed a hoof towards the entrance that just opened, Twilight turned her head to the opening her jaw dropped at the sight, inside was a room at least ten times in size. Cautiously, they entered the room, a short hallway connecting the two rooms with a door on either side that was hard to see without entering. In the very large room, there were large metal objects everywhere some were attached to the ceiling they all shared the same pulsating blue lines of life zigzagging across them that all of Simon's technology had. They seem to be transporting different objects around the room in some locations the floor itself seem to move moving more objects in certain areas.

“Wow, this like like something from Cloudsdale’s weather factory, only that there's no pony here.” Rainbow Dash spoke up as they all moved together into the room,looking around in awe.

Spike had stopped in the hallway, opening the door on the left side revealing several glass display cases each with a different object inside. Meanwhile, Twilight had found what appeared to be the start of all the movement in the room. It was a large holding area filled from the floor to the ceiling with objects of different sizes, shapes, colors, and materials. Claws from the ceiling over the container would shine a light down for a few seconds before they dipped down coming back up with a full claw. They would then move to another part of the container dropping everything.

Looking more closely at the strange contraption, Twilight figured the claws must have been intended to sort the piles into smaller piles.

Following the claw, it moved over to another large metal object dropping everything into what appeared to be a funnel at the top of it. Once the claw was empty the blue lines on the machine glowed brightly after thirty seconds its lines dimmed again, looking higher up Twilight could see a bright orange liquid streaming out into another object hanging from the ceiling.

While, Twilight was a good distance away from the strange object she could still feel a substantial amount of heat radiating off of it. Following this container, now full of the orange liquid, it moved towards another another structure and poured its contents into it. This new one was filled with lines that were constantly glowing, with an assortment of objects coming out onto one of the moving floors. After moving down the line these objects were being dumped into small bins that were whisked away through holes in the walls just big enough for the bin. Twilight wondered where they were going and was tempted to explore further when Spike’s voice got her attention.

“Umm guys we may have a problem.”

Twilight looked back and saw that Spike was now standing at the door near where they entered, and now saw now there was a flashing red light coming from inside.

The group quickly dashed over, looking inside and found a small room, with a large translucent glass tube in the center. Twilight recognized the holoprojectors in the room though without giving them a closer look she wouldn't know what kind of data they were displaying, at least it seemed they were the source of the red lights..

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by Pinkie Pie gasping before anyone could ask her what was the matter she raced over to the translucent glass tube. Climbing up one side of it, she used it to get onto her back hooves, grabbing hold of a bar that was attached to the side of it and pulled as hard as she could. After a few tugs, it started to budge a little bit once the door opened a bit a black mass inside shifted slumping over into the door revealing Simon. His weight pushing the door the rest of the way over as his upper half landed on the floor with a thud. They all gasped running over to Simon Pinkie was already there poking and prodding him to no effect. They all surrounded him Applejack waved her hoof in front of him before lowering her head down near his face.

“Ah don't think he’s breathing.” Applejack worriedly looked around at all of them while Pinkie Pie started shaking Simon, shouting his name only to get no response.

“No No No No. “ Twilight repeated several times as tears formed in her eyes drawing the attention of all her friends “I can't have killed him.” She quickly ran over to one of the nearby holoprojectors, which thanks to her time with ace, she learned how to manipulate to an extent. Twilight quickly went through the information as fast as she could which wasn't very fast since she just started learning the translation a few nights ago.

Rarity calmly approached Twilight. “What do you mean you killed him.” Rarity put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder trying to reassure her, though it was clear by her tone she was also deeply concerned.

Twilight looked back to Rarity “I...I don't know how to explain it, he was doing something to help me learn his magic and...and….and I don't know,” Twilight was unsure of what it was that she even did. “I touched something and it was draining my magic so I broke the connection between us and that was when he started acting strange and this is all my fault.” Twilight was starting to get hysterical, looking ready to have a full on panic attack.

“Calm down Twilight no one is blaming you and right now you're the best chance that he has since you're the only one that knows his language.” Fluttershy spoke as she walked up to Twilight putting her hoof on her other shoulder. Twilight looked around as they all nodded in agreement. Twilight took a calming breath and, looked back to the holoprojector, she once again began filtering the words she knew on screen, though with far more focus than before.

Twilight was going through translating as fast as she could when a word seemed to jump out of her “ER..ROR” Twilight sounded out the word. She tapped the word the screen, suddenly changing it from blue to red along with adding a new word on the screen.

“Error Problem in Magic Suppression Chamber, Manual Restart Required on Internal Consol.” Twilight slowly sounding out all of the words, though only managing to understand maybe half the words meanings.

Twilight stepped away from the holoprojector. “I have an idea of what's going on here.” Twilight turned back to her friends, who remained standing gloomily, unsure of what else they could do to help. “Listen, Simon said that he is a deity, a creature that lives off of magic right?” The group nodded in agreement with her. “Well whatever happened caused him to absorb a bunch of magic off of me, which I think might be interfering with his systems. This thing we found him in is called a magic suppression...something, however, something else went wrong when he tried to use it. So we just need to get him inside and restart it.”

“But how do we do that.” Pinkie Pie asked, lacking her usual bubbly demeanor..

“Well, it mentioned something about inside, so my guess is that there's something inside that tube that will reactivate it.” Twilight quickly levitated Simon’s lifeless body and placed him in a sitting position inside the tube. Climbing in after him proved more difficult as there wasn't much room, but she managed somehow, even avoiding stepping on the poor man.

Looking around she found another holoprojector flashing red like the others. The moment Twilight touched it the screen stopped flashing as another big word appearing in the middle of it. “Restart.” Twilight recognized this word and quickly touched the screen before, Twilight turning to leave the chamber only for the door to slam shut. Naturally, Twilight tried to push it open, her friends all on the outside similarly trying to pry it open but to no success .

After five seconds a loud buzzer went off and Twilight was suddenly feeling very weak, falling onto Simon’s lap. Despite her mind telling herto panic her body couldn’t even find enough strength to muster a yell or twitch and it only got worse with each second.Her eyes were beginning to get heavy, to the point where she could no longer keep them open and eventually they started to close. The last thing Twilight remembered was her friends all yelling for her then suddenly everything went black.

When Twilight opened her eyes she was floating in a pitch black void. Now trapped, the weight of all that had happened came crashing down on Twilight, causing the normally confident pony to burst into tears.

“I was so stupid to think that I would be able to control his technology, I can barely even grasp how it works.” Twilight felt cold and numb the conversation she overheard between Pinkie and Simon at the party playing in her head over and over, like a demented record player, adding to her grief.

Twilight just couldn't figure out why she was so sad as she thought more and more, practically drowning in a sea of noise. However, the conversation and all other sounds ceased as she felt a gentle warmth on her cheek and a voice coming from nearby.

“Don't worry Twilight everything is going to be alright.” The voice was soft and vaguely familiar. Twilight opened her eyes looking to the side she was now laying down on Simon's lap he had a gentle smile on his face and one hand cupping her cheek as he used his thumb to gently wipe away her tears. “What are you crying for.”

Twilight sniffled a little bit, nuzzling into his hand and closing her eyes. “Because I feel terrible about accidentally hurting you.” Twilight moved her head with Simon’s hand for a little bit, not wanting to lose the warmth that it was providing. Twilight was afraid to open her eyes scared to see how upset he was with her hurting him, only to feel his hand on the other side of her face slowly forcing her to face towards him.

Only once Twilight head was completely turned towards Simon did she finally open her eyes. To her surprise, Simon still had the gentle smile on his face she’d come to know, looking as though he had all the compassion and patience in the world.

“Twilight,” He spoke softly as he reached up with one hand and started scratching behind her ears, which she had to admit that felt quite wonderful. “It's a good thing to feel bad after hurting a friend.”He stopped petting her and cupped the side of her face again “but we both know that's not the reason for the tears.”

Twilight quickly positioned herself as she wrapped her hooves around Simon in a hug and started crying again. “I was so scared I lost you.”

Simon wrapped his arms around her even as he leaned back to look her in the face. “And that makes you sad enough to cry?” His tone was questioning yet he still had that goofy smile of his on his face now.

Twilight giggled, feeling better in his embrace. “Well when we first met I really wanted as little to do with you as I could and when Celestia said you were going to be living with me I was pretty sure that you were going to be nothing but a pain.” Twilight paused taking a deep breath. “But after that first night when we had our little heart to heart and every day after I felt a bigger and bigger connection to you...I...I think I’m falling in love with you Simon.” Twilight paused again, expecting a response but Simon said nothing. “I have only known you for less than a week but I already feel like I don't think I could live my life without you, isn't that crazy?”

Simon shook his head. “No Twilight, the craziest thing that anypony could do is to hurt themselves by holding in their feelings.” Simon leaned his head in placing his forehead against Twilights. Twilight closed her eyes and made her move by pressing her lips to Simons. It was only a second before Simon returned her kiss as he did her whole body flooded with warmth. After holding the kiss for only five seconds Twilight had to break it the warmth turned into a heat inside of her followed shortly by uncomfortable pressure. Twilight was about to ask Simon what's going on when he spoke up first. “Don't worry Twilight, everything is going to be fine as long as you remain calm.” The pressure in her turned painful causing Twilight to open her eyes she was back in the glass tube.

The sudden shift threatened to overwhelm Twilight, as her friends all screamed around her. A gasp next to her cause her attention to shift, finding Simon right next to her, his eyes quickly locking onto her before he pulled her into a tight embrace. Everywhere Simon’s body made contact with Twilight's, she felt immediate relief from the pressure and quickly spread all over.

“Twilight, I need you to remain calm, everything will be okay, you are being bombarded with more magic than your body can handle right now but it will be over with soon.” Twilight nodded and leaned her head across his shoulder and nuzzled gently into his neck. It seemed like the more contact she had with Simon the less pressure she felt. How long she remained with him she wasn’t sure, yet even then she didn’t care. At the moment Twilight was appreciative of the fact the Simon couldn't see her face because she was sure that her face was as red as Big Mac’s. Before long there was another buzzer followed by a click and the door to the tube opened up. Twilight quickly looked away from the door trying to calm herself down still clinging to Simon. The door opened revealing all of Twilight’s friends looking in Simon picked a hand off of Twilight back and waved to them.

“Simon!” They all shouted in unison, Pinkie Pie jumping into the tube hugging both Twilight and Simon, with Simon using the walls to keep himself standing despite the additional weight. As Twilight quickly regained her bearings she noticed a faint shimmer coming off of Simon, though she chose not to question it for the moment.

“Well, ah’m glad that your breathing again but what in the heck happened in there?” Applejack moved aside allowing Simon to step out. He had an arm under each of the ponies wrapped around his neck.

Simon looked down at Applejack. “That is a good question, which I sadly can’t answer.” They all looked to Simon with some confusion.

Rainbow Dash flew up in front of Simon and eyed him suspiciously. “What, do you mean you won't tell us.”

Simon shook his head. “It's not that I don’t want to tell you, I just don’t know what happened.” Simon walked over to a nearby table and sitting down, trying to pry off the two clinging ponies.
“It’s alright you two, you can let go now.” Pinkie was quick to let go, while Twilight was more hesitant, fearing the pressure would return.

“You see the last thing I remember before waking up in the recovery chamber….” As he spoke he moved a tray of objects over to his side, quickly reaching to a rack under all the objects before pulling out and placing a pair of gloves on. Simon then grabbed a small flat stick from the tray and turned to Pinkie Pie.

“Say, ah.” Pinkie Pie opened her mouth without even hesitating. Simon used the stick to flatten out her tongue or moved her lips and cheeks around as he looked around inside. After a few seconds Simon threw the stick into a nearby garbage can before picking up a small metal object that fit into the palm of his hand.

“..Was helping Twilight with some magic,” Simon kept talking as he manipulated the object in his hand. There was a click and a light came out of one end they recognized it as a small flashlight, Pinkie Pie closed her mouth as Simon brought the light up to her face. “Look directly at me.” Pinkie again compiled without question as Simon moved the flashlight back and forth before placing it back on the tray and throwing out the gloves. . Simon picked up a lollipop from the tray and handed it to Pinkie Pie who quickly grabbed the candy and popped it into her mouth.

“Thank you for your help Pinkie you can hop down now.”

“No problem Simon.” Pinkie Pie happily jumped off the table sucking on the lollipop that Simon had given her. Simon turned back to his tray and grabbed another set of gloves and put them on and turned his attention to Twilight.

“Uh I don't mean to interrupt but what is it you are doing,” Rarity asked.

Simon picked up another flat stick and directed it to Twilight. “Twilight here was just irradiated with a metric crap ton of magic about three times greater than when your Princesses move the sun or the moon or about fifteen times what an average pony has.” Simon never turned his head from Twilight as he examined the inside of Twilights mouth. There was a collective gasp from around the room, aware that such an overabundance of magic could result in magical overload. “Don't worry I managed to absorb most of it from her.” Simon put the stick in the trash can and picked up another flashlight and aimed it towards her eyes.

“So what's with all the examining if you absorbed it all,” Twilight asked now that she was able to close her mouth,though she kept her head staring straight forward.

“Well, that's the thing, I didn't get it all. First off, after being nearly starved of all magic it triggered some sort of response inside of you where you became more receptive to the magic around you. Secondly, it also made you hold onto it most likely so that you wouldn't get drained again. Third and most important not only did I not get all of it because you’d be left with no magic in you , but the magic that you absorbed was specifically tuned to me.”

Twilight only partially understood what happened. “So, what happened in there?”

“I told you, you were bombarded with more magic than you could handle.” Simon didn't bother with looking away from Twilight's eyes as he examined them.

“No, I understand that, I mean before that when I passed out from feeling so weak,” Twilight asked curiously.

“Oh that, you see that chamber is meant to reset my magic, so the first thing it does is absorb about ninety-nine percent of my magic leaving just enough to survive.” Twilight knew it, it was her fault that Simon was there.

That knowledge made her want to change the subject. “You know, when I passed out I had this dream where I did something crazy.”

“Oh yeah, well you know sometimes dreams are extensions of something you actually want to do.” Simon had changed eyes now looking into her right eye.

Twilight blushed a little. “Oh, I don't know if I would really do something like that, it was pretty crazy.”

“I’m sure it wasn't that bad, though I guess the only thing I have ever considered crazy is for someone to hurt themselves by holding back how they really feel.” Twilight tensed at this because that was the exact thing he had told her in her dream, at least she was pretty sure it was a dream.

“Yes, darling I’m sure it wasn't that bad, go on tell us…” Rarity started to say but was interrupted by Simon putting down his flashlight after examining her eyes.

“You definitely have magic in there,” Simon said as he took a step away from Twilight.

Twilight was relieved at the change of subject. “How can you tell.” She gave Simon a confused look after a few seconds when the words he said finally registered in her head.

“Why don't you take a look yourself.” Simon smiled.

Wordlessly, he reached out to Twilight and she could see a spot of rippling magic hanging in the air a foot away from his hand, closer inspection revealed some light blue magic slowly forming a ring around the ripples. As Simon's hand got within an inch of the ripples the magic ring was fully formed and a black spot appeared. Simon reached inside and pulled his hand back out revealing a hand mirror which he held up in front of Twilight. At first, Twilight didn't notice anything different until she looked at her eyes, more specifically her right eye. Twilight's normally purple iris now had small intermittent patches of blue the same color of Simon's left eye.

“What, how long will it be like this.” Twilight was freaking out as she levitated the mirror,bringing it closer to her face.

“Honestly, I don't know.” Simon shrugged he was now writing in his research journal.

Twilight set the mirror down beside herself, yet it was obvious she wasn’t satisfied with his answer. “What do you mean you don't know?.”

“I mean I haven't seen anything like this myself, it could last until you use up the rest of my magic in your system or it could be permanent, I honestly don’t know.” Simon said as he quietly disposed of his gloves.

Twilight, took a moment to calm herself, before accepting his response, seeing little point in arguing. “Well, I guess it isn't so bad, it doesn't seem to impair my vision at least.” Twilight jumped down off the table, all of her friends quickly surrounded her to look at her eye. However, any conversation was halted by a growling that directed their eyes back to Simon.

Said individual chuckled, looking down at his stomach “I guess I’m hungry.” The girls chuckled at his alloff response, breaking any kind of tension that had been left.

”So, um, since everypony is alright, maybe we could go outside for a bit, maybe get some food together.” Fluttershy chimed in, though her voice stayed at it’s usual low pitch.

“I think that sounds like a wonderful Idea,” Twilight added with the others nodding in agreement and heading towards the exit. Simon let the group exit first before following suit, pulling down on the book case, allowing Twilight to see something move across his arm, runes eerily similar to those she’d seen before. Simon quickly pulled the bookcase down before stepping on the bottom with a click, Twilight seeing one of the books on the top shelf pull itself back in.

“So, mind explaining what all those strange objects in that room back there.” Applejack turned her head to Simon while pointing at the bookcase.

Simon smiled down to her. “That is a factory, it creates the parts that I need to assist in my job as a creator in my world.”

“Oooh, what kind of things do you make?” Pinkie Pie added on, her natural excitement still present.

“That's a bit hard to explain, truthfully I create a great many things, though most other deities have me supply them with all kinds of weapons and whatever other things they wish.”

There was a collective gasp. “You're making weapons?” Rainbow asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

Simon shook his head. “Currently, no I am not, the last weapon order I received was about a month ago. Currently, I am simply using it to create things like the translation headsets you’re all using.” Simon motioned to all of them even Spike who had his own personal one.

“Isn't that a lot of parts for something as small as these headsets.” Rarity chimed in backing up her friend.

Simon nodded as they moved towards the exit. “Yes it is, though your headsets have several smaller parts, some of which are difficult to make, so I have that equipment in case I need to make replacement parts.”

Once they were all out of Simon's lab he closed the door and reached for the key before Twilight stopped him. “Why don't you just leave your lab there, I mean it probably takes a lot of magic to move it around so much and the door you used was just a storage closet with nothing important in it so it' should be fine”

Simon shrugged. “I suppose that’s okay, what's the worst thing that could happen?” The group nodded and made their way out of the library”.

On the way to a restaurant, a thought occurred to Fluttershy. “Wait doesn't Simon have special dietary needs, I don't know if we have a place that’ll work this far from the border to the Griffin Kingdom.”

They all turned to Simon who, again casually shrugged.“It’s fine, I won’t die if I got a few hours without them, it’s no problem.” With a nod, the group arrived at the restaurant, with the waitress only giving them a short pause to look at Simon before seating them. The group each looked over the menu, Simon only glanced at it for a few seconds before putting it down.

“Did you already decide.” Pinkie Pie asked, looking at him from the right curiously. Simon shook his head. “Then what's the matter then.”

Simon turned his head down in embarrassment.“I...still can't read your language very well yet.” This got Twilight to lift up her head from his left.

“Well, I can help you with that.” Twilight opened his menu with her magic and started pointing to items while speaking in Simon’s own language, much to her friends surprise that she could speak the language but not read it. When the waitress came back around they all gave her their orders including Simon who just repeated what Twilight told him to. After she left the group went about speaking casually, though Twilight noticed Simon wasn’t participating, though her attention quickly shifted when a large amount of magic formed a rune near Simon, to which he seemed to be manipulating with a few small, seemingly innocent gestures.

“What are you doing Simon.” Twilight interrupted causing the magic Simon was focusing to break.“Oh I’m sorry I didn't know you needed to focus.”

“No no, it's okay Twilight, I was just working on recreating my nutritional magic.” Simon smiled turning his head to Twilight.

“Nutritional Magic?” Rarity asked, joining in their conversation.

“Yes, it's magic formula that allows me to eat by detecting any loss of nutrition in my body and uses magic to replace it.” Simon looked between them. “Though it’s easier to make it with an external source of magic so that it doesn't break every time I lose concentration.”

“Well, why don't you just make some of that magic with that strange glove of yours?” Rarity asked causing Twilight to nod in agreement.

“The thing about that is this.” Simon reached out into a black spot, pulling back to reveal a glove in his hand, only to turn it over and reveal chunks of it were missing.“The magic in your world is wild, almost like it has a mind of its own and every time I have tried to use it, it breaks almost immediately, so I figured I would try other methods.”

The conversation was brought to a halt as the waitress arrived with their food and for a while they ate in relative silence, the girls having some trouble thinking of a topic to discuss.

Applejack however, decided to end the silence by clearing her throat and getting the groups attention.

“Simon, since this week is coming to a close, we need to decide who you’ll bunk with for the next week. Figure Rainbow atleast is a no go know unless you can figure out a way to walk on clouds.”

Rainbow Dash chuckled. “I don’t know, it was pretty funny when the cloud walking charm Twilight cast on him wore off two hours early”

“It's not funny Rainbow, Simon could have been really hurt by that fall.” Twilight looked over at Simon. “Isn't that right?”

Simon had a straight face as he turned his head to Rainbow Dash. “That's right I could have been seriously…” Simon suddenly burst out laughing. “I’m sorry I couldn't keep a straight face at that it was hilarious did you see my face when it happened.” Simon tried to contort his face into one of shock and surprise. This caused Rainbow Dash to laugh with renewed vigor and Twilight to gave an annoyed look at Simon. “It's okay Twilight, Rainbow and Fluttershy swooped down and slowed my fall enough that I wasn't hurt.”

Applejack cleared her throat again turning attention back to her. “We’re getting off track here.” Rainbow Dash and Simon both stopped laughing and muttered their apologies. “So eliminating Rainbow Dash as an option that left the four of us.” Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack all looked amongst each other.

“I don't see a problem with Simon just staying with me, I already submitted my findings to Celestia about how Simon's familiarity magic no longer affects anypony beyond the initial effect,” Twilight added on.

Applejack shook her head in the negative. “No can do Twilight, until we get a notice from the princess, we gotta stick to the original plan.” The rest of them nodded in agreement. Twilight looked to Simon hoping for some support but he simply shrugged, seeing little point in arguing.

“Well with harvest season coming up ah don't think ah have time to watch over Simon.”

“I would have Simon over but Mr. and Mrs. Cake said that we are too busy this week and they could really use my help with the orders.” Pinkie Pie added.

“I suppose if you are all busy I can have Simon come stay with me,” Fluttershy spoke up quietly.

“Oh don't worry about it darling I know you are kept pretty busy with all your animals so Simon will come stay with me for the next week.” Rarity interjected. “Though if you need a hand with harvest I’m sure that Simon here wouldn't mind assisting.” Rarity turned her head to Applejack who in turn looked to Simon who offered a smile and a nod “Then it is settled, gather your things Simon because tomorrow afternoon you will start living with me. This will give me a chance to pick clothing that is better suited to a gentlecolt like yourself.”

Simon let out a yawn in response, though Rarity didn’t seem to take any offense to the act, though it prompted Twilight to speak up.

“I think we should all head home and turn in soon, it’s been quite an eventful day and we should try to get an early start tomorrow.” Truthfully, Twilight just wanted to rush home as she had a plan and needed Simon asleep in order to achieve it.

“Sure thing darling.” Rarity said the rest of them nodded in agreement. They all paid their part of the bill except for Simon who had pulled out some paper, referring to it as money so they split his part.

Back at the library, Simon was climbing into bed when he looked over to Twilight who was about to leave the room. “Are you going to bed?”

Twilight looked back to him. “In a little bit, I have some reading to catch up on.” Simon shrugged before turning back and laying the rest of the way down. Twilight quietly made her way down the stairs into her lab and pulling out some specific equipment.

“There's no way that I am in love with Simon.” Twilight spoke to herself as she hooked the scanner cap she’d previously used on Pinkie to her head. By all accounts she viewed Simon as more like a member of her family and the data seemed to agree, yet it seemed off, even only slightly. “This must be some kind of magic, maybe it's a long term effect I didn’t notice.” Twilight disconnected herself from the cap and moved over to where she kept the refined magic that Simon had given her, sealed in a protective case.

However, as she approached it, it was clear something was wrong, feeling a shiver run down her spine. The more she looked at the case, the more she wanted to hold it close to her and never let go. Thankfully, Twilight quick shook those thoughts away and a new idea entered her head when she saw Simon’s door. In the hecticness of the day she had forgotten all about Ace and now she was going to put it to full use. Using her magic she pressed the button on her headset twice to activate Ace.

“Hello Twilight, would you like to continue your English lessons?” Ace spoke to Twilight.

“Hello, Ace and no not right now. I was wondering if you could help me in learning how Rune magic works.” Twilight waited for a response.

“I am sorry but you have to have a clearance level 4 to access that information.” Twilight was not expecting that response.

“Clearance?” Twilight asked.

“Yes Twilight when your user profile was created you were given a security level that affects what information that you have access to.” Ace replied.

Twilight figured this meant it was time for plan B. “Okay can you tell me what's in Simon’s research journals.”

There was a pause of silence before she was given a response. “I am afraid that I do not contain that data.”

Twilight cursed her bad luck. “I guess that means I’m doing this the hard way.” Twilight used her magic to levitate the first book off the shelf and opened it to the 1st page only to find something off about it. Beyond the text looking more like it came from some kind of press, she found it was in a completely different language and stranger still, was too elegant and polished to be Simon’s handwriting. She stared at the page for a little bit before a thought occurred to her. “Ace can you tell me what this page says.”

A light came from next to Twilight's head hitting the page she was looking at slowly sweeping across it. “This page reads, ‘This book is the property of Hedwig.’”

“Hedwig who is that,” Twilight asked out loud to herself.

“I am sorry but you require level 5 clearance to access that information.” Ace suddenly replied. This brought other questions to Twilight's mind, mainly why did this name warrant such a high-security level. More curious than ever, Twilight turned the page and found the remaining text was the same handwriting that was on the previous page, all in short passages with large gaps between them, and to Twilight’s annoyance, she still couldn’t understand anything on the page.

“Why can't I read any of this,” Twilight said in frustration only to shift to surprise when a light came out from next to her head, scanning both pages.

“You cannot read this because this is a language known as German, Simon's original language before he became a deity. If you would like I can translate the pages for you."

“Yes, please.” Twilight set the book down in front of her and laid down while she waited.

“Dear Diary, This is so stupid but my counselor said that writing out my feelings may help with my so called hallucinations. I figure I might as well so, I guess it started when I was little. For whatever reason, I have seen things I can't explain and no I’m not talking about ghosts or anything dumb like that, I just see weird waves of light, sometimes coming from the ground or in the air or sometimes coming off of people. It doesn't seem to hurt anyone or anything and everyone just harmlessly passes through it. I don’t know why only I can see this or even what I’m seeing, hopefully writing this down will atleast make me feel a little less crazy. The passage ends there”

Twilight listened as Ace read the passage to her. Twilight would question why Simon had the diary to someone else. “Dear Diary, the visions are getting worse, I’m starting to see shapes in them, almost as if it's trying to communicate with me. All the adults tell me that it's just stress because I start at a new school tomorrow but I really don’t think that’s the case after everything I’ve seen. I guess I can give it some time see if things return to normal. The passage ends there.”

Twilight waited for the next passage, but gave a quick yawn, the events of the day catching up to her, yet she pushed on regardless.

“Dear Diary, it's only been a week since I started at this new school but I’m excited. I think I might have found some people to help me prove that I’m not hallucinating. It started normally in class when a thick cloud of the light rose up from the ground and blocked my view of the board. This wasn’t all that odd, it’s happened before, but then, one of the boys in front of me started moving around in his desk like he was trying to look around it. At first, I thought maybe he was reacting to something else, but then he nudged the boy next to him who looked like he was sleeping. He sat up and held out his hand causing the first boy to grab it and direct it at the light. Once his hand was pointed at the light the entire cloud seemed to funnel down into his hand. I saw them hanging out together after class, other than their hair and clothing they look just like each other I think they might have been twins. I’m going to try and talk to them tomorrow though I might leave the strange light out of the conversation at least for now. The passage ends there.”

Twilight now felt more confused than ever, as the passages neither explained nor even mentioned Simon at all. Thus, her only option was to keep reading and hope for something to appear.

“Dear Diary, I am so frustrated with myself, I had the perfect moment to talk to the both of them today but by the time I got my courage up, one of the popular girls started talking to them and I just lost all my nerve after that. But I did learn that their names are Rolf and Zack.” Twilight was tempted to read further only to find herself pulled out by a voice.

“Twilight, are you down here?” She immediately recognized it as Simon’s voice and scrambled to pick up the diary and get out of Simon’s lab. Once out, she stashed the book under a piece of lab equipment just as Simon poked his head through the door. “There you are Twilight.” Simon moved down the stairs to where the purple pony was standing. “What are you doing down here.”

Twilight gave a nervous chuckle. “Oh, I was just down here doing some research when I fell asleep, hehe.” Twilight only told a half truth, chuckling further, hoping Simon would buy the lie.

“Well, we only have a short time before Rarity shows up so if you were going to study humans now might be the most convenient time.” Simon turned his attention to his door, which he was quick to shut and pulled on the key. As Twilight watched the door she noticed several Runes sprung out from around the door in straight lines as he turned the key, before it slowly faded and the runes followed suit.

Twilight, having been briefly shocked again by the magic, nodded at Simon’s suggestion. “Right, you go back upstairs, I’ll grab a research book and be up in a second.” Simon nodded, placing the key back in his pocket and headed upstairs. Once Simon was gone, Twilight grabbed the diary and moved it to her bookcase before grabbing her research journal and following Simon, finding him standing in the middle of the room.

“So where do we start?”

Simon shrugged. “Where ever you wanna start?”

Twilight thought a moment. “Well, since I don't have the drawing magic that you do how about we start with anatomy and I will ask you questions while drawing.”

Simon nodded “Sure.” He began removing his clothing, while Twilight opened her book and started levitating her quill and inkwell over when Simon spoke up.

“Here Twilight use this.” Twilight looked up in time to see Simon toss an object at her. Catching it in her magic, she brought it close to her face and recognized it as the strange quill that he used to sketch her. Twilight gave it a try moving the point to the paper and was immediately surprised by how smoothly it moved. Twilight nodded her thanks to Simon who was now standing in front of her with no clothing at all.

Twilight began drawing Simons figure, starting with his upper half and arms and slowly working her way down filling details as she went.

Twilight was a bit surprised when she had reached his groin, finally taking a moment to examine him. She expected a sheath similar to what the minotaurs had but instead found his penis was exposed to the open.

“Kinda small isn't it?” Twilight was more talking out loud than to Simon.

Simon chuckled. “Well, considering that a horse’s penis from my world on average is about a foot and a half long I’m sure my penis seems smaller in comparison but it does get bigger when erect.” Twilight chuckled on this, she hadn't meant to insult him but he seemed to be taking it light heartedly like most things.

“Oh really how much bigger does it get.” Twilight blushed a little bit as she started to detail it. Twilight was so occupied that she didn't notice the door open behind Simon revealing Rarity.

“Oh, my penis will get big enough to rock your world,” Simon spoke in a flirtatious tone. Twilight giggled after a week with Simon she was starting to get used to his flirty ways.

Twilight's thoughts were interrupted by a throat clearing that's when she noticed Rarity standing there. “Well now, I know why you wanted him to live with you longer. If you need more time I can come back later.” Rarity speaking cause Simon to turn around. Rarity immediately blushed and avoided looking at Simon.

Twilight blushed. “No Rarity, it's not what it looks like.” Twilight gave an angry look to Simon who only offered a mischievous smirk. “Are you cursed or something, this is the third pony this week that has walked in on us in a compromising position.”

Simon shrugged. “I know, it's weird.”

“Don't worry Rarity, there's nothing going on, I was just sketching Simon to help with my research of humans.” Twilight tried to explain what was happening.

“It's okay.” Rarity was still looking up and away from Simon, she was used to ponies not wearing clothing but she had only seen Simon with his clothes on, so it was a bit of different experience for her. “Anyways, I was hoping that we would be able to get a move on soon as I wish to be back home and have Simon settled in before Sweetie comes home from school, preferable with Simon fully dressed.”

Twilight nodded. “Sure thing Rarity, I just finished the sketch anyway.” Twilight took a glance at her finished piece and while it wasn’t perfect, it served her purpose, thus she levitated Simon’s strange quill back to him.

“No, you can keep it Twilight I have a bunch of them.” Simon waved the object off as Twilight brought it back to herself deciding to take it apart later to try and learn how it worked. Simon moved over to where his clothing was laying and got himself dressed.

Twilight looked over to Rarity. “I didn't know that Sweetie Belle was going to be with you, I figured you’d have the house to yourself this week.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Oh, if only, my parent decided to go on another one of their trips and so while they are away she'll be staying with me.”

“Are you sure Sweetie is going to be okay with Simon?” Twilight asked.

“Oh yes, I told her this morning that he would be staying with us and she seemed rather excited about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was telling the exciting news to her friends right this moment.”Rarity laughed.

“Alright, I'm ready to head out.” Rarity looked to Simon when he spoke.

Simon was now properly dressed so Rarity didn't feel the need to look away from him anymore “Don't you have things to bring with you?” Rarity asked, looking confused.

“Yep, and I got them all right here in my pocket.” Simon patted the pocket that he placed the key in.

“Well, alright then, let's get going.” Rarity turned towards the door and started walking out Simon turned to Twilight and waved bye to her, which she returned though she couldn't shake the feeling of sadness as she watched him walk out that door. Twilight made her way sullenly up stairs, looking around her room yawning, still feeling tired from not sleeping that well before she spotted Simon’s bed.

“Oh, I guess Simon forgot his bed.” Twilight walked over to it hopping up onto it. “I’m sure Simon would mind me using it for now.” Twilight yawned again as she laid down and hugged the large pillow that Simon used to herself.

The walk to Rarity's boutique was done in mostly silence. Not only was Rarity having trouble coming up with a topic to talk about after that scene she witnessed at the library, but Simon also seemed to be counting something.

Once they reached Rarity’s house she opened the door allowing Simon in “Do come in and make yourself at home, I’ll show you the room that you will be staying in.” Rarity motioned for Simon to follow her to her spare room.“As you can see I don't use this space for anything, so for now please use this room for yourself though we will have to get you a bed for it.” Rarity turned to make her way out of the room.

“Don't worry about that Rarity I’ve got a bed I can use.” Rarity turned her head back to Simon confused as he had his eye’s closed in concentration. “Let's see, five point six miles east by northeast.” Simon seemed to be talking to himself as he turned on the spot. “And two degrees up.” he lifted his head only slightly. “You may want to take a few steps back.” Rarity nodded curious about what he was doing and took a couple steps back. Rarity saw a black spot open on her ceiling and quickly grew large to almost fit a carriage before stopping. Rarity could see four squares slowly sink out she could only guess that these were the legs of the bed, suddenly there was a surprised yell followed by a thump as the bed came crashing down. Rarity quickly looked around for who yelled until she spotted the disoriented form of Twilight spread out across the bed.

“Oh my, Twilight are you okay.” Rarity shouted running over to the side of the bed.

“Man Twilight, if you wanted to be in my bed that bad I wouldn’t have minded sharing.” Simon laughed. Twilight, however, didn’t seem to hear his joke, shaking her head and bringing her hooves together before rolling over so that she could stand back up.

Twilight looked around perplexed. “What happened?” Twilight looked down at the bed then up at the ceiling noticing one of Simon's black spot and quickly put two and two together.

Simon was about to tell her when another voice caught their attention. “Twilight are you okay.” they all looked up in time to see Spikes head pop out of the black spot.

“Yes, Spike I’m fine. A little shocked and weirded out, but fine,” Twilight said looking up at him.

“Are you sure cause I could come down.” Spike started to say but he stopped mid sentence as he burped, releasing a burst of green fire that formed into a scroll that bopped down onto Twilight's head. Spike chuckled sheepishly before pulling his back to the other side. Twilight, grumbling lightly at her brief moment of foolishness, levitating the scroll in front of herself and began reading it to herself.

“What does it say, darling,” Rarity asked, curiously.

“It's from the princesses, they want to see me right away,” Twilight said shocked.

“Well, that’s no problem, if we split up and fetch the girls, we could be ready within the hour.” Rarity turned to move out the door.

“Wait, no the letter said they wanted me alone, the rest of you are supposed to stay with Simon.” Twilight jumped off the bed, eyes still on the letter.

“Why would they ask for you alone?” Rarity questioned.

“They probably want to talk to me about how my research into Simon is coming along.” Twilight moved over to the entrance way. “I need to get back to the library and collect my notes before heading over.” She turned and looked back to Simon and Rarity. “It shouldn't take long, I'll probably be back by tomorrow so tell Spike to watch over the library.” Twilight turned back heading out the room.

Simon and Rarity joined her walking her out of the boutique and saw her off, leaving the two alone.

“Well that was a bit of excitement, though I must ask that you refrain from dropping things into my house like that, I’d would rather not have to pay for any damages.”

Simon nodded.“Sorry about that, I’m so used to moving things that way I tend to forget about the potential risks.

Rarity merely offered a smile as the pair took seats on her couch. “It's quite alright dear. Now, let's talk about your dreadful choice in clothing.”

A few hours later Sweetie Belle excitedly burst through the front door. “Rarity I'm home, also Applebloom and Scootaloo are here too.” She yelled out, her friends quickly following her in, though were met with no response. They started to wander about the house, only to stop when they heard a quick, pained yell. Quickly running to the room they heard it from, they practically barreled down the door, only to find Simon standing in front of Rarity, who was sticking pins into the clothing he was wearing, much to his discomfort as she again missed with the pin.

“Oh quit being such a big baby dear.” Rarity looked up at Simon's face slightly annoyed. Simon said something back but none of the three of them understood what it was. “Well, maybe I wouldn't be sticking you if you would hold still.” Rarity responded after a few seconds Simon spoke again causing Rarity to gasp. “Excuse me, suits are not stuffy, they are elegant and look dashing on anypony.”

“Hi, Rarity.” Sweetie Belle interrupted them entering the room.

“What are ya doin,” Applebloom asked coming in after her.

“And is it gonna take much longer, we want to play with Simon,” Scootaloo called from the doorway.

Rarity put her argument with Simon on hold to greet the fillies. “Oh, hello girls, I’m just trying to make a nice suit for Simon, though it would go faster if he would stop being such a crybaby.” Rarity shot Simon an annoyed look to which he again responded with something none of the fillies could understand. “Look, I’m almost done, just a couple more pins then you can go play.”

“How come we can't understand what he saying,” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah didn't he speak normally to us at the announcement,” Applebloom added.

“Oh, sorry girls, Simon doesn’t actually speak our language so her made these little devices so we could understand him.” Rarity used her magic to remove her headset and show it to the three fillies.

“Oh, I know what if we can get our cutie marks as translators.” Applebloom excitedly stepped up.

“Yeah.” Sweetie Belle agreed.

“Yeah, sure.” Scootaloo sarcastically said, “All we have to do is learn his language first.” Scootaloo looked to Simon. “Hey, how do you say boring in your language.” Simon smiled and turned to them saying something. “Yeah that, how about we just play something that he doesn't need to him to speak.” The three of them sat around thinking as Rarity finished up pinning for the alterations she was going to make. As Rarity took the suit off of Simon Applebloom suddenly shouted.

“I know we can play tag.” Applebloom hopped up onto her hooves and looked around excitedly soon to be joined by the other two.

“Hang on girls, did you even ask Simon if he wanted to play.” Rarity interrupted using her magic to give Simon back his normal clothing. The three fillies realized that Rarity was right they quickly ran up to Simon and gave him the biggest puppy eyes they could muster. Simon looked at them with a serious face for a short time before he let out a sigh and nodded.

“Yay.” All three of them cheered together. Sweetie opened the door while Applebloom and Scootaloo pushed Simons' legs with their heads.

“Come on, we can play at my family's farm, there's plenty of room,” Applebloom said as they practically rocketed out the door, only for Rarity to immediately hold them back with her magic.

“Oh now, I want you all to stay here at the boutique, Applebloom your family is busy with harvesting right now so don't bother them.” Rarity said, standing by the door, holding them until they all groaned in acknowledgement.

Satisfied, Rarity moved back to the table she was working at, taking one last look out the window. “Well that should keep them busy for a few hours and when they are done they’ll be so exhausted I’ll barely have to lift a hoof.” Without another word, Rarity immediately dove into her work, all but tuning herself out from the rest of the world.

The fashion pony continued on uninterrupted for several hours, before she put the finishing touches on Simon’s suit and took a moment to admire her work.“Ah, exquisite as always. Hopefully, Simon won’t be too exhausted from distracting my sister and her friends to try it on .” Rarity giggled to herself, knowing how much of a handful the Crusaders could be. The sound of a door opening signaled the groups return, prompting her to greet them. To her surprise, she found three exhausted fillies laying down on the floor, but no Simon. She was about to question the three when a rather pleasant smell from the kitchen told her all she needed, thus she turned back to the tired trio. “So girls how did your game go.”

The three of them slowly moved their heads to face Rarity. “ Simon won.” Sweetie Belle moaned out, her head dropping back to the floor.

“He was just so fast we couldn't catch him even when it turned into a three on one,” Applebloom added, not even bothering to lift her head.

“It was like he was in one spot one moment and in another the next.” Scootaloo yawned, looking about ready to pass out. “Hasn’t anypony ever told him that adults are supposed to let the kids win?”

Rarity giggled moving on to the kitchen sniffing the air whatever Simon was making, and just by the few whifs, it seemed quite good. “So I hear you won.”

Simon laughed and turned back. “Well, don't tell them but I cheated.” Simon reached into his pocket pulling out small silver disk before throwing one on the ground and suddenly another Simon appeared where it landed, leaving Rarity confused. “It's a hologram, a fake version of me.” Simon turned back to what he was cooking while the small silver disk disappearing into one of Simon's black spots.

“So what are you making.” Rarity walked up next to Simon looking over the counter to take a glimpse at his dish.

“You don't have to worry about, that just go set the table for you and the fillies, plus I don't know what it's called cause I pulled it from a cookbook at Twilight’s.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

In an Unknown world

A small woman with long blonde hair approached a tall man and quietly kneeled before him, waiting for him to speak first. “Congratulations on your victory Erma, though I am not surprised with you being the rank three combatant.”

“Thank you my god, but if I may say, I am anxious to find out what the secret prize is.” Erma looked up at the tall man, remaining calm despite her internal excitement.

He chuckled. “Yes, well as you may have well noticed Simon has not been around for quite some time now.”

“Yes, I thought things seemed quieter than normal.” Erma chuckled at her own joke.

The tall man continued, barely acknowledging her remark. “The special reward is that you will head up a team to bring Simon back. Recruit carefully, as of now the portal is highly unstable so once we send you through you'll be stuck until we can open it again and we have no idea what exists on the other side. So be prepared for anything” Erma nodded as the tall man waved her away.

“Yes my god, I shall have a team together by the end of the day.” Erma stood and walked out of the room, leaving the tall man to smirk, eager to begin the operation.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ponyville

Twilight sighed loudly to herself, the last five days in Canterlot had been some of the longest she’d ever experienced. Apparently, Celestia wanted to ensure Simon’s magic hadn’t influenced her and determined that prolonged absence would be the best testing method. Making things more irritating was that Twilight didn't even have the diary to read, leaving her to practice Simon’s language instead, though she’d managed to become proficient enough to have short conversations with Ace, which provided a welcomed distraction. Regardless she was happy to finally be back in Ponyville and eager to talk with Simon again, practically smacking the door to Carousel Boutique in her excitement, which Rarity was quick to respond to.

“Oh Twilight, it’s good to have you back.” Rarity hugged her friend.

“Thanks, Rarity, believing me I’m happy to be back as well.” Twilight returned the hug. “So how has Simon been doing.”

Rarity smiled, though there was a hint of strain in her smile. “Things have been fine, for the most part, though there have been some shall we say, irritating, moments.” Rarity sighed, let her fake smile crumble. “Honestly dear, I don't know how you put up with his antics for a whole week.”

Twilight smiled. “I guess you could say it’s a learned skill. How about we go have lunch and catch up on everything he's done.” Twilight was about to turn around when she noticed something in the door frame. “What's that?” Twilight quickly levitated the item, which was apparently a letter and handed it over to Rarity.

“Hmm well, it doesn't seem to be addressed to anyone.” Rarity opened the letter, only to find the paper was blank. “Must be some kind of prank, probably one of Rainbow Dash’s.” Rarity threw the paper away before she stepped out.

“Simon, I’m going out with Twilight for lunch, please don't set any fires while I’m away.” She didn't wait for a response before closing the door and heading out. The duo quickly seated themselves at a cafe near the edge of town, where Rarity brought Twilight up to speed on prior events. Needless to say, she found his aversion to suits amusing, while also being moved by how well he handled the fillies. Granted she was also sad to hear that Simon tended to stay in his lab most of the time, only coming out to play with Sweetie on occasion. Of course, they broke into laughter when Rarity mentioned how Sweetie Belle accidentally started a fire while Simon was teaching her how to cook. Though the laughter was cut short when Rarity spotted someone in the distance.

“Is that Simon overthere?” Twilight turned and spotted what appeared to be a tall figure walking on two legs.

“It’s either Simon or a hornless Minotaur, not many other bipedal creatures here.” Twilight turned her head to Rarity and the two shared a look of curiosity. “How about we follow him.” Rarity nodded and the two of them got following some distance away from Simon. Thankfully for them, Simon seemed more focused on his destination and didn’t notice them, even as they crossed the gap between the edge of Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. As Simon made his way through the forest Twilight and Rarity noticed a lack of wildlife. Soon Simon came to a clearing and stopped he looked at a piece of paper in his hand before tossing it aside.

“Alright, I’m here,” Simon called out Twilight and Rarity looked at each other confused to who he was talking to. “Come on guys, I read your terms and I agreed to this ranked match.” Simon was once again met with silence as Twilight watched, figuring the blank paper was most likely from the strange letter she found this morning. Suddenly a strange shimmer formed and started moving around Simon, almost like a firefly, only stopping when he threw a punch that stopped mere centimeters from it. Simon smiled as he looked in the direction of his hand.

“Simon says, stop being invisible,” He shouted,jumping up and kicking both feet out in front of himself. As Simon's feet hit full extension part of the shimmering mass started to move away revealing two more humans, one of which was tall and currently holding Simon's forearm while the second was falling backward from Simons kick.

Simon looked at the human holding his arm. “Oh, I didn't know you were here too Kat.” Simon pulled himself upright, using the arm that was being held by the other human as a support.

“And I see you're a fucking idiot like always Simon.” The human, Kat, holding Simon’s arm practically shouted, with a distinctly higher pitched voice. Twilight had to translate for Rarity since this new human didn't have one of the translation headsets. Height wise they were taller than Simon by two full heads and had a long red mane that was darker than Simons fiery red. Kat quickly lifted Simon by his arm, leaving him dangling in the air.

Simon smiled at Kat now face to face with them. “If you give me a moment I can adjust my strategy to include you as well.” The other human smirked.

“Like hell, I would give you time for that.” They quickly turned to hold Simon over their shoulder and threw him across the clearing, slamming into a thick tree, nearly breaking it in half. Despite this, Simon was able to get to his feet and stare down his attacker, who was quick to kick him back down, sending him flying over head. Yet as he flew, he was able to summon one of his black holes beneath their feet, sending them falling, allowing Simon to get back on his feet. Twilight charged her horn preparing to charge in and assist Simon but Rarity stopped her.

“Twilight you know as well as I do that Simon is more than capable of defending himself and even so, we don’t know what kind of people we’re dealing with.” Rarity whispered to Twilight getting her to nod in agreement.

“You know, this was more fun when I was the one doing the hitting.” Simon spoke, “So how about we fix things.” He quickly reached into his black hole and pulled out two smooth sticks with a handle about a fourth of the way on each side. Simon quickly, charged at Kat swinging wide as she tried to stand, spinning the strange stick so that it extended forward and connected with the side of her head. Kat could barely stumble before she received a follow-up blow to the gut, sending her skidding, but still standing.

Growling angrily, Kat stood tall and stared Simon down. “Very well, if you want to fight with archaic weapons, I’m more than happy to accommodate you.”

Holding her hand out, another black spot opened, dropping a long metal staff, topped with a massive head of metal that embedded itself deep into the ground. Despite its size however, she easily pulled it free and pointed the head at Simon.

“My pocket space might not be as big as yours but I can use it to hold Ragnarok and that’s all I need to beat you.”

Without a word she charged, raising the head high before slamming it down, Simon sidestepping to avoid the blow, the ground shaking and shattering upon impact. Simon quickly took advantage of the opening and landed a few quick jabs before stepping back to avoid possible retaliation. Kat was unphased and swung her weapon horizontally as Simon quickly lowered his stance putting up both of his weapons in front of himself. The weapons collided with a loud ring as Simon slowly slid back some following the path that the weapon was following, managing to somehow hold his ground.

Twilight and Rarity watched, quickly realizing the pair were in a stalemate, both trying to overpower the other. However,there was a strain in Simon's voice as he struggled to hold his ground, letting out groan of pain before another human appeared behind him, stabbing a large dagger into his side.

This new human appeared to be as tall as Simon with a short black mane, though neither pony paid this much mind, shocked instead by Simon being stabbed, yet stranger still, he didn’t seem to care.

“Aw, Jack come on you know that really hurts.” Simon moved one hand off the hammer losing just a bit of ground before he grabbed onto Jack's arms, Twilight could see more magic suddenly moving from Jack into Simon. Simon then spun on the spot allowing the hammer to continue its descent, forcing the named Jack to jump back, pulling the knife free of Simon.

“Don't you know it's dangerous to lose track of an enemy.” Jack spoke, his voice much deeper than Simon’s, as he quickly faded from sight Simon took a step back the part of his shirt that covered the spot where he was stabbed only turned slightly red, while Jack’s voice rang out again.

“Then again, now there are two of us and it’s gonna cost you big time.”

Kat quickly charged again with another overhead swing, which Simon again dodged, only now he had to quickly move his head as Jack’s reappeared, lightly grazing Simon’s cheek before resealing itself. Simon tried kicking out in the direction that the knife came from but he didn't seem to hit anything. Jumping back quickly, Simon put himself up against a tree.

“Man, it's almost like you two want to kill me or something.” Simon joked before quickly moving to the side as a knife came flying towards him, striking the tree right where Simon's head was.

“Do you think a higher rank will get you more luck with the ladies? Cause I’m pretty sure you know the answer is no.” Simon quickly ducked as Kat swung Ragnarok, cleaving through the tree, sending the knife flying where it stopped mid air before disappearing again.

Honestly, despite his cavalier attitude towards everything, Simon was kept on the defensive and khe seemed to be fighting to stay alive. Still, his taunts were helping to throw them off their game, if only slightly.

“You know Kat if you spent just a bit more time practicing your defense you wouldn't need Jack to help you all the time.” Simon dropped to the ground as Kat swung wide over his head, before leaping to the side as Jack’s knife hit the ground where his leg was a moment earlier. “You do know this is a fight right that looked like a baseball swing and right now I’d say you are both striking out hard when it comes to hitting me.”

Kat practically roared in frustration while launching her next attack, bringing Ragnarok down next to Simon, having narrowly missed again before hiding behind a tree. Kat charged, cleaving the tree only for Simon's head to peek up from behind what was left. For a moment it seemed like Simon was vulnerable as the knife flew at him, both Rarity and Twilight were about to intervene when the knife simply passed through him, as though he wasn't physically there. Kat let out a roar of annoyance.

“Damn you Simon come out here and fight like a man.” Kat looked around in all directions trying to figure out where he went.

“But what if I don't wanna fight like a man.” Simon’s voice rang out but it seemed to be coming from all directions at once, Kat trying to find the location of the sound. As Kat drew close to the fallen part of the tree Simon rolled out tripping her and using the moment to hit her in the back with his weapon. “I’d rather fight like a mouse, you know as Jack does.” Simon laughed as a knife went flying by his head. A roar of anger came from Kat as she slammed her hands on the ground before staggering up. Grabbing Ragnarok she began swinging wildly while Simon stepped back, dodged blow after blow despite their ferocity.

After a few steps, there was a noise of a large mass hitting something. Jack reappeared as Ragnarok had caught him on the right shoulder sending him spinning into the air.

“Man, that was a great shot.” Simon clapped his hands sarcastically as Kat stood there briefly stunned, her eyes quickly snapping in fury at Simon.

“Whoa, don't pin this on me, that was all you're doing.” Kat didn’t seem to agree, blinded by anger and swung, Simon easily leaping over her and landing right behind her. Quickly turning, Kat was stunned to find Simon smiling and waving at her from only a few inches away, a loud snapping and crackling sound following.

Simon cheekily pointed up, prompting Kat’s eyes to follow and find that her last strike had all but cut another tree in half, only leaving enough to support its weight for a few seconds before it tipped over and headed right for her. Simon was able to easily leap away, while Kat found herself all but crushed underneath the trunk of the tree.

“Well now that you're going to be busy with that for a while let's remove Jack from the fight.” Simon walked over to the unconscious human kicking his blade away before grabbing the right arm that was attached to the shoulder that just got hit. Picking it up he placed his foot in Jack’s armpit and began pulling, a wave of magic moved across Simon’s body as Twilight and Rarity could only stare on in horror as the sound of bones snapping and breaking and flesh ripping followed by screaming echoed across the winds as Simon tore Jack’s arm clean off. Despite the horrific display, Simon seemed almost unaffected by the detached limb he had in his hand, casually tossing it aside, leaving Jack bleeding and unconscious from the pain.

Twilight turned to Rarity. “This is getting out of hoof, you get the girls and have Spike send a letter to Princess Celestia telling her what happened. I’ll stay here and keep Simon from doing anything more to that other human, Kat.” Rarity nodded in agreement wasting no time in taking off towards town. Twilight’s gaze quickly returned to Simon who’d redirected his attention to Kat.

“There we go, Kat, it's just you and me now.” Kat had finally freed themselves from the downed trunk and picked up her weapon. Simon took up a fighting stance once again wielding those strange sticks that he had been using.

Kat, now visibly tired and beyond furious, charged swinging her weapon, only now instead of dodging, Simon was deflecting each strike with his own weapons, while continuing to make snide comments. “You know Kat, if this is about picking up dates I can recommend a good makeup artist.”

Effectively at the end of her patience, lifted Ragnarok up and heaved it at Simon, who continued to smile as a black spot opened up, swallowing it.

Now free to attack, Simon quickly began attacking and swinging his weapons with furious abandon, forcing Kat back, until she found herself pinned against a tree. Behind him, Simon’s black spot opened, sending Ragnarok flying straight for the back of his head. However, Simon, with another smile, leaned forward, avoiding the blow and sending the hammer straight into Kat’s exposed face.

The massive head collided with a loud crunch, both from the tree bark and from Kat’s own skull. It strangely stayed in place for a few seconds before the weapon dropped to the ground finally breaking the head off, Kat slowly sliding down the trunk, a large indentation where she had been standing, whilst blood dripped from her forehead, shattered nose and mouth.

Simon looked over his handy work, and despite his previous joking demeanor he couldn’t help but frown at the sight of the battered humans, quietly checking Kat’s neck for a pulse. Thankfully there still was one, yet that did little to brighten his mood as he simply stared at the injured girl, only able to offer up two words in response.

“I’m sorry,”