The Reliving

by Order or Chaos

Rating: mature
Tags: Adventure, Sex, Sunset Shimmer, Profanity, Gore, Princess Celestia, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Human, Anthro, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy
Length: 97303

I wanted to be in another world, enough to abandon everyone else. Selfish? Yes. Oh I am in an Equestria alright. Many wanted me dead. There ARE worse things than death. Just sayin'.

(This Story is now Officialy under revision and rewrite, anything you may read, while the hiatus status is up, is subject to change - minor or big.)

Everyone had different opinions of me. For example: some thought that I died twice and some thought I was never alive. The rest wanted to kill me.
Not like it matters. Not at the moment.
It always makes me crack up. My existence up to this point I mean. The journey started so mundane. And now? Now I'm stuck. No, not in stone. Not some time prison either. Nor magically locked away in a lamp or in a black hole in the middle of space. Just... stuck. And all because I couldn't live my fucking life with the humans anymore. Nor with all the Terrans actually.
So predictable at times it's not even funny. So it was with high hopes and dreams I accepted the trip. All of them. If there is one thing I learnt: it's that you should never hope and dream. I was about to get teleported by the infamous displacer, when it didn't go according to plan...
For anyone.

[]
If you find any typos, or grammatical mistakes, or just writing mistakes please point them out in the comments or send me a private message via that envelope icon. Have a good read.
Also: beware the comment section. There may be spoilers down there.

Published 2017-12-03 03:40:06 UTC
Last updated 2019-08-20 17:51:32 UTC

Ch. 2: ...Hello Horse. No I'm not a fish.

Chapter Two: ...Hello Horse. No I am not a fish.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sunset Shimmer

I stare at the fire in the arcane fireplace, occasionally sipping some of my banana tea. My housemates are on the second floor practicing for their next performance. The rain outside is absolutely dreadful. The sun would sometimes shine through the steel colored clouds, but otherwise it was grey and gloomy.
It's been like this a whole week.

I wish they would finally repair the 'Weather Factory', or fix the weather at least here, I need to run my experiments. I know I probably shouldn't think like that. What with the 'Rainbow Storm' incident claiming many lives and the number still rising, but if I can at least find out what's causing all these ley-lines energy fluctuations, then maybe I'll find the solution to fixing this weather, or maybe something else entirely.

I'm about to take a sip, when a sigh escapes my lips. Some bubbles appear in my tea. I pull the cup back in surprise. I really am stressed out. I can't believe that it was Twilight of all ponies that told me that I look stressed. When was the last time she looked in a mirror? That mare knows no rest. If she keeps running all these errands for the Queen, then she will lose all her hair and fur in a month. I giggle at the thought of bald Twilight, whilst raising my cup to take another sip.

Suddenly a strange noise gets my attention. My ears start swiveling around, trying to pinpoint the source. After a couple of seconds of fruitless effort, with great displeasure I place the cup down on the tea table and rise up from the comforts of the chair. It's...it's like air being sucked out of something. The noise gets louder and I'm finally able to pinpoint where it's coming from - outside. Through closed windows. With rain pouring like out of a waterfall. What in the world?

I start walking closer to the window to see what's causing it. All of a sudden, there is a sound not unlike thunder and metal hitting stone. Hard. I peer through the glass and my eyes widen. There, standing in the middle of the street is a horned, black figure. I hear hoofsteps coming down the stairs. I'm about to turn around, when the thing suddenly falls to it's knees. I start panicking. I decide to grab my orange hoodie and run onto the street. If anything happens to me, the girls can call the guard.

I am not thinking straight.

I stop as soon as I get outside. The mysterious figure is lying on the ground near where it was standing just moments before. I hear someone slowly come up behind me.

"Sunset. What just happened? What is that?" I hear a whisper behind me.

I open my mouth to answer, however suddenly a quiet voice just barely cuts through the rain.

"Help." That came from the direction of that thing!

"Sunset...what do we do?"

The weather worsens. After taking a moment to calm my already rattled nerves, I turn to Adagio.

"Please help me get it inside."

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Me

Noise.

"-et! You will not untie him and I will not put the knife down!"

No. A voice. A very authoritative voice.

"First of all: you don't know if that is a he. And second: it might get scared and not cooperate if you don't put that knife away." A tired and worried voice speaks up.

Knife? What knife? Da fuq did I get myself into?

"Look: I know you have a kind heart and a logical mind. But until that mind starts working properly, I will not let you make these kind of decisions. Especially in such an unknown territory."

"What, like you?"

"...That was different Sunset. That was completely different."

I feel the blood flow throughout my body and regain my sense of touch. It appears that I am no longer wearing my costume and also tied down to a metallic chair. Who has a chair made entirely out of metal? At least get a cushion.

I decide to open my eyes, but I do so with great effort.

"How was that any different?" I hear Sunset say.

My eyelids fully lift and my mouth drops.

"Well, she didn't have a knife for starters." I bet she was wearing pants as well, whoever she is.

There, standing in front of my face. Was a butt.

It was a really nice butt, but a butt nonetheless.

I try close my mouth and crane my neck upwards to see who was the one, that decided to give me such a view.
Whoever it is, they are at least wearing a simple grey shirt and have an abundance of the fluffiest hair I've ever seen, however it was slightly wet. I can also see them holding something in their right hand.

Oh. That knife.

"No, but she did have almost every single possible medical instrument you can imagine." I recognize Sunsets voice and realize, that it's owner is on the other side of this topaz furred glory.

I hear fire behind me as I start paying more attention to my surroundings.
While the two keep arguing, I slowly turn my head slightly to the right. There is the exit...two exits to be precise: a door and a window.
There is also a small cushion lying an the floor...

Dicks.

Hearing some cheery humming and what sound like dishes being washed I turn left and stop when I see someone. She is wearing a simple black top with an image of a broken red heart and, thankfully, some purple pants. She's currently standing near what looks like an archway to the kitchen, because that's where the sounds of humming and running water were coming from. It appears that the only artificial source of light in the house is coming from that room. Everything else is washed in grey.

Realizing that the very emo looking girl doesn't seem to notice me, I relax. It seems that she's instead finding some amusement in Sunset and who I assume is Adagio bickering, though she keeps frowning at some parts of the argument. Suddenly her dark purple eyes flick to me, however I can't see any anger or worry on her face, she's just... curious. I decide to prove a theory I just got.

'How long have these two been at it?' I mouth at her and nod my head to where the still half naked Adagio and for some reason flustered sounding Sunset were standing. I wasn't really paying attention to their conversation.

She seems mildly surprised for a moment, before facing her head to her left, looking at something and then turning back.

Smirking Aria mouthed back 'About for half an hour'. I am simply guessing their name based on the color and form of their hair, but I could be wrong and these could be completely different people. She definitely doesn't care about who, or what I am, if she hasn't alerted anyone of my awakening yet.

I just tilt my head with wide eyes. I know people that can lead arguments for a while, including myself. But for half an hour? How can anyone argue for half an hour about me?

A light blue pony in a white apron comes out of the kitchen. She stops smiling and humming when she enters the room.
Sighing she turns to the purple and cyan haired emo horse.

"Are they still going at it?" the horse, but not quite horse asks in slightly high pitched voice, her striped hair swinging from side to side with her heads every movement. Some would consider it adorable.

"Adagio, look: it is important to figure out how its armor works. I think the key to activating the rest of the spellwork is in placing that armor on its owner."

"Sunset, I believe you. I really do, but if we give him the armor...there's no telling what might happen. He might explode for all we know!"

Well that's a horrifying thought. It would appear that my costume is no longer just a costume. I wonder if it was the merchant who had enough time to place some 'spellwork' just before I got dragged onto the pain train.

"What do you think Sonata. Are they?" Sarcastic and monotone. That is definitely an emo attitude.

"*Sigh* Come on girls. Enough with the noise. Let's just wak- Oh you're up, hello my name is Sonata! What's yours?" She gave a little wave and looked at me expectantly.

Before I could even blink, Adagio turned to face me in an orange blur of wet hair.
She had an expression of fear and surprise, but the next moment it was gone replaced instead by one of seriousness
and determination, or as some call it the 'You mess with me and I will castrate you quickly, but painfully'.

I decided to mess with her.

She took a wide stance and pointed the knife millimeters from my face, I went cross-eyed to look at it.

"Can you understand me." It wasn't really a question.

"If I say no, would you believe me?" I raise an eyebrow, while still looking at the knife.

"Drop the tone. Who and what are you?"

"No offence, but I'd really rather answer either Sonatas, or Sunsets questions at the moment." Her demeanor wavers for a moment before she steels herself again an this time raises her knife to one of my eyes. My eyes reflexively follow the tip .

"How do you know their names?" Oh dear...

"I awoke earlier and for five minutes trying not to stare at your uncovered backside, which is a very hard task to do by the way, considering how good it looked, not that I am hitting on you or anything. And I may, or may not have overheard your conversations."

"So you were eavesdropping on us?" Commando Adagio accuses me. It seems that the first part of what I said
has passed completely over her head and then some. I hear quiet giggling to my left and one of Adagios ears swivels towards the noise, but otherwise she keeps her posture.

"Ada-"

"It's not really eavesdropping, if you're shouting in the same room right next to me"-I look her in the eyes, having managed to not cut myself-"and it's not really peeking when you spread it for me, if you know what I mean."

She stares at me for a second with a blank muzzle.

I smirk.

She blushes.

What the hell? I have never in my life seen a human blush, but I can see a pony blush through their short fur?

This shouldn't be physically possible.

"Oh don't mind her. She just likes to practice without any underwear on." Sunset you so smug.

"Sunset!" There's the butt again. I think I am starting to get used to it.

"I completely understand. You can't practice for something like that, while wearing underwear." I have no idea what she's practicing for.

I think I hear her neck creak when she's turning bac-Oh, oh yeah that's anger.

"Adagio, no pants, remember?" My grin is reaching far and wide. I haven't had this much fun in ages.

Uh oh. The teeth clench "Excuse me for a moment." The now scarlet Adagio goes to the stairs on my left and up onto the second floor.

"Did she go to get a bigger knife?" I ask the now unobscured unicorn with the ketchup and mustard hair.

"I don't think so, but she might get one later,"-my smile drops from Sunsets tone-"so I suggest you give me one good reason to untie you."

I don't even need to think. "Because you want to?" She's silent after that.

I see her go through a bunch of different states: confused, then thoughtful, worried and sad, tired and finally determined.
The other two in the room seem to have their own, different opinions on the matter. One's worried, the other is just smiling.

"I can't. You might be very dangerous I wouldn't want you to start any trouble."

"Is that you speaking or Adagio?" She shuts her mouth and tenses. I look her in the eyes and she in mine.

"Am I sapient?"

"Well uh..."

"The answer's yes. Next question: Have I hurt anyone so far?"

She opens her mouth, then closes it. "Not really, no."

"Did I break any laws of this land?"

"None." Her mask is falling apart.

"So have I done anything to receive such distrust from you?"

Sunset let's out a tired sigh and look down at her blue shirt, "Adagio doesn't trust you."

"No way. Are you sure?" I am a master of sarcasm, after all: I've been honing it to perfection since I was six.

"I am asking you, Sunset. Do you trust me or not?"

"She's my friend and this is her house, I respect her wishes. But I don't know whether I trust you or not."

I see. "I see. You have the right attitude towards the unknown, you realize that? Not trusting, but neither distrusting until I do something that will cause one of those."-I hear a set of hooves coming down the stairs, no one else seems to notice-"So what I am guilty until proven innocent?" I raise my voice just a bit and hear the hoofsteps immediately stop.

The poor unicorn looks so torn by guilt. Guilt of wanting to not disrespect her friend's wishes in her own house and guilt of keeping a civilized creature trapped like an animal and allow it to be threatened. I didn't feel threatened though.
The choice may seem difficult, Sunset, but I can help you choose.

Go on. Say something.

"S...We were planning on giving you in to their majesties 'royal guard'." Checkmate.

"You might have been, however you decided to not do that, because I know for a fact that you had more than half an hour to do just that. So there's zero reason for you to keep me tied up here."

Sunset untenses her muscles and exhales deeply. I am smiling at her victoriously.

"But maybe you have a reason to stay tied to that chair? Yes, the idea to give you in to the guard was dismissed. However I think that you'd much rather prefer us interrogating you, than Professor Sparkle."-Adagio walks to me from the side. She is now wearing a pair of incredibly fabulous pants. They're magenta.-"So basically: either you let us ask you questions on our terms, or... we give you to our dear neighborhood professor and she get's even more answers her way."

Her muzzle gets a haunted expression for less then a second, but I noticed it. I think about what she's saying, legitimately worried for my physical and psychological well-being.

"So...what do you choose?" She leans in close to my face, while Sunset takes a seat in a much more comfortable looking chair and drinks something from a teacup. Probably tea.

I look at the orange 'siren' and notice that up close, her eyes almost look like that of a fish. Just a bit too rounded.

And hollow.

I smile, "How about mutual terms?"-She raises her eyebrow-"You untie me, give me a couple of minutes to stretch my legs and I'll be nice and answer all your questions truthfully and completely seriously?"-she looks at me suspiciously-"What am I gonna do? Run away? In that rain? I may be mad, but I'm not that mad."

She raises her knife, "If you lie-"

"I don't lie."

She keeps staring at me, that stare promising a most painful death, if I make one wrong move. Suddenly raising her knife she goes behind me and I can feel my binds getting loose. As soon as she finishes cutting and the rope falls to the ground, I nearly jump out of my chair, the action causing Sunset and Aria to tense and I don't even need to turn around to know that the mare with the knife just took a stance to stab me with it.

When I attempt to take a step forward, all of my joints in my spine suddenly pop. All of them.
I stifle a shout of pain and attempt to stop myself from falling forwards, but that just makes the joints in my arms and legs pop as well. I end up on the ground.

I try to move my neck, in order to look at Adagio and after a while succeed. Barely.

"Oh yes, look at me! I am such a dangerous creature! Can't even take a step, before ending up in a pile of pain." 'Sarcasm', 1 upgrade point available.

Sunset is looking torn between being worried or laughing at me, so she does both. Aria has no problem though and proceeds to have a surprisingly cute giggling fit. Sonata just straight up disappeared, guess she's trying to be polite.
Although, I think I can hear her laughing her ass of through the walls. And of course the orange menace has zero problems enjoying my misfortune, apparently deciding to comment what everyone was thinking.

"-he-heh. You certainly didn't lie. You can't even take a step without what I would only call - self destructing. He-he-he-"

She has snark, that one.

"Tell me something I don't know." I grunt as I get up.
After making sure that all my leg muscles were behaving properly, I took a tentative step forward.

...

Success! I can actually walk without succumbing to the power of gravity and stupidity.

"Impressive."

...

I hate the fact that she genuinely sounds impressed.

I decide to not reply and instead try to reach the mirror on the wall, left of entrance to the kitchen.

As soon as I am two steps away from the mirror I take a look at myself. I'm still wearing my dark blue, long-sleeved blank shirt, that's tucked into the trousers of a black suit. I would have worn my jeans, but the costume's leggings weren't fitting around them, so I chose the suits trousers. My dark brown short hair is a bit messy and doesn't really have any sensible shape at the moment.

But it's my eyes that grab my attention

Oh they're still hazel-brown with that lil' bit of green in them. They're just no longer bloodshot. The whites are pure white. Some might think that's a good thing, if it weren't for the fact that my eyes were always at least a bit bloodshot.

Or for the fact that I had dried blood reaching down from the eyes to my chin. It wasn't even in rivers. It was like a warpaint.

No wonder Adagio doesn't trust me. Looking like that, I wouldn't trust myself.

After a minute of staring at my bloodied pale face, I realized something.
I took a step back...and another...another. I could still see myself. I could still see all the details on myself. I could discern almost every single hair on my head from one another. I realized that the blood on my face was previously located inside my eyeballs and was the cause of my shortsightedness.

I looked right and saw a modern aquarium. It had a bunch of different plants and fish in it, which I have never even seen or heard of before. One of them was glowing pink and had small tendrils on the side of it's head. The luminescent fish swam to my side of the aquarium. It looked at me.

Three bubbles came out of it's opened mouth.

Author's Note

Anthro. Yes the ponies are anthro.
The have hooves for feet ,
A muzzle for a face
And hands for hands.

Deal with it.

Also for anyone wondering: No there will be no crossovers with the other displaced.
They might be mentioned, but that's your lot.

I would also like to thank rikithemonk for helping me find the typos in chapters 1 and 2.

Once again if you have any questions. I'll be willing to answer them in the comments.
I'm planning on releasing the next chapter, next week. Until we see each other again.

Cosmic Tesseract out.

Ch. 3: Questions are not Answers.

Chapter Three: Questions are not Answers.

I can see. That's not how biology works. You don't just bleed from your eyes and start to see as far as a hawk.
Maybe not exactly like a hawk, but close enough.

"-y! Can you hear me?!" I suppress the urge to cringe from the volume.

"Yes Adagio, I can hear you just fine. For how long was I spaced out?" I ask whist turning the finger in my ear.

"Definitely more than a couple of minutes."-She turns to the aquarium-"You like our little watery world?" Little? It's three meters high!

"Yes, it's actually kinda-" Something green and orange, with a mathematically impossible amount of teeth, suddenly latches onto one of the fishes and drags it under the sand in a single second."-...nice."

"Thank you. We actually collected all of these fishes and plants ourselves." She swells with pride.

"Uh...huh. Hey listen, can you tell where I can wash off all this,"- I point at my face. -"because I highly doubt, you'd enjoy our conversation with me looking like this."

"Wait, that's not your usual look?" She asks with genuine interest.

... "..."

"Okay fair enough. There's a bathroom door to your left."

"And what do you want me to do with it?" I ask whilst turning toward the door.

"..."

"Fair enough." I enter the bathroom.

The first thing I notice is the absolutely massive built-in marble bath tub with silver engravings. Fancy.
There's also a pretty funky looking washing machine with a marble sink next to it. I walk over to it and see a bunch of different toiletries placed in cups on the sink. A light blue, yellow, white and black towels are neatly folded on the washing machine. After scrubbing off my 'war paint' and making sure the door is closed, I use the white towel, then open the cupboard that's hanging behind me and search for a razor or scissors. I find a razor. However I can't use it in self defense, because it's a modern human-like razor and not a blade.
Maybe I cou-

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Do you have anything to treat a skin rash?" I ask keeping my cool.

"First of all: close the cupboard. No One-" One? "-gave you permission to start looking in our stuff. Second of all: no, thanks for reminding me, that's another thing we'll have to buy later."

"We?"

"Everyone in this house except you." Harsh.

She moves to the side to let me out of the bathroom. Sunset is now wearing an orange hoodie, huddled in that incredibly comfortable looking chair. Aria and Sonata are sitting on a nearby grey sofa with purple outlines, now that the latter is no longer in her apron, I am able to see that she's got a pair of pink long-socks, a pair of blue shorts and a pink long-sleeved shirt on, which has a single blue and white musical note on it. Other than that, they haven't changed much. One's nervous, one's excited and the last one is seemingly bored.

Time to get this rolling.

I walk over to the front door, the mares just watching me curiously. Carefully bending down, in order to not get a repeat of the previous episode, I pick up the purple cushion, get the metal chair, walk over to the sofa and set the chair down about three steps away from it, so that I'm able to speak with everyone without much turning. I sit on the now much more comfortable chair with the little pillow on it.
I work my jaw around for a bit, waiting until Adagio sits on the sofa with the other two.

"Oh by the way, do you mind answering my questions, after I answer yours?"

"...That's not what we agreed on." Don't be like tha-at.

"You can decline if you want. I am going to answers yours either way."

"We'll see." 'Progress'.

"So...You wanna like, write this down or something?" I look at their 'leader'.

"We won't be asking those kind of questions."

"Actually I wou-"

"We won't be asking those kind of questions. You can ask him those questions, if we deem him trustworthy, Sunset."-piece of cake.-"Activate you lie detection spell."-that is on fire.

"Well, technically speaking it's not really a lie dete-"

"Just use it." Not really a lie detection spell eh? I look at Sunset and she has a face of concentration...I'll call it a face for familiaritys sake. However nothing is happening. Am I immune to it, or something?

"Is... something supposed to happen?"

"Oh it's already happening." Adagio, what are you talking about. She isn't even- Oh. There is a red mixed with cyan glow around her horn, but it's practically invisible. And we're in a pretty dark room right now. I guess magic is not quite the lightshow it's made out to be.

"Alright, first things first. What is your name?" Sunsets ears twitched in my direction. Her ears twitched.

Heh, this eyesight is proving to be useful.

My name eh? Well it's- Wait if that merchant has turned my costume into actual necromancers armor it's not a very good idea to give my real name. Don't think, remember. Thinking increases blood flow. Do not think, remember.

"I am Vadon." Sonata adopted a quizzical expression.

"Vah Dawn? What does Vah mean?" What? Oh...

"No-no-no, it's one word." Her mouth formed into a little 'O'. Adagio looked at Sunset.

"He's not lying." The unicorn answered the unasked question.

"Alright then, next: How did you appear in the middle of the street today?" Not even going to ask what I am? I'm cool with that.

"I guess I got teleported."

"You guess?" Adagio stop pressing.

"I'm not really good with this whole spells and...magic thing."

"But-but...Your armor has so many complex runic spell matrixes. Didn't you make it?" Sunset seems to lose her concentration.

"I made the armor and daggers. All the magic? Not me." It's the truth.

"Alright, but what about that book and... whatever the other thing is?" They don't have guns? Ex-celent.

"I bought them."

"So you don't know why it burned me when I picked it up?" All three of hornless Ponies whipped their head to her in concern and worry.

"It burned you!?" Dammit Sunset, you're not helping!

"No, I don't know why." My statement was ignored.

"Relax, it was just a small burn, nothing serious." Despite the reassurance Adagio still turned to me and gave me a murderous glare.

"Whose side are you even on Sunset?"-The siren looked at her friend-"Is your lie-detection spell even still active? Has he lied about anything?"

"I am trying not to be biased Dagi. Yes it's still active and I don't think Vadon is lying." I look at Sunset. No, no it isn't.

"Fine. Why are you here?" I still tell the truth. I don't like lying.

"Because I want to be here." You know Dagi, when you ask me questions, you have to be really specific, if you want to get the answers you desire.

"Why do you want to be here?" Or you can just simply keep asking me an indefinite amount of questions.
That works too. I need to change tactics.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I am here to conquer you all an then destroy this entire planet?"

"No."

"Then what do you expect me to say woman!? That I am here on some secret mission for a government? That I am here, because of some ancient prophecy being fulfilled? Or that I am here to use you all as batteries for my invisible spaceship that's parked right outside?! What. do. you. want. from. me?"

Sunset is taken aback by my outburst, Sonata attempts to hide in the couch and Arias eyebrows rise.
Adagios expression stays neutral.

"What's up with you dude?" The emo asks.

"Let me think. Oh I know! I haven't eaten in over eight hours and whatever sent me here only increased the hunger. My head still feels like it has been struck by the hammer of a god. I've been unconscious and tied to a metallic chair without a pillow for-How long?"

"For about an hour and a half." Aria tells me.

"Thank you. I've been unconscious in that chair for an hour and a half and as soon as I get out of it, I embarrass myself!"-I know the universe hates me, but this is a different universe, for fucks sake-"And after I haven't done anything to receive such distrust and been answering your questions, you still hate me! And don't tell me you don't, because I know you do. So I ask you one more time: What do you want from me?" Taking deep breaths through the nose, I look at Adagio.

"The truth." ...

"I will answer one more question, so choose wisely. After that I want you to stop treating me like a threat." My heartbeat returns to normal.

"Do you wish any harm upon me, my sisters, or Sunset?" Good question.

"No."

She turns to Sunset, who gives a nod and smile. I noticed her horn just stopped glowing. I can actually see the aura, if I know what to look for, because magic is not just simply pretty colors. Adagio sighs and stands up. The others are doing the same. I want to be with the cool kids and stand up as well. Now that we're all standing I decide to take a look at them.

Sunset is half a head shorter than me, if you don't count the horn. Aria and Sonata were close to my size, but still not exactly. Adagio was the giant in the room, even if you don't account for her hair, she was still taller than me by half my head, which isn't small.
I am meter seventy something. I wasn't the tallest amongst those I knew, but I was close.

"I am not sure if I trust you completely at the moment. However, I am willing to do so. I am giving you a chance. Don't waste it."

"I don't plan to. Dagi." I give her a little smirk. She looks down at me.

"Just one more question. What are you?" Ah there it is. I think about the question for a bit.

"I am something you have never seen before."

She opens her mouth to say something, but stops when she sees the look on my face and instead let's out a sigh.

"Yeah. Sounds about right."-she looks at her sisters-" I am going to take a quick shower, then we can go back and practice. Sunset you can hang out with him i- you are male right?"-I nod-"See? Told you. Anyway you can hang out with him if you want to. Give him the basement for now." After one last look, they all disappear up the stairs.

"Two things. One: what are they practicing for, and two: why would she give me the basement?" Sunset gets a smile at the first part, but it disappears after I finish.

"You do know about the storm, right?" She sounds confused and worried.

"Let's say I don't. Why would I need a basement because of a storm, what's so dangerous about it?" Sunset walks over to the door and opens it. The sound of rain splashing against the stone ground reaches my ears instantly. She tells me to come over to her.

The scene is breathtaking. We seem to be located higher than the rest of the city that I can see at the moment. In the distance there are dark green fields as far as the eye can see. The sky is made up of a swirling mass of lead colored clouds.
It was a mesmerizing sight.

"This is a really nice view, but that still doesn't expla-"

I was interrupted by lightning followed up with thunder. The five rainbow lightning strikes happened almost simultaneously. One of them landed almost in front of the door. I was about to comment on that, but three more 'rainbows' zapped different parts of the city. Sunset closed the door.

My blank gaze found hers slightly amused one. Soon it was replaced by sadness.

"Approximately a week go, the 'Rainbow Storm' incident happened. No one knows why or how,
but Cloudsdales rainbows mixed with the storm clouds, that were being produced at the time and for some reason it caused a very violent reaction, making the clouds gain strange properties and expand at a rapid pace.
Which caused Cloudsdale to quite literally explode. The explosion has claimed many lives and the list of the deceased keeps getting longer. Most of them are those, who either haven't heard of the storm yet, or the ones trying to stop it. The lightning strikes can melt heat-resistant steel in seconds and the storm itself is much denser than a normal cloud, so it's quite difficult to get rid of it. Some believe it was an unfortunate accident and some - a sabotage."

"That 'cloud' you saw is currently covering about forty five percent of Equestrias air space. That's the nation we're in right now by the way. The storm came to Canterlot three days ago. And until the mages and scientists come up with a way to deal with it, all the citizens have been ordered to stay in their homes."

That is... grim. Who knew that rainbows could be so dangerous? Wait..

"Wait. I remember being on the street. Who carried me in here?"

"Adagio and I,-" My eyebrows raise in in surprise "- I was drinking my tea, when I heard a strange noise. After deciding to investigate, I thought I heard thunder and when I looked out of the window, I saw you standing there in your armor, with smoke coming off of it. I thought if you were still standing, then the lightning had missed. But when you fell, I panicked, grabbed my hoodie and ran out. You were lying on the ground unmoving. For-for a while, I thought you d-died."

She was suppressing her tears, she felt concern for a complete stranger.
And Adagio...I can understand why she was salty. She had to risk her neck for a complete stranger.
They saved my life. If I hadn't been hit by lightning, then I would have drowned, or frozen to death.
I owe them one. I want to owe them one. I also might have to apologize for my outburst.

She still could've have been nicer though. Not holding a knife to someone else's face helps.

Sunset has small tears running down her cheeks. I don't usually do this, but I don't want to have Adagio come down the stairs and see her friend crying, especially when I am standing near said crying friend.

"Come here." I give her a hug. She accepts. After a few minutes of silence she speaks up.

"Thank you." I let her go.

"On a hopefully more lighter note: could you answer my first question?" She smiles.

"They are musicians. Rock Stars to be precise, you know what that is?"-I nod-"They are quite famous actually. Their next performance is supposed to be next week. But if the storm is still there..." She looks sad again.

I jump onto her, literally glomping her, but also making sure she doesn't fall.

"Vadon-Vadon! I'm okay, I'm fine! Don't worry, I am not going to cry." Sunset let's out a cute giggle.

I let go again. "Alright, if you say so."-I feel my throat strain-"Do you know where I can get some water? I'm really thirsty."

"Oh, you can just drink tap water. It all comes from the cleanest mountain spring you'll ever find. Trust me, that's a fact."

"But what abou- wait this city is on a mountain?" I got to keep up the act after all, plus maybe I'll find out something interesting.

"Yes, you're in the Equestrian capital: Canterlot, it's located on a mountain." Sunset I think you misunderstood my question. Let me clarify.

"Why would anyone build their capital on a mountain?"

"Technically it is on the side of the mountain."

"How is that any better?! Anything close to an earthquake can just simply make the city fall!"

"Actually earthquakes are quite rare, only happening once every couple of centuries. And besides: Canterlot has a fantastic structural integrity. It's very difficult even for a fully grown dragon to make it fall.-" I bet that's an interesting story-"After all, the city was built by us, Ponies I mean, and Minotaurs. With their help the city was carved into the mountain and was used as a vantage point in the 'Lion-Pony War' against the Gryphons 'Lion House'. After the war ended and a peace treaty was signed, Canterlot became the capital of Equestria" Knew I'd find something juicy.

"Wow. I don't know what to say except for: them Minotaurs ey?" ...Sunset, at least pretend you're amused.

"Come on. I will give you a cup that'll be yours for now." I follow her into the kitchen.

The kitchen, like I was expecting: is quite spacious. There is a glass table in the middle of the room, with eight spruce chairs placed around it. On the right side of the room are bookshelves filled to the brim with various tomes, and a few scattered scrolls. To the left is the kitchen counter, a funny looking stove, a fridge and what appears to be a microwave plugged into a triangular socket. Above the counter, there is a line of see-through cupboards, towards which Sunset was headed.

"Doesn't the rain affect the water?" She takes out a white cup from one of the cupboards and hands it to me.

"Don't worry. The rain isn't poisonous." Radiation isn't technically poison.

I walk up to the sink, hold the cup under the tap and turn on the flow. Crystal clear water pours out of the tap and after I have a full cup I put it up to my mouth. When I am about to take a sip, I see a pink flower with a smiley face drawn on the cup, with a few pink hearts around it. Too thirsty to care at the moment, I shrug it off and take a massive drink. If my mouth could stretch further, the glass would have fallen inside from the speed I was drinking at. Sunset blinks at me.

"You were really thirsty. Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I doubt that sadist would have let me anyway, so I didn't bother." Oops. Made her angry.

"Adagio is not a sadist, she is just...overprotective when it comes to family and friends. She has...other reasons as well. You just don't know her."

"How did you four meet anyway?"

"*Sigh* We didn't meet... under the best circumstances to be honest. It involved my friend Twilight, who is a bit... unstable at times. She wasn't always like that though. She was actually a pretty nice mare, if a bit antisocial. I don't really want to talk about it, if you don't mind. You will have to ask Adagio, or her sisters about how we met."

"I might, though I doubt that she would tell me anything about herself." I say, as I finish another drink.
"By the way, what the lie detector exactly?"

"Ah, that. I just increased my hearing ability and listened to any changes in your heartbeat." Nailed it.

"So when I shouted, did it...?"

"No it didn't hurt, don't worry." -of course it didn't- "Do you want to see your basement?" Not really.

"Sure, why not."-I decide to take the cup with me-"Lead the way then."

We leave the kitchen and walk past the aquarium. I don't even need to look at it, to know that something just blinked at me with three eyes. We reach the corner and there is a simple door made out of grey wood. Sunset flicks a light switch to the left and walks through the open door and down some stairs. After we take a left turn, I see another door, made of metal this time. Sunset opens it with ease and we're greeted by darkness. She searches around for something on the wall inside and suddenly the light comes on.

The inside is not as fancy or as spacious as the living room, or kitchen. Walls of pure concrete form the six by three meters basement, a spruce bed decorates the right corner of it with a grey mattress. After I enter the room, I can see that a glowing white crystal in a light bulb is the only source of light here. I can see my 'costume' and wares lying on what appears to be used as a table.

The table is just a thick metal slab impaled into the entire left wall. However there is a smooth transition between it and the concrete. In the far left corner of the basement, near the ceiling is a grated
ventilation shaft, which I am grateful for.

"This is where you're going to be living for now. Sorry about the conditions." Could be worse. I think, as I notice a few empty cardboard boxes lying under the table.

"I'll make do." There's also a working clock above the door. Since Ponies also appear to use the twelve hour system I guess it's eight in the evening. She looks at the suit of armor.

"Your armor has plenty of different runes. Some of them I've never seen before, but I think one of them is the binding enchantment. I've only read about the concept of such a thing in the depths of Canterlot Castles archives!" Aww. Sunset is a book worm. She radiates excitement just by looking at my armor, that's adorable.

"So what does that mean?" My question dampens her mood, my voice doesn't share the same excitement.

"In theory: all the runes on the armor will activate only when you wear it. Anyone else should be able to wear it, but won't be able to use to it's full potential." Well damn.

"I admit that's pretty awesome"

"How do you not know that? Haven't you worn it before?"

"Once, and look what happened."

"Want to put it on?" I turn to her in surprise.

"But... aren't... you don't know what might happen and what I might do. Do you really trust me that much?" She smiles.

"We've already established that you don't want to harm us. I am used to trusting others first. If they break that trust, I won't ever believe them again. Besides you have no reason to do so." Sunset, you forget that I might be unreasonable.

After looking at her for a moment, I silently walk over to the slab and stand over my armor. I look to Sunset for guidance.

"Try the book, I couldn't open it, no matter how hard I tried." I pick up the book.

The dark designs on the book suddenly become aglow with small light blue flames. The flames in crystal eye also light up and start moving.

"That's amazing! Can you hold it for me for a second? I'm going to try to scan the book."

I hold it out for her, and her horn lights up with the same colors as before. The same aura appears around the book, but seems to be flickering in and out of existence. Sunset frowns.

"That's not right. I don't know of any defense protocols, that don't even let me get a grip on an item..." She stops her magic.

"Maybe you shouldn't do that. You know, just in case if there are any violent defenses." I tell her, as I place the book back on the table. It instantly stops being on fire.

"You're probably right. But how am I going to study your armor then?" Sunset pouts.

"You won't. This book should hopefully contain some information on these runes, so I will read it tomorrow. I promise to tell you what I've found out about this stuff." She smirks and points a finger at me.

"I will hold you to that." I bet you will.

"Oh! I do know what this can do though. Observe!" I exclaim, as I pick up the now glassless helmet and put it on.

When it's fully on my head I hear Sunset gasp. I can see her clearly, but I assume that the smoke thing is working. Suddenly a spike of pain runs through my head. I let out a cry and quickly put my hands up to my head, almost throwing the helmet off of me. Sunset runs up to me surprisingly fast, for someone who has hooves for legs.

"Are you alright?! What happened?" I wave her off, looking at the helmet in pain.

"No idea. But knowing my luck? I probably just got cursed, or something" She punches my arm.

"Don't joke like that! Shadowmancy is a dangerous thing." Who said I was joking?

I suddenly felt really sleepy. "Look: it's been a long day for everyone. Let's just-" yawn "-retire for the night and deal with this stuff." I suggest as I throw the helmet on the table. I am getting really sleepy, this can't be natural.

"Are you sure? I mean: you're not going to-"Sunset covers her mouth with one hand and closes her eyes. "Fine, I suppose you're right." She walks over to the door and I flop down on the bed, not even bothering to take off my clothes. "Are you feeling alright."

"I'm fine, just super sleepy. Could you shut off the lights on the way out, please?" I mumble, already halfway into dreamland. If something is trying to affect me, I at least don't want her near when something happens.

I hear the familiar click of a light switch. "Good night Vadon. If you're hungry there's food in the fridge." I hear her hooves go up the stairs.

I want to say 'you too', but am unable to do so. Hopefully: there were no 'Lich Kings' were in that helmet, that wanted to escape out into the world by possessing my body.

I jinxed it didn't I?

I finally fall asleep.

And then I am awake. Wait...No I'm not.

Author's Note

So! First things first:

1. New cover art, enjoy.

2. More groups to find me by. You're welcome.

Fun facts:

'Vadon' means wild.

Vadon says Minotaurs like so: Me-no-tor.

If you have any questions, post them in the comment section, or send me mail.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you when I do.

Wizardly Cube! Awa-a-a-a-a-a-y.

Ch. 4: Sleepless nights can't be Healthy...

Chapter Four: Sleepless nights can't be Healthy...

I looked. I looked at it some more, and then I kept looking. At first I didn't understand what I was seeing. But then it clicked.

I saw Me.

I was looking at my own self. It wasn't just my memories, that were laid out in front of me. I was looking at everything that made me.

My emotions and instincts formed my subconscious, while the memories and thoughts were my consciousness. It's the thoughts, that were confusing at first. When I thought anything, it would instantly 'write' it down on my memory just like on a hard drive. Usually I don't think what I'm thinking, but now I was both remembering and thinking about what I though a moment ago.

This was creating a lot of copies, so I decided to not at least focus on my thoughts. I tried 'looking' somewhere else and try to 'see' something besides myself. I couldn't. No matter how hard I tried, it appeared as though I was the only 'truly' existing thing here, and everyone and everything I ever met and interacted with, are only in my memories. My anger spiked at this and then I saw it instantly become nonexistent. I couldn't interact with any of my memories, so I did the only thing I could, beside thinking.

I looked.

More carefully this time, because as soon as I arrived, I had rewatched my life tens of times at such a speed, that I would have blacked out, if I wasn't asleep already. I remembered the first five years of my life. I saw my pleasure levels rise out of the corner of my 'vision'. I was such an excitable child back then. Although always more subdued then others.

Smarter as well, I understood elders better than my peers, so I figured out on my own, that most things parents tell children are lies. Santa Claus for example. My grandparents were mad at me for spoiling the magic of 'New Year' for my cousins. I could also read and speak Chinese pretty fluently by the time I was three. I forgot it later in my life.

Ah my first school year. That is when I started being sarcastic, however I didn't often voice my thoughts as a child. Even then, I already realized that the opening ceremony was a joke. A bit of anger. All those people coming out of the rows and saying that school is a place of joy and happiness. I, of course, made remarks on almost every single sentence of theirs, making the school sound like one of the circles of hell.

I had no brother, or sister and I didn't bother with friends, since we were always on the move. My fathers job required that. He was a smart man my father, practically genius. He excelled in many, more important, aspects of life. One of them being socialization. He could convince a person to agree to the deal, despite that person wanting more out of it. He has made many friendships and partnerships with various people all across the world. Companies wanted him to work for them.

I wasn't exactly the polar opposite. I still knew how to socialize and how to make everything go smoothly for everyone involved. I just preferred not to.

Ah yes. The Netherlands, I remember them quite well. They were one of the more enjoyable parts of my life, in a sense that it was a new experience living there. Most people were genuinely friendly, I could read jack, it often rained, the seagulls on the streets would swarm you for food and the friendly people spoke in the unreadable language, while I was just smiling and nodding, and after they finished talking and asked me something that sounds like 'did you get all that?' I, still smiling, would just shake my head and say no.

It wasn't all bad though. The streets were clean and the architecture was nice. Holland is one of the very few places, where a person can find the old world and modern colliding so well: you'd see gothic-like houses on one corner of the street and modern looking buildings on the other. Plenty of entertainment establishments and multiple restaurants of almost every single cuisine scattered around in one city. People as well.

Netherlands is a country of variety. So it's no surprise that, at one point three kids decided, that it would be a good idea to beat me up. It wasn't. They got their asses handed to them. Never bothered me again. Fear does wonders, especially if you were destroyed by a guy at least three times skinnier than you.

After Holland, I came to Russia for better education. I got much better education, however some teachers were unbearable. Quite a bit of anger. If enough students cared, then there would have been a riot. I had to change multiple schools, because of that. Everything was fine for a while. Until...

Ah yes. That moment. And that moment as well. The moment it all went to shit and the moment it all became worse. Rage. No. Frustration. That year felt as if I have lived multiple lifetimes. My mind aged by decades. I know that there is always a solution to everything. However...The most optimal solution at the time was to leave. I wasn't surprised when they did that. I suppose it wasn't really betrayal, it didn't even seem like they were ever really on our side.

If I were to meet them again. Well...It won't be pleasant. Pleasure peaks. Sadly that will never happen... Oh well!

I look at my most recent memories: my arrival at the university of bioengineering and computer science, meeting my roommate, the first half of the year spent studying like there is no tomorrow...It was calm.
Serene almost.

Didn't like it.

Equestria? A whole 'nother story. So much stuff happened in less than a single day: got sent to another world, got captured by an anthropomorphic species of ponies from a cartoon show, got my 'innocence' stolen away, found out that I might be able to do magic and apparently: seeing my own mind at the moment. What a day!

As 'interesting' as my life is, I decide to see if I can change anything in my subconscious. Maybe get rid of some of the few instincts that remain. Fear is nonexistent in me. I legitimately don't fear anything. I may not want things, but I don't fear them. Stopped doing so a while ago. Wait...what is that?

Those are...my vitals? No. My...condition at the moment? I-I think so, yeah.

After 'looking' at the level of chemicals in my body, my heartbeat and breathing rate, I somehow realize, that I wasn't simply hungry. I was starving. I went to my memories and checked my condition right after I arrived to Equestria: slightly better, but not by much.

I went back before I was sent, before I met the merchant. I was perfectly fine. I wouldn't even need to eat for at least six more hours and even then it wouldn't be so bad. So then: what happened? I start to compare every single detail, about the state of my body when I was at the Convention and when I got to Ponyland...

The differences were staggering. It looks like during the trip through the Void, my metabolism was increased tenfold, without causing any visible changes to my body. Oh my nails and hair grew a bit, yes. Normally, I wouldn't have noticed. But thanks to this place, I'm able to see that they grew only by a couple of millimeters. I'm not concerned about my nails or hair though, it's everything else.

My brain is barely working with so little glucose in it, which explains the occasional pains I was having, my stomach shrunk considerably and a hole or two are going to start forming soon. Before the convention I used the restroom, but even still: small stones have formed in my kidneys and my liver is about to fail. Why am I not in pain?

...

Oh...oh well that's just fucking fantastic. I want to facepalm at my own ignorance, but I can't really do that at the moment, so inste- I can't groan either...Damn it. Anyway: I know why I lost my coordination earlier today: it's because my nerves are being repressed. I can still feel, it's just that everything doesn't feel as intense, as it would usually. Which means that all the information might be incorrect...

How did I not notice?! How do I wake up? I need to wake up! Wake U-

I wake up.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Aria Blaze

I couldn't sleep again.

I turned left, then right. I looked at Sonatas smiling muzzle and let out a sigh. She was probably dreaming about tacos again. She has taken a huge liking to them since Nacho Picchu. Those lizards, if anything else, sure knew how to cook. When we asked her to make us dinner, she returned with at least two dozen tacos. We still don't know where, or how she got the ingredients for them. It's not like you can just find shops or markets that sell meat here on every corner.

I sighed once more, while looking up at the ceiling. I sat up on my bed to stare at Adagio. Was she a bit too harsh with him? It's not like her fears were unfound. After losing everything and everyone you held dear, then being thrust into a world where you can't trust anyone... I think Adagio is justified, but she could've handled that better. Much better actually, despite this whole situation being a little nu-

All of a sudden I start coughing, so I cover my mouth as to not wake the other two in the room. My throat's parched. I quietly get out of my bed and put on the slippers. I head out into the corridor, that's illuminated by street light coming through the balcony. I walk over to Sunsets room to check on her. As per usual, her door's not locked and I find an adorable sight of a drooling Sunset passed out on her table over some tomes. I have a small urge to get the books from under her, but she was warned multiple times to not overwork herself. Her ruined books are her own problem.

After silently closing the door, I head downstairs to get some water. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I look up from my thoughts and see... Vadon illuminated by the few remaining street lamps outside and chewing on something while leaning on a window sill, with his right leg behind the other. I was confused as to how he was able to stand like that. I looked at my own legs and decide to try the same, which results in almost immediate failure making me start falling. "E-e-e!" I begin flailing my arms widely and eventually manage to get my balance back by standing in a more comfortable position. I look at Vadon and see him staring at me with a humored eyebrow raised.

"What? Forgot I existed already?.." He asks still smirking.

"I-What? No, I just... wanted to know how you were standing like that." His eyebrows raise and he glances at his...what are they? He raises one of his legs up and wiggles the extension.

"I guess it's because I got feet and you got-"His gaze falls on my hooves."-...hooves. I like the sharks by the way." He tells me as he looks back out the window. I hear the grin in his voice

"I-Cool. I like them as well." I rasp at him. "I'm going to go get some water." He waves the hand holding one of our snack-bars at me and then lifts it up to his mouth.

I enter the gloomy kitchen, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. After I can see the cupboards relatively clearly, I walk up to the one containing cups and search inside it. Wait...where's my cup? The room is dark, but there is some light entering through the single window, however I still can't see my cup anywhere. Where is it?! I exhale in frustration and instead pick one of the see-through glasses we had for guests. I pour a glass-full of warm water from the crane and gulp it all down, releasing a pleased sigh.

Putting the now empty glass back in the cupboard, I walk back into the living room and notice Vadon slowly drinking some water of his own. From my cup. Why does he...

"...Hey Vadon, where'd you get that cup?"

"Hm? Oh, Sunset gave it to me. I don't think Sonata will be pleased with it, but I'm sure I can explain." He replies and instantly goes back to sipping from my cup.

Of course it'd be you Sunset. I now don't feel so bad about not letting her unknowingly ruin the books.
It's not my fault that Sunset is trying to make me admit that that's my cup. So it's her fault. Yeah. I can't do anything about it though, unless I admit that my cup has a smiling pink flower on it with pink hearts... Ye-ah, no. I'll just wait until he gives it back.

Finishing the blueberry nut bar, he puts the wrapper in his pocket and just stands there, staring into the street.
I take a look at the clock on the wall, which shows that it's half past midnight. Is he nocturnal?

"Why are you awake so early?" He doesn't turn to me.

"I noticed I was starving. So I decided to get a little snack." What?..

"You are starving and you chose to eat an energy bar?" I ask incredulously.

"That was the second one. If what Sunset told me about the situation with the storm is true, then you don't have much food to last, if no one finds a way to get rid of this soon. I'm trying to be as conservative as possible, without letting myself die of liver failure." I want to believe that he's joking, but I don't hear any humour in his voice.

"I still don't think, that small snacks are the way to go about this..." He looks at me, a smile on his lips, but not his eyes.

"Don't worry. This is just enough for my optimal functionality." He keeps staring at me for a while longer. "Can-Do you know why Adagio hates me?" I was expecting that question.

"She doesn't trust strangers. I can understand why." My gaze meets with his. "Can you keep a secret?"

"I can." He says, turning to me.

"My sisters and I aren't ponies." His face reels back and the skin between his lips and nose swells.

"I think you're being a bit to harsh on yourselves... Not Adagio of course." He tells me with that weird smile.

"I mean: we literally aren't even 'Earth' Ponies." His amused expression leaves immediately. I have his full attention.

"We are actually Sirens, an omnivore half Pony, half...Mermaid. Our race was born and lives in the Ocean of Serpents. We have many cities and towns located on the ocean floor, or in underwater caves. We are a mostly peaceful race.
However recently...there have been reports from the east coast of Sirens sinking trade ships. And to tell you the truth? I'm not surprised. Our race has become desperate. "

"Around twelve years ago, stories started to spread over our nation like some plague. Stories of entire towns turning into rubble and all the villagers disappearing overnight. We lived in one such village. Me, Adagio and Sonata. It was a tranquil life in our little town. Someone would occasionally break into a song, frys would play with a pod of passing dolphins and when sailors from the continents arrived, we'd swim up to the surface for an exchange of stories and various different trinkets." I realize I have a small smile and I notice Vadon looking at me with a sad one. He knows... I take a deep breath.

"When the news of other towns turning to ruins reached our quaint little place, my mother, believing the stories suggested sending me and my twin brother to the capital for our protection. My parents were in the Marine guard you see. It was their duty to stay behind and protect the civilians. After discussing the matter, we decided to leave the next morning." I look the strange biped in the eyes.

"Our home was attacked that night. When the screams started, my brother was told to take care of me and get us both to safety. Of course I disagreed and tried to go with my parents, but my brother didn't let me. We went out of the back entrance and started to r-swim as fast as possible. We had to get to the outskirts of the village, but it difficult with all the bloodshed happening around us. We didn't even see what the invaders looked like, just bodies of our neighbours littering the streets. We were swimming around, almost aimlessly, lost in the town we lived our whole life. Then we bumped into Sonata and Adagio. They seemed to already know each other and Adagio was comforting Sonata near a collapse house at the time."

"We asked them if they know any good hiding spot nearby. After calming down, Sonata said that she knows a pretty good one, since she played a lot of hide and seek with her friends. It was a small cave, big enough to fit us all in. Sonata lead us out on a nearby reef. She disappeared into a completely unseen hole in the coral, unless you knew that it was there."

"Adagio entered next and I followed after. When I got inside the 'cave' I turned around to look at my brother.
I was confused when I saw him hiding behind a rock, looking at me with what I realized was sorrow. He mouthed two words to me and rose up. A harpoon tip instantly came out of his chest. I opened my mouth to scream but someones hand clamped over it. I started surging forwards, trying to get to him, but Adagio and Sonata held my arms. All I could do was watch as blood flowed out of his open mouth." Vadon was still looking at me with the same emotion, but he was no longer smiling.

"After waiting for the sounds of slaughter to cease, we came out of our hidey-hole. None of us made a sound. I reached my brothers body, the harpoon no longer in him. It was teleported somewhere, soon after he stopped breathing." I want to cry, but my voice doesn't crack and no tears fall. They ran out that night. "I found my father dead later and my mother was gone." Sonata lost her younger sister and Adagios adopted parents were brutally impaled upon each other. She said she lost her birth parents to a natural disaster when she was five.

"That is...I don't think saying 'I'm sorry to hear that' will do anything will it?" No, no it won't.

"If you feel like you should apologize already, you most certainly won't like the next part." I give a humourless smirk.

"I want to hear the rest." No hesitation. Sunset was much more affected by the story than him. Maybe he's just good at hiding his feelings, or he knows what it's like. I doubt it.

"You see when we went out into the ocean, we were on our own. We couldn't even trust some of our own kind. In the next nine and half years or so, I became friends with the two of them and then practically sisters. Our little family was surviving in the wilderness of the waters and quite effectively too. Besides physical food, Sirens also require excitement from other creatures once in a while, or we begin to get ill. At first we received it by just playing around with the fish, but the older we got the more we required, so we started singing with sailors that we came across, while they played on various instruments. It was working, and kept us alive and healthy, however one day: some of the ships crews became hostile as soon as they saw us. They either fled in terror, or started throwing sharp things at us."

"Later on we found out from a crew that didn't start immediately screaming bloody murder, that some ships have gone missing lately and that Sirens have been openly attacking sailors. We found this confusing at first, because we couldn't understand, why they would be doing this. "

"But after we met one such Siren and demanded answers from him, we were told, that he was apparently starving and that the fear the sailors exuded right before their death was delicious. He asked us, if we would like to help him with his next meal. When we refused, he just shrugged and said: 'Suit yourself' and just left with that same crazed smile. Both Sonata and I wanted to prevent more deaths, but before we could do anything, Adagio pointed out more Sirens hiding in the nearby corals staring at us with the same deranged look in their eyes, so we left. Another ship sunk that night." I take a moment to rearrange my thoughts and take another deep breath.

"About two and a half years ago we were captured by an expedition sent from Equestria by Queen Celestia Kosm herself. We were all placed in separate water tanks and brought before her majesty. After listening to her accusations of us being part of the cause of loss of very valuable cargo and diplomatic Equestrian ships, we pleaded non guilty, which greatly surprised the Queen and piqued her interest. We were given a chance to explain what we meant."

"After listening to what we had to say, she told us that she believed us and had summoned someone named Twilight Sparkle. We instantly felt something wrong about her, but didn't want to enter the frying pan by suggesting something the Queens personal student and acknowledged 'master' of magic. Her highness told Professor Sparkle these exact words: 'Please Twilight, find out everything about our guests race, if you would?'" I mock the queens voice.

"Sparkle bowed and told the guards carrying our tanks to bring us into her personal laboratory. After locking her doors and activating some sort of spell, she swiveled to us with a look that send shivers down our spines." I take a moment to form my next words. "We were subjects to a demon Vadon. She was a demon. No more, no less. She was messing with us: our bodies, or minds, souls probably as well. Our screams for help were unheard and pleads for mercy ignored."

His eyes...they don't hold any sorrow, or pity. They hold pure pain. It's like he's reliving what we lived through. The rest of his muzzle remains unmoving as if made of stone.

"After a week of torture, no sane mind could conceive, we were saved. We were almost on a brink of death, our bodies lacking their tails and fins after a multitude of transformation spells cast on us, when Sunset entered the chamber. When she saw our conditions, Sunset all, but exploded at the mad 'scientist'..."

-What are you doing Twilight?!

-I am gathering data about the Sirens. They are such a marvelous race! I have made so many notes!

-Twilight, you're torturing them! They look like they haven't ate in a week!

-Of course they have not. I must gather as much data as possible on the tests subjects, including: how long it takes for a Siren to starve!

-Please...help...

-Twilight! How could you?! They're our guests!

-Of course. And I am supposed to entertain my guests am I not? I am sure, that their experience in Canterlot has not been dull.

-Twilight you're hurting them! You were supposed to find out more about their race! Not subject them to this tartarus! They aren't prisoners!

-Oh pish posh. They are monsters Sunset, why should I care if they hurt a bit?

"After Twilight said that, Adagio had somehow regained enough strength to swear almost every profanity possible at Twilight. You'll pick something up from hanging out with sailors. After Adagio was done promising an incredibly painful death, Sparkle simply turned to Sunset and said two words: 'See? Monsters.'" Vadons mouth is closed, but his jaw hangs slack. "After Sunset reported to the Queen, our dear professor was given, what was called: 'a much need vacation' for a year. Celestia has apologized to us for everything and has given us recompensation in 'bits'. We were also given a year to rehabilitate from our trauma, but did it much faster. We got our money and bought this house." His face finally shows some emotion: it's confusion.

"I just don't understand one thing: why would you stay here?"

"We wanted to leave at first, but then we found out how much music is appreciated here on land. So we came to the Queen, who already has read the notes, and asked her if there was something that we could do about it. She proposed us the idea of becoming musicians. We started learning to play different instruments day and night, until finally we picked what we liked. We met with Celestia again and she asked us if we wanted to be an independent group, or have a manager."

"We decided to be on our own, Adagio and I didn't want to rely on Equestrians. Then another problem came up, we couldn't decide on the genre of music, because the ship crews didn't really play in any actual genre. But once again, Sunset came to the rescue and suggested 'Hard Rock' and 'Metal'. We actually took a liking to 'Rock', so we became Rock Stars. Not instantly of course. We travelled the world around for a bit, before we reached where we are now." I finish with a small smile.

"I see. Thank you for sharing this with me, Aria... By the way: who knows that you're Sirens?" He's smiling as well, but his voice sounds dead.

"The Queen, Sunset, Sparkle and a couple others. Just don't tell anyone about this and we'll be fine." He nods getting the message.

"Of course. Just one more question: why is Sunset living with you?" Wrinkles appear on his forehead.

"I don't know all the details, but half a year ago Sunset came to us in tears. We tried to get more details, but all we got was that she has left the Castle and wants to live with us instead. She moved what little belongings she had from her tower and settled with us. She's been helping us with the house and volunteered to maintain our equipment for the shows. We've been living together ever since." I look at the time: one twenty.

"I will try my best to not stay angry at Adagio."

"Thank you."-yawn-"it's quite late, so I'm gonna get another drink and then head off to bed."

"Alright, good night." He replies as he lifts the cup to his lips. I smile.

"Alright you too. But hey, Vadon?" He hums in acknowledgment through the cup. "That's my cup." He freezes. Then slowly lowers it and looks at me.

"...I like it." I snort and raise an eyebrow. "Alright I suppose it's more embarrassing for a male to have such a cup, than a woman, or mare in this case." I smile. "Too bad I have almost zero pride." He says, but hands me my cup nevertheless.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Me

After wishing each other goodnight one last time, I get a different glass of water, the metal chair with a cushion and return to my basement. I nearly fall down the stairs, but manage to keep my balance. Once I reach the bottom, I place the chair down and open the metal door, and hold it only slightly open. When the light comes on, I can see the room beyond the crack and once my eyes adjust to the light I pick up the seat and enter. Walking over to the metal table I set the glass on the table, and take a seat in front of my armor.

I pick up the book, which lights up again and start searching through the index. After finding what I want I turn over to the corresponding page and start reading.

Author's Note

Greetings reader!

I hope that while reading this chapter you have shed at least a tear.
If not, then that either means, that you're a cold, heartless person, or I'm a bad writer.

Important stuff:
The POV changes are the bits of others experience, that Vadon found out from them.

QUESTIONS! Are important. Mail me your thoughts, and I'll try to respond to them as soon as possible.

THEORIES! Are not as important, but pretty fun to read. Post you theories in the comments below, but make sure to add the 'spoiler' effect, just in case they're correct.

I rhymed? Yay!

This chapter has been presented in two-dimensional form by the Megalomanic Inter-dimensional Hypercube.

Ch. 5: Magic can do Wonders.

Chapter Five: Magic can do Wonders

A soul is a complex construct, but not as indestructible as many seem to believe. A soul can have a vessel, however there are instances of formless souls: ghosts, spirits, poltergeists, wraiths and many more. If a soul has a physical form, it can be taken out of it. If the soul is unwilling to leave it's physical form, then it will take some effort for a necromancer to tear it out. The more complex the soul, the more difficulty you will have with extracting the soul into a more vulnerable location for it - outside its vessel.

A soul is mainly composed of everything it has experienced, like a self-writing story. It can be rewritten, if you have the means to do so. (Refer to chapter one hundred twenty four) Rewriting your own soul is not recommended, unless you are experienced in the subject, or you have someone that is, with you at the time. Failure in rewriting a soul will end up in it turning into a 'blight'. (Refer to chapter one hundred twenty five.) The most important detail to note is-

This is pointless. I lean back in the chair and begin massaging my face with my hands. I release a tired sigh and look back in the book. I have been reading the guide for over an hour, trying to learn necromancy. I have found out, that runic magic is basically programming reality via runes, under certain conditions. Supposedly it doesn't tire the caster, but the downside is, that you need to make the rune circles first, which takes more time than simply casting a spell. There are special runes in the book, that are used for creating spell matrixes, or programs only known by dark mages, however: therein lies the problem. I don't know what the 'basic' runes look like, or what they do.

Oh sure: there are images of the runic circles depicted on the pages, but this is a guide to necromancy, so it doesn't give me the complex spell matrixes that are on my equipment. I suppose the good news is, that I have found out what the soul is. As far as I understood: a soul is a mind. It's where I was before, or should I say: what I perceived earlier.

I shouldn't have been able to do so naturally, but I did it anyway, thanks to the magic on the helmet. I tried to understand what at least some the enchantments on the armour piece did, but was unable to, since all of the circles had 'basic' runes in them. Of course I could start experimenting, but I don't want any accidents to happen. Especially when I am very tired from malnourishment and lack of sleep. Aria was right. Two energy bars is not enough.

Wait...are there books on runes on those shelves in the kitchen? I haven't actually checked, so I head upstairs, turn on the light in the kitchen and start searching through everything. Most of the tomes were about histories of different nations, or novels such as 'Daring Do and the Golden Box' or 'Very Deep Under the Sea'. The others were all labeled as 'Magical Theory on yadda by yadda', however there was nothing on runes. Sunset clearly has a passion for runes, but doesn't have any books on them?

Madness.

I stare at the pile of books on the table and sigh. I seem to do that a lot lately. I notice a basket of green apples sitting on the kitchen counter and make my way to it around the table. I take one of the tasty looking apples and twirl it around in my hand for a bit. Walking over to the sink, I give the apple a good wash and take a bite out of it, without bothering to dry it. So sour. I scrunch my nose a bit, but swallow anyway. After finishing the apple, I drink straight from the tap, not even bothering with getting my glass. As I close the tap, I hear hoofsteps in the living room.

"Aria is that yo- Oh, hi." The sleepy unicorn smiles at first, but frowns when she sees the books on the table.

"Hello Sunset, I was just gonna put these back. I didn't wake you did I?" I ask, as I start reshelving the books in, hopefully, the same order as they were before.

"No you didn't. I awoke by fal-I just woke up and heard running water downstairs, so I decided to investigate. What are you doing this late in the hour? What are you searching for?" She didn't sound upset, just curious.

"Well, I woke up from hunger, so I helped myself to a little snack." I nod at the apple core, lying on the counter, since I forgot to throw it away. "I read the combusting book a bit and realized that in order to understand the runic circles on my equipment, I need to know the commonly known runes, but I can't find any information on them." I crouch to put one of the 'Parry Otter' series in the lower shelf.

If the only place I can get this info from is the 'Royal Archives', then I will have a lot of trouble with figuring out what anything does. It's not just my armour I'm concerned about. My daggers might be the most dangerous weapons in the world and I won't even know it. I can't find out anything about Thorn though, since it has zero runes on it. The only way I'm going to be able to figure out it's properties, at the moment: is by trial and error. I know it's not the 'normal' Thorn, because when I pick it up it also lights up. At this point any difference could be the difference between 'staying in one piece' and 'taking the whole world down with you'. Even if I am over-exaggerating, I'd rather not risk it.

"Oh! I have a book on runes in my room, I can get it for you if you want." I look up at Sunset. She had the book. Of course, she had the book! I'm so dumb.

"Could you get me something to write on and with as well, please?"

"Sure,"-she let's out a massive yawn-"I'll be right back." Sunset walks out of sight and I go back to shelving books.

After a couple of minutes pass, she comes back with some things in her hands. I had a small burst of energy and managed to put all the books in their previous place on the shelves, somehow remembering what order to put them in. Throwing the eaten apple into the stainless steel bin, I turn to her and she hands me a book, some parchment, a pencil and an eraser.

"Thanks Sunset. Sorry I bothered you." I say as I take the items. Runic magic and it's Uses. By Clover the Clever.

"You are welcome and don't worry about it. I don't think I'm going to fall asleep anytime soon anyway." She releases another yawn.

"If you say so, I'm going to return to the basement and try to finally figure out what most of my stuff does. See you in the morning." We walk out of the kitchen and she switches off the light. It gets super dark.

"See you in the morning." Sunset replies, as she goes back up the stairs.

My attempts to not fall headfirst into my room rewarded me with a graceful descend. And by graceful I mean: I managed to not die. I would have turned on the light, but the switch is at the top of the stairs and I don't know how much lighting costs here, if you even have to pay for it. You probably do. Putting everything on the table, I sit in the chair once more.

The most important detail to note is: while a soul might be most vulnerable outside a vessel, it is also the most effective. A physical form has many limits, so necromancers have created what is called the Necromancers Eye. It allows the soul to extend some of the limits of it's physical form, primarily: see more, than you would usually. If a necromancer wishes to learn the intricacies of all magic, without leaving their body, the Necromancers Eye is usually the most effective tool, however you will first have to get rid your 'windows' for the spell to work.

On the other side of the page was an image of the spell matrix, that's required to use the Eye. To the right of the diagram, was a very detailed black and white picture of the Necromancers Eye. It was a monochrome version of the cyan, burning eyeball of doom. I grin. I can do this... Although...

-however you will first have to get rid your 'windows' for the spell to work.

I think I need to gouge out my eyes, in order to use this. The eyes which just got healed recently. Nope. I want to see the world around myself with my own two organic eyes for the time being, thank you very much. Plus I don't want to learn all the 'intricacies' at the moment, I have two books on runes and that's enough for me at the moment. I turn to take a look at the horned helmet and see its emptiness staring back at me. I imagine a blazing eye in the empty space.

What if I don't need to sacrifice my eyes? After all: the helmet seemed to have the smoke effect, so why wouldn't it have the eye? I'll just have to find out later. For now - books! No matter how I say it, I will never be truly excited about a book. I prefer practice over theory, but I also don't want to add another catastrophe to the ones above. Above the basement I mean. Wait...I'm on a mountain, so the basement is pretty high. Then again...I don't really care about the ones below. I stop my mental rant, before it could derail further and finally focus on the books. I focus on the books. I focus on the...books... I collapse on the books.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sunset Shimmer

The past three days have been surprisingly calm. Vadon would occasionally chat with us, but he would spend most of the time in the basement, reading the two books and making notes. He told me he didn't want to show me the notes, until he was sure, that all of them are a hundred percent correct. Neither I nor he told the others what he was doing in the basement. Yesterday, Adagio decided she had enough secrecy, and sneaked in Vadons room, while he was asleep. She found out that he was doing something with magic and threw him off the bed, demanding answers.

Vadon must have nerves of steel, because he didn't even flinch once at Adagios tone and volume. I had to go down there myself and explain to her, that I knew what Vadon was doing and that he promised to show me what he worked on.

-You knew? And you didn't tell anyone?!

-Adagio, calm down! What would he do? Why would he turn on us? He has no reason to do so.

-I'm just looking out for us!

-By pushing away everyone you meet?

-No, by keeping them at a certain distance.

-Who's them?

-You be quiet.

-Adagio...There is no reason for us to distrust him.

-I am willing to trust, as long as there are no secrets.

-What, you want my life story?

-No, but telling me, what you're doing down here would certainly increase my trust.

-...Are you sure about that? Ow! Sunset I'm just messing with her. Alright look: I promised to show Sunset what I've found out about my stuff, but only when I'm ready, and if she wants to tell you anything about it - it'll be her decision.

-...When are you going to do that?

-I think... if I start now and pull another all-nighter, I should be good tomorrow.

-What do you mean another? How many have there been so far?!

-Rela-ax Sunset. I know my limits.

-You've been barely eating for the past couple of days, how are you even wide awake right now?!

-I ate a fish.

-Exactly: a fish. What you're doing can't be healthy. At least eat something else, we have a bunch more food.

-Like I said: I know my limits. Now: if you two want to find out more about my research, you'll have to leave now, so I can concentrate.

-Fine. But I want you to know, that I really don't like this. Let's go Sunset.

-Oh I'm loving this...I meant the research, but messing with you is fun as well. Just go already! You can glare at me later.

After we got to the top of the basement stairs, I turned to Adagio and told her, that she shouldn't worry about this. I reminded her, that I'm not naïve and that even if Vadon does anything to hurt any of us, I am an elite mage and a personal student of princess Luna herself, therefore: capable of restraining him. If Adagio doesn't trust him, she can at least trust me. She dropped the matter and retired to her room. I spent the entire day behind a book as well, reading up on mythical creatures and the ones not so mythical. I shouldn't read, before learning new things since it decreases the chance of me remembering, but I will be taking notes of my own, so it doesn't really matter and there is nothing else I can do, to spend time.

Finally the next morning arrived, with the Queens sun shining through the window. I slowly stir in my covers. Suddenly my eyes flash open and I jump out of bed. Grabbing my clothes from a chair, I change from my pyjamas to my purple shirt and blue pants. Walking out of my room I see Aria standing near the bathroom door. She notices me a greets me with a small smile and nod.

"I slept well, how about you?"

She grimaces and gives a so-n-so gesture.

I point my gaze to the door. "Both are occupied?"

She nods.

"I'm going to have breakfast now. You want anything?"

She waves me off.

"Alright then. Good morning, by the way." She gives a grumble in response.

Rolling my eyes, I walk down the stairs and into the living room. It seems today is one of the more brighter days, which puts me in an even better mood. I enter the kitchen, open a drawer and take a knife with a cutting board. Placing them on the counter, I walk over to the fridge and start searching inside. I take out some vegetables and fruits from it and put them on the board, closing the door with my leg. As I am about to start cutting, I feel weak vibrations coming from bellow in similar intervals. What in the world? I stand frozen, thinking of what could possibly be causing this, until a thought hits me. The basement is right below me...

Before I could ponder any further, the vibrations frequency changed drastically. I drop the knife and rush to the basement door. Turning on the light, I rush down the stairs, but stop midway as I hear...Singing? I slowly walk down the rest of the way. After reaching the bottom I can definitely hear music and singing. I push open the door and a strange sight appears before me.

Standing near the table, dressed in his entire armor, except for the helmet, is a dancing Vadon. He's not moving around the room, it's just his upper half he is dancing with. The helmet is sitting upright on the table, it's front turned away from me. The music, which I finally recognize as electronic, is playing at an incredibly fast pace, which Vadon seems to match perfectly. The singer has a high voice, sounding like it's mixed with lightning, however despite it, I can still recognize the voice is that of a stallion. The lyrics are mostly the same, with the song being about someone losing their mind. My mind finally catches up with the fact, that some of the runes on the chest piece are glowing.

"Vadon?!" The runes stop glowing and the music instantly stops. He whirls around, surprise etched on his face.

"Good...morning?" He looks at the clock above me. "Yeah, good morning Sunset. I wasn't expecting you so early, but feel free to come in." I step into the room and look at the time. Eleven? How is that early?

I face him and notice bags under his eyes. "Why are you working so much? It's not good for your eyes." His tiny smile falters slightly, but then it's back up again.

"I'll be fine. Like I said many times before: I kn-"

"Know your limits. Yeah, I remember. I just can't help but think, that you're doing things exactly at your limit." His expression seems frozen, even as he speaks.

"Just let it go Sunset. Stop worrying so much about me." I frown.

"But-"

"Stop, or I won't show you what I've been doing." I keep frowning, but don't say anything.

We keep staring at each other, for a few more seconds. He purses his lips slightly and his head gives a 'follow me' motion.

"C'mon then." I walk over to the table, and notice various parchments with a multitude of messily placed formulas and designs. How do you find anything in this mess...

"Uh... I guess what I want to know first is: where was the song coming from?" I can't see any speakers in the room, or anything that could possibly play music.

"Ah, yes. Yesterday, after you and Adagio left, I have been doing my best in decoding the runes on my armour." The chestplate makes almost no sound, as he gives the it a few taps with his knuckle. The armor is not made of metal? But it felt metallic, when I touched it...

"I haven't had time to figure out the function of every single matrix, but I still found out some pretty cool stuff. Apparently my helmet connects with my mind and this right here-" He points at a runic circle on the armor that protects his neck. "- allows me to voice anything from my memory." The runes light up once more.

"Are you mammalian?" My eyes nearly bulge out of my head, from hearing my own voice.

"I am actually. How'd you know?"

"You have fur and a mane, so I figured-"

"Hair. It's called hair Sunset."

"Oh. I also noticed canines, are you a carnivore?"

"No I'm actually an omnivore. That a problem?"

"No, it isn't. The girls are also omnivores, plus I'm used to meat-eaters. I've seen a bunch of Gryphon vassals during their visits to the palace. Besides-"

Our voices cease and the runes stop glowing. I simply stare, mouth agape at what just happened.

"There is a certain set of runes on the helmet, that allows me to... play anything from my mind. So all I have to do, is remember I've heard, activate the spellwork and the armour will play the memory." He gives me a toothy grin.

"And uh... how exactly does that work?"

"I have no idea!" ...Well that's comforting.

His face goes blank for a second and he quickly spins towards the table, rummaging through his mess. He keeps mumbling negatives to himself, until he releases a victorious shout and snatches one of the notes. Turning to me faster than I can blink, while still grinning like mad, he shows me a parchment with an incredibly complicated rune circle and some notes written underneath.

"This is a little something I made myself. In theory: this spell should let you understand the basics of my magic if you manage to cast it correctly, if not...Well let's not think about the hidden failsafe." I can't help but shudder.

"What kind of magic is that?"

"Necromancy, golemancy and shadowmancy."

"Okay, I recognize golemancy and shadowmancy, but what's necromancy?" He looks at me with a strange expression.

"You don't know what necromancy is?" I shake my head "Then don't worry about it. But if you do find out what it is, remember: necromancy is so much more, than some may think."

"Vadon, you changed a lot over the past few days. You've become incredibly-"

"Ecstatic?"

"-Psychotic." He stops grinning, but his lips is still separated. We keep staring at each other silently and I actually begin feeling worried. He clicks his tongue.

"Wow. Thanks Sunset, you're a great support. I've been sleepless for almost three days straight, trying to learn to learn three types of magic at once, despite not having any way to get knowledge safely for two of them and willing to reveal you secrets, that some would have to pay a hefty price to learn, for free. I might come of a psychotic, but there is a reason for that." He says in a dry voice. I feel my ears instinctively fold against my head.

"I'm sorry." I look down.

"Don't be. There is no reason for you to be sorry. I'm not offended and I'm not mad Sunset. I don't get mad over such silly things." I look at him incredulously.

"Calling you insane is a silly thing?" I wanted to shout, but was too caught off guard, to even raise my voice.

"Of course. I know I am not insane, because for me to be insane there have to be two conditions. One: I must be delusional about things around me, which am not. And two: there have to be such things as right and wrong. There aren't by the way." I open my mouth to interject, but he cuts me off. "No Sunset, they don't. It's simply different, no actual right or wrong. Therefore I literally cannot be insane."

I just stare at him, my logical side telling me to play along, and then hand him over to the guard. However, he reminds me so much of Adagio back when we just met... but also different. While Adagio was distant, rude, sarcastic and pessimistic. He seems nice, sarcastic and optimistic, however still capable of being cold. What made him think like that?..

"That is..."

"Pessimistic? I know, but it's actually realistic. It's just that, that's the way things are in life: few rainbows and sunshine, lot's of everything else." I can't help, but feel that he is correct. Even though things haven't always been this way, not in Equestria at least. I decide to change subject.

"So, anything else you've found out?" My voice sounds weak.

"Yeah actually." He picks up the helmet and puts it on his head, the space in the middle instantly filled with smoke-like shadows, obscuring his muzzle entirely. "Do you mind standing near the door for a second, and switching the light on an' off quickly?"

"You mean off and on right?" I say as I stand in the doorway. I give a small smile, despite what was said earlier.

"You know what I meant." He sounds annoyed, but I can tell he is smiling as well.

"Alright I'm ready, when you are."

"Good. Just keep looking at me and when I give the signal, turn off the light for just a second." What is he planning?

He turns his entire body to me, and stands still near the table. "Now!" I shut off the light and quickly turn it on. He is now standing almost half of a meter away from me, with hands on his knees and breathing heavily. I shout in surprise and nearly jump back in fear. "Ta...da!" He rasps out.

"What was that?! That wasn't teleportation, there was no flash!"

"That's...because...I didn't teleport. Give me a moment." He exhales and takes a deep breath. "I didn't teleport, I ran up to you. It leaves me exhausted, but it doesn't appear to actually drain my energy. I believe, the spell is a shadowmancy one, since it seems to only work when I'm in the dark. I can't find the set of runes for it either, so the spell is probably ingrained into the armour." What.

First there's some kind of necromancy, of which I have never heard before. And now a set of armor that allows the wearer-correction: Vadon, to move faster than light? I...This is fantastic for better understanding of magic, but all of... this, doesn't feel like it should be meddled with.

I look at his weapons lying on the table.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vadon

"What about your daggers, or the other thing?" I look at my weapons lying on the table. Chewing on my lip, I think about what to tell Sunset. Finally deciding on what to say, I turn to her.

"Well: the daggers have a pretty complicated matrixes, for which you have to know the basics of necromancy to understand. As for the gun... I have no idea what it does. And since it doesn't have any runes: I can't find out its properties without using it and I... don't want start testing something, when I have almost no idea as to what it does. You see where I'm going with this?" She nods. "I might act reckless at times, but never, ever...would I do something, that I don't know the consequences of." Unless, I'm extremely bored and got nothing to lose.

"I-I'm not sure if I want to know everything else you've been doing." She turns away from me.

"I haven't found out much else, unfortunately. Besides: it's not like I'm doing something illegal, or anything that could threaten any of you, right? I've practically been avoiding you all, staying here - in the basement, most of the time."

"Why though? I don't understand." I look at her, without meeting her cyan eyes.

"Because all of this is temporary. After the storm cloud leaves Canterlot, I will leave." She opens her mouth to say something, when Arias head peeks through the doorway.

"Sunset, Vadon! It's finally happening! Let's go!" She disappears and I hear her hooves running up the stairs. A silent moment passes by.

"Aria wait! What's finally happening?! Go where?!" Sunset call out to her.

"The storm is leaving and the Queen is going to make an announcement! We'll be waiting on the balcony, hurry!"

Sunset and I look at each other in surprise. Well this is convenient... She looks at me for a few more seconds and then rushes out of the room. I quickly unstrap my armour, simply dropping it to the floor and follow after Sunset. As I reach the living room, I can see a lot of sunlight shining through the windows. I sprint across the room and up the stairs to the second floor.

I have never been here before. There is an open door in front of the stairway, leading to a room, that's filled with various equipment, some of which I don't even recognize. That's probably Sunsets room. I turn the corner and enter a hallway with a soft red carpet, lined across it's entire length. Midway into the corridor, there is a set of large framed doors opened inwards. I see Sunset walk onto the balcony, taking a spot to the right of the three sisters. Sonata is leaning on the marble railing, squealing with joy. Aria doesn't show as much excitement as her sister, instead choosing to fidget on her hooves. Adagio seems to be the most calm of the three, simply standing with her arms folded. I go to the balcony and take a place beside Sunset, but not too close.

Now that I am able to see Canterlot in all it's beauty, without the heavy rain impending my vision, I start soaking in all the details. I see a bunch of different Ponies standing on balconies of their own. All the houses are made of the same materials: marble and grey wood, in some cases decorated with either gold or silver. They do not look the same however and quite a few have pretty funky designs, that makes them look like little castles. Our hou-The house I've been living in, looks like a simple two-story house with a couple decorative extensions and indentations here and there.

The balcony gives a nice view to the lower parts of the city, and the plains below. However there are rounded walls to either side, so I can't see the neighbours, which I consider to be an architectural flaw. Suddenly a female voice cuts through the air.

"Citizens of Canterlot! I - Queen Celestia, am happy to announce, that the royal mages have discovered a way to contain the Rainbow Storm. The team in charge of the project has come up with an ingenuous invention, with the assistance of my personal student: Twilight Sparkle. The 'Storm Tower' construction has been completed at last! Observe the 'Lush Fields'!"

Despite the voice being incredibly loud, my ears are surprisingly not ringing. I squint at the fields, hiding the cringe at their name. My eyebrows raise in awe at the sight. There, in the far distance, is something beginning to rise. Whatever it is: it looks massive, even from this distance. A long spike, moves upwards from the main body of the thing. Suddenly, various lights appear on the tower and at the top, three giant spikes spread like flower petals. Most of the storm appears to be circling the tower, occasional lightning hits the tower, sending rainbow arcs across it's entire length and making the lights glow brighter. They built a lightning rod. A huge lightning rod for a big storm... Seems very unoriginal.

"The storm and lightning are attracted to the tower, making other places safe. There will be more 'Storm Towers' set up over Equestria, in the span of the next two weeks. This is a temporary solution, they will contain the storm, until we find a way to get rid of it, permanently."

The Queen stops talking and cheering erupts from everywhere. After the noise quiets down, a new voice continues.

"All towers shall be maintained and protected by a company of Solar and Lunar guards. Anyone, who gets near a Storm Tower, without a royal permit, will be captured and interrogated. No exceptions. This is for your own safety, the area around the base of a Storm Tower is more dangerous and unpredictable, than the Everfree Forest."

"Yes. As my sister said: please do not get near the towers, unless you are permitted by us to do so. The rest of Equestria and other Nations, will receive this message, so that no accidents happen. You are free to leave your homes, however you are not allowed to exit the city at the moment. I wish you all a good day." More cheering, however not as loud this time.

"Did you hear that Aria?!" I swear she must be a relative of Pinkies.

"No Sonata, I didn't hear the Queens speech." Aria gives her sister an obvious unamused gaze... Which Sonata seem to ignore completely.

"Oh. Well she was talking about this amazing tower thingy, that you can see in the distance, there! See it?" She points at the admittedly cool looking lightning rod, that keeps getting zapped, distant thunder reaching our ears.

"Ohhh! I didn't notice that before." Aria rolls her eyes, but still smiles at Sonatas antics. Adagio and Sunset have smiles of their own, looking at the giggling siren. I take a deep breath and begin walking into the hallway.

"Where are you going?" I stop and turn around to look at Adagio.

"I'm going to start packing." She raises an eyebrow, Sunset frowns and the other two get surprised expressions.

"Vadon... You heard the Queen, you can't leave the city. The guards might stop you." Sunset says with a tone of sadness.

"This city has a waterworks system, right? So all I have to do, is leave via the sewer."

"The sewer leads to an incinerator in the caves, below the city." She monotones.

"..." Shit.

"Vadon, why do you want to leave?"

"Sunset. I may live here, but I'm not a permanent resident of this house, so technically - I'm invading someone else's property." Adagio has both brows raised now and stares into space with a thoughtful look.

"No you're not! You're our guest!"

"Which I still consider an invader." Her mouth flops like that of a fish. Sonata looks at me with tears welling up in her big eyes.

"D-do you not like us?" She even gives a sniff.

"It's not about me liking you, or not. The owner simply doesn't want me in their home, so I will leave." Adagios eyes look up at mine. "Why should I create problems for her." She keeps staring at me with no emotion. Aria joins the conversation.

"This house doesn't have a single owner, y'know." I face the purple siren.

"So? What does that change?" She smirks and gives a huff of laughter.

"A lot. For one: I don't mind you being here, neither does Sonata."

"And for two?" I make myself sound disinterested.

"Adagio doesn't decide everything." The orange siren looks at Aria, not showing a single emotion.

"No. But she does her best to protect you from danger."

"And are you a threat to us?" Aria leans in.

"Does it matter? Just let me leave and I won't appear in you lives ever again." Sunset finally loses it.

"WHY?!"

"Because no one cares about me. And I'd like to keep it that way."

"I care." I tilt my head.

"I remind you of someone, don't I?" She flinches as if struck, then goes back to her cold demeanor.

"Yes, but that is besides the point-" I don't let Sunset finish.

"Oh no. That is exactly the point. Whoever it is, I remind you of, you must realize, that I am not them right? So there's no reason for you to care about me."

"You are so egoistical." She practically snarls at me.

"And you're not?" Sonata steps in between us.

"Guys, c'mon. Please stop fighting."

"I prefer: having an arguement." I say, while still looking in Sunsets eyes. Adagio walks up to my face.

"Sonata is already nearly in tears. If you make her cry..." She tells me in a calm tone. I look at Sonata and notice, that she indeed seems close to tears.

"Please stay out of this."

"No! I will not have my friends fighting each other! Apologize together, now!" She roars, however I show no signs of being intimidated.

"Since when am I your friend?"

"Anyone, who has no intention of hurting my family or my friends is my friend." She must have a lot of friends then, oh wait....

"...You want me to stay? Fine let's make a vote: who wants me to stay here?" I am the only one, who didn't raise a hand. Even Adagio raised hers. I had to do a double take on that.

"I thought you hate me?"

"I don't hate you. Plus Sonata likes you and that's enough for me." She smirks.

"Even if I stay, what am I gonna pay you with? I got no money." Sonata leaps over and puts a hand over my shoulder.

"That's because you don't have to." I can't stop the deadpan.

"...Way to make me feel like a parasite."

"Or you could go find a job." Adagio suggests.

"Oh really? You think anyone would hire something like me?"

"You could help Sunset with her research on magic, since you seem to be interested in that as well." I turn to the unicorn in question.

"What kind of research?" She looks less upset, but perks up at the question. Guess it hit her hard.

"Usually, I am trying to find out the inner workings of magic. But recently: I've been given a task by my mentor, to find out what is causing the fluctuations in the leylines energy flow. I think it's the paradoxical thaumic xer-" Aria decides to interrupt.

"Enough of all this complicated crap, none of us have even had breakfast yet and you're already conducting a lecture." Rude. Although, it's not like I wouldn't have said the same thing. Adagio puts a hand under her chin.

"I suppose we should, after breakfast we could go shopping. And yes, Vadon you can come as well, plus you need some new clothes. When was the last time you changed?" About three days ago.

"A while. You're right I suppose, but how am I going to pay for them?" Sunset walks past me.

"Don't worry I'll handle the payment. As long as it's nothing too fancy." Sonata finally let's go of me.

"Fantastic! Let's go then!" She disappears so fast, I can see an afterimage. ...She is definitely related to Pinkie, hundred percent.

"What are you going to have for breakfast?" Adagio asks me as we start walking down the stairs.

"A fish." An awkward silence follows my answer.

"No, you're going to have more than a single fish."

"No." My stomach releases a mighty rumble. "Maybe." She smirks victoriously and walks into the kitchen.

I follow after and start feeling something resembling excitement.

After all: I have a whole city to explore.

Author's Note

You know... you'd think a being of pure energy would never get tired...- Order or Chaos

I'd appreciate some proper feedback on this chapter. Either mail me, or feel free to write in the comments.

If you have any questions, post them in the comments as well and I'll answer them.

If you find any typos, mail me. Do not post my mistakes in the comments for all to view.
Well... I mean you can... but I'll just delete the comment. So save me some time will ya?

The next chapter should be released much soon than this one.

*Cue the music. In the next chapter, Vadon is going to do many things, such as-

To be continued.

Ch. 6: Restocking of supplies is Vital.

Chapter Six: Restocking of supplies is Vital.

Breakfast was incredibly uncomfortable. Sonata was the only one talking, with Aria being the only one who replied to her. With hums of acknowledgement. Sunset finished her meal early and Adagio, slowly chewing on her fish salad, was staring at me with a blank face. I stared back.

After all of us were done eating, we just put our plates in the sink, agreeing to wash them after we come back. I went to brush my teeth, using a simple brush and Adagios 'Colgate' Sea Holly toothpaste. It felt like sand, but it did the job of scrubbing my yellowish teeth. After spitting the water out, I took a look and noticed that, in fact: my enamel was becoming whiter by the day. Magic must have been involved in the making of the paste, I see no other explanation. After I was done washing up, I went into the basement and picked up my armour from the floor and put it on the table. I stare at it for a few seconds, I take out one dagger and put it in between my pants and belt, pulling the shirt out to cover it. I walk back upstairs, turning off the lights behind me. There was nobody here.

Since I had nothing better to do at the moment, I decided to sit on the couch and wait for the others to be done with whatever they were doing. Looking around the room, I suddenly catch sight of two seahorses going at it... I swear, that aquarium contains pure evil. After failing to get the image out of my head, I see Sunset walk out from almost nowhere. I blink and look in the direction where she came from. To the left of the stairs, was an open pure white door with a silver handle. It's blending in with the wall quite well, which I think is another architectural flaw. Did they not bother with renovations?

Sunset is wearing her orange hoodie, a purple pouch strapped to her waist and a... I blink. And then for a while I don't. Sunset is wearing black hoof-shaped boots. While I am trying to figure out the possible reason of: why Ponies would wear boots, the Siren trio walks out of what I assume is the closet, each wearing shoes. No, not horseshoes. I stare at my own sock covered feet and wiggle the toes. I didn't really think about this. I look up at Adagio.

"Are you ready to go?" She asks.

"Uh...Is it possible to get me clothes, without leaving the house?" She instantly gives me a 'u wot m8' look.

"No. You will have to go out there and get yourself new clothes yourself. Sunset is already willing to pay for you, so don-"

"Yeah, yeah I figured. Let's just go." It seems, that I'll have to get my feet bit wet and reeking. Sighing, I rise from the comfy chair and do a quick stretch.

I finally take a proper look at what each of them is dressed in. Adagio is wearing a light brown coat with brown high heel boots and has a light-orange hand-bag as well. Aria's wearing a short-sleeved cactus green jacket, with a white shirt underneath, that has a black Unicorn skull depicted on it, and complete with the equivalent of green sneakers. Sonata was the brightest of the three, her white hoodie with a pink musical note on the front, that was glimmering every time she moved, her sneakers had the same effect. Sunset goes to the front door and I am able to see an image of her mark on the back of the hoodie, that is also shimmering, although it's colours are two shades of purple and black.

I'm the last to leave the house and as I predicted, the ground is wet, thankfully: not everywhere. It seems, it had some time to dry. I assume, as I step onto the cold stone. I shiver slightly from discomfort, feeling my socks already becoming moist. Ou-our street has two parallel rows of houses on one side, with a tall wall behind the second row. And on the other, after a small right angle drop, there are also buildings. While the shapes and sizes were varied, the materials and general vibe were not. Many buildings have purple roofing and the marble walls are half-timbered with either grey, or dark brown wood. Each house looks original, yet same all at once. Adagio starts walking down one way of the street and we follow.

I don't see anybody else on the street, might either be still asleep, or they- Oh no, there's one. It's an Earth Pony stallion, that was locking a door to a house. After he was done, he turned around and saw us. At first he smiled, but when his eyes fell on me his body instantly locked in place, though he seemed more bewildered, than scared. As we were nearing him, I gave a short wave and he finally started to blink. After rubbing his eyes with two fingers, to make sure I wasn't a hallucination, he turned and greeted Adagio.

"Good morning ladies. How are you?" He sounded fairly normal: neither bassy, nor high pitched. Looked plain too.

"Good morning Quick Novel, long time no see. We're fine for the most part, what about you?" He starts walking with us.

"Oh, you know. The usual. I have been trying to finish my latest novel during the storm, but all my inspiration disappeared all of a sudden and I couldn't do it." He looks upset for a moment, before changing the subject. "So who's your friend?" Quick glances at me.

"Ah, that is-"

"I'm Vadon. Nice to meet you, I'm not her friend though." Adagio sends me a small glare.

"Yes. He is just our temporary housemate. Nothing really special." Wo-ow. Novel looks at me with even greater curiosity.

"I am sorry if this comes off as a bit rude, but what are you? I'm afraid I have not seen anything like you before."

"I'd be surprised if you have. As far as I know, I'm the only one of my kind in this world. As for your question: you have already answered it." He blinks for a moment, before looking up at Adagio. He was closer to my size.

"I apologize if he seems a bit rude, but I guess he just isn't from a mannered society." I walk closer to her.

"And what gave you that idea? Maybe I just don't want to use manners, maybe I see no point in them." Unless you're trying to either blend in, or manipulate someone. In which case: yes, they are useful. The writer looks at me with surprise.

"But...manners maketh Pony." Oh, he's one of those. The girls swivel their ears towards our conversation.

"First of all: I see absolutely no reason in having manners. Now don't get me wrong: it's not like I'm going to start eating with my hands, or throw out profanities left and right, but not because of manners. Those things can be a danger to your health health and I'd like to keep mine pretty healthy. Second of all: implying, that only Ponies have manners is quite racist." He looks like he's about to have an aneurysm, I can see Sunset behind him, smiling.

"I-but-how do you-"

"You know, there's this saying I really like: I do me, You do you. Capiche?" I look at him from under my brows. He looks like he's about to argue some more, but instead his face gets red and adopts an expression of horror and he looks down. What? I check behind me, just in case. Nothing. Whatever. We walk in silence after that.

I don't know how long it's been like this, but I only just notice that we're going upslope. Ahead are a bunch of round platforms of marble, reaching out from the side of the city. What are those? As we begin nearing the end of the slope, I notice more and more ponies around. Some ignore us and some choose to downright stare at us with wide eyes. I get tired and stare back at one of them, following her with my head as I walk past her. The mare instantly shies away. I look forward again and just in time to notice a decently sized crowd walking in the general direction of the round things. I get closer to Sunset.

"Hey. Where are we going exactly?" I whisper and she looks at me.

"Well, we were going to check if the marketplace has been set up. And it seem like it is, so we're going to head there, instead of the grocery shops. Everything is usually much cheaper and in better quality at the Canterlot market." I nod and continue walking beside her.

We pass a smooth transition in pavement, between grey plates and solid marble. After a couple more minutes of walking, we arrive at a round square and a mix of smells assaults my nose, varying from sweet to spicy. The market is just a bunch of stalls placed along the perimeter of the square. Although it looks like they're still being set up, so most of the crowd is in the middle with the few spread out stalls. I say few, but size and amount is relative at this point, since the area is bloody massive. Still smaller than the round things though. I think as I look to my left.

Some of the stall owners, which I assume to be Gryphons, are placing on the counters a variety of meat, some of which is blue, but it's mostly gutted fish. We head towards one such stall owner, while Novel tells us a goodbye and goes to another stand, that's selling some sort of salad. Upon closer inspection I notice that some Gryphons and Pegasi are topless, but those that aren't, are wearing shirts with an oval hole in the back for their wings, which began directly beneath their shoulder blades and reached down to their thighs. The biggest wings in the crowd I saw, were on a Gryphon and had a span of at least three meters.

It's the same Gryphon we are walking to. He has copper feathers, blue eyes and black beak. He's wearing a red silk vest with a light-red lace and a buttoned black shirt underneath. When he sees us approach, his eyes narrow.

"Mornin' ladies and...sir. Would you like to buy anything?" What? He was British. While the Ponies had no apparent accent, this guy had a clear british in his voice. Please don't be Eagland. Adagio pulls her face closer to the fish and takes a whiff.

"Hmm... We would like those two Slams, these three Carps a-and... that Jumba. Keep the heads." As she speaks, she points to various fish and the Gryphon puts the ones she named in two paper bags, he pulled from behind the counter.

While the first five look like something I'm used to with a few alterations. The last one is... creepy: it's long, purple, doesn't have any fins or scales and it's head is composed of an enormous mouth devoid of teeth, that splits into three. It also has four eyeholes. I think it also moved before the dude's claw touched it.

"Fuck my life and everything in it. What the hell is that?" I whisper to myself. I doubt even radiation could produce that.

Apparently I wasn't quiet, or everyone on this planet has incredible hearing, because Sunset whirls around with wide eyes, Aria is smirking and Sonata looks confused. I also heard a gasp behind me followed by an 'ew'. Either Adagio and birdman didn't hear me, since Adagio simply hands him the money and he still has his eyes narrowed. Or they just gave no fucks, who knows?!

Sonata takes out something spherical, from her right pocket. After she pulls the string attached to it, she unfolds it into a big light-blue bag. Adagio hands her the paper bags with fish and she puts them in her bag. Complicated, I know. After they tell the dude goodbyes, he replies with more of that british. Is their leader a lizard? I muse, as we walk to next stall.

"It's a Jumba eel. They may look like a horror from the deep and sometimes smell like one, but they are very delicious, if prepared right." Apparently she doesn't care about manners, at least not enough to tell me off.

"If you say so." I still won't take my chances.

"Oh yeah: if you're ever at the sea, hope that you don't meet an adult one. They grow big." ... Thanks Aria.

I notice some of the Ponies staring at me, but as soon as I look at them, they turn away haughtily. Not all do though, some keep staring and walking. Yelps of surprise sounded out, as many crashes happened in a very short amount of time. Hopefully: they aren't as xenophobic and racist as many depict them. There are Gryphons in their capital after a war. Admittedly: it did happen a while ago, but I doubt many would forget about it. I really did not need the attention of the Queen at the moment.

The next stall has a green sheet draped over it, it's owner wearing matching fancy clothes. The chestnut Earth Pony stallion doesn't notice us at first, his eyes preferring a mare customer that keeps seducing him, by making inconspicuous poses, while looking all innocent. As I suspected: when she pays for the goods, the amount of bits she gives is miniscule, compared to the amount of vegetables she has. I sigh. So does Sunset. We look at each other: she with pity, I with tiredness. So far: not many differences.

The mare gives him a wink and walks past us, glancing at me with surprise changing to disgust, without even stopping, or slowing down. Bitch, hate you too. The guy has a small smile with a dreamy look. That is, until he sees us. After rapidly shaking his head, he turns to us with a toothy grin.

"These fresh vegetable and fruits are clean and naturally grown, no magic involved! Would you like to buy some of them? The cabbages are fantastic this year." He has a bit of a high pitched voice, but not annoying. Chipper, I'd say. Sunset walks up to the stall.

"No thanks, but we would like a bag of carrots, potatoes, apples and... corn I guess?" Sunset turns to Sonata, who pulls out a list.

"Yup!"

"Alright then!" He puts everything in similar paper bags and tells us the price. Sunset doesn't agree with it.

"WHAT?! A hundred and fifty?! They can't possibly cost that much!" Aria joins in.

"Excuse me, but that mare bought more, than we did for a smaller price."

"What? Are you saying I'm a cheat?!" He sounds so angry, I almost believe him.

"No! No-no-no-no, no...Yes." Adagio...I'm starting like you. However if you want to have any of these, it's time for a change in the tactic.

"Why you-"

"Hi. Um...excuse me uh, I am confused about one thing." He sends me a half angry, half confused glare.

"What is it?" He says through clenched teeth. We seem to be gathering a small crowd. Here we go.

"Why did that mare pay so little for so much food?"

"I already said, that-"

"Oh, cut the bullcrap." I drop the polite tone, changing to and indifferent one. "We both know, that you're not fooling anybody, so my question is: why did she pay so little."

"...She's my friend." Ri-i-ight.

"She certainly didn't look at you as her friend, nor did you I must say." His face gets a small blush.

"Fine. She isn't my friend." Aria opens her mouth, but I beat her to it.

"So, you didn't lower the prices for her?" Adagio looks at me.

"That's right, I didn't." Gotcha' you fucker. I make a pleasant smile.

"Well then. If my math doesn't fail me, we should pay abou-ut... forty six bits."

"What?! No! A hundred and fifty." Don't let him get mad.

"I'm sorry, but didn't you just say, that you didn't lower the prices? So if she payed seventy bits, then we have to pay forty six. Or are you trying to scam us?" Adagio smirks and moves her eyes to the sputtering Pony.

"O-of course not! I would never!" My face goes blank.

"Would you like to be famous?" Everyone around becomes confused.

"I-Yes. Who wouldn't?"

"Would you like to be known across Canterlot, as the stallion, who makes ladies of his own choosing, pay him as much as he wants for whatever he wants?" He goes pale. "Because we can arrange that." He gulps.

"You wouldn't." I raise an eyebrow.

"Are you sure about that?" His fur becomes sweaty.

"Heh, uh-what was it? Sixty four?"

"Forty six."

"Right-yes! Of course, I remember now." His voice cracks. Sunset gives him the money and he hands her the bags. "H-here you go. Enjoy." I smile. Sunset pulls out another bag to unfold and place the goods in.

"Thank you."

As I turn around, I see a bunch of Ponies, staring at me with either smiles of approval, or looks of respect. Some just stare though. My smile turns into a small smirk as I look at every observer: mostly everyone is dressed in simple stuff, but there two people in swanky clothes: Fancy Pants and Fleur, who are practically beaming with respect. At least, I assume that's them. Although Fleur has a strange expression - like she's in deep thought. The crowd starts dispersing and we go through the rows of stalls. We walk out onto the round square and after we are far enough away from the crowd, the girls stop me and turn me towards them.

"That was amazing!" Sonata and Sunset exclaim together.

"I'm genuinely impressed as well. Where did you learn to do that?" Adagio raises her eyebrow slightly.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Or laugh, either or.

"Oh c'mon. What could you possibly say, that I wouldn't believe?" I take a deep breath through my nose and let out a part of it quickly.

"Have you... ever had a lot of free time? So much so, that you don't have anything else to do, but think?"

"...Sometimes." She looks at me oddly.

"I had a lot of time. Ever since I was a kid, I was fascinated with the 'what if?' question. So much so, that I began creating multiple situations, that could happen. Didn't matter if something was considered possible, or not: I still would think of it. I did it to prepare for such things as that arguement. There was a... point in my life, during which my brain processing activity increased, letting me imagine entire lifetimes of what could have, or could happen. I may be young biologically. But mentally: I have lived at least a couple hundred."

"I got myself a little motto when I was young: 'You are ready for something, if you are prepared for it mentally.'" I snort. "Of course, that doesn't mean that I instantly became prepared for everything, but not many things can surprise me. It's really... boring. I still don't like surprises though." They share looks between each other, before turning to me. "Alright: enough with the mood. Are we gonna go for my clothes now?" Adagio gives a nod.

"Yes. There's this little Boutique we know and it is the perfect place. The dress maker there, can make any clothes, varying from simple-" She points at herself "-to unique." her hand motions towards Sonata and Sunset. "It's not far away from here and the prices are cheap."

"A dress maker eh?.. Do you know where I can get myself some shoes? Or any footwear whatsoever, that isn't socks would be nice."

"Wh-Oh. Why would you wear socks if the roads are wet?"

"They offer more protection, than if I went bare. Plus it seemed like a good idea at the time." She hums dubiously.

"I think there is a shop across Rarity's, that makes custom footwear."

"Alright. Lets go then."

As we walk across the marketplace, a big shadow falls over us. I search for the source and find the castle slash palace. It's very impressive: the seven different towers rise up into the blue skies, with one of their gold and silver tips nearly touching the clouds. The mountain peak behind is still bigger though. The main structure, is ~~built~~ carved into the mountain, the springs running through handmade waterfalls. I can't see much into the castle grounds, since there is a massive smooth marble wall blocking the view. There are huge engraving on the palace walls, made out of some purple material mixed with gold. I can's see very well, because of the distance, but I think I see some of the stained windows, that depict... something.

I hear Sunset calling me, so I look back on the road and stop immediately, otherwise I would have been run over by a carriage. That was close. I slowly turn around to look at the girls with my wide eyes.

"I'm okay." I tell them in an odd voice. Adagio looks at me, concerned.

"You should watch where you're going you know. I don't know what it's like where you're from, but in Canterlot: there are many nobles, that enjoy travelling by wheel." What drives the carriage?.

The carriage itself is yellow and black, with an ornate design. I can't get a good look at the front of it- and it just turned the corner. It's gone. I'll find out later. Sonata walks up to me.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah-yeah I'm fine." I look at them. "I'm alright. Shall we?"

I decide to pay more attention to my surrounding this time, looking out for anything and everything. As we walk across the street, I notice that some Ponies are wearing horseshoes and it's usually the ones in a very simple attire. Another detail I noted is, that while some of the pedestrians were running, some walking 'gracefully' and others just walking - they all moved the same way. First they moved one of their shoulders forward and then a leg, however: some did it sleeker than others - practically unnoticeably. Or at least they would be, if I had my old eyesight.

I inspect the four members of our group, remembering the question Aria asked me a couple of days ago. And just as I thought: while the girls are moving their shoulders, Adagio is the only one, who is sauntering similarly to me, the heels helping her balance. I attempt to walk like a Pony, but just can't seem to do it. I might have to walk on my toes for it to work and if that's the case, then the difference in our leg structure makes me more stable on my feet then the Ponies on their hooves.

My back releases a few cracks, as I slightly arch my spine backwards and shove my hands in my pockets. I hum in content, from being in a position I'm used to. Sunset glances at me and raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. On our way, I received more curious glances, disgusted stares and very few pleasant smiles. No more 'deer in the headlights' looks is preferable in all honesty, but it's not like it bothered me much. Checking around the street, I decide that I'm safe enough at the moment to appreciate more of the surroundings. After a while of more 'plain' scenery, I finally find something interesting.

To our right is a small mansion, that probably has seen better days. The second tower looks like it has fallen off, half of the roof is missing and all the windows are broken, the frames around them charred. The entire building was made of some kind of wood and very few metal parts, that were mostly used to make the towers. It's currently being taken down. I purse my lips and look to the left.

Some kind of store is being opened. The walls are white, but not marble and the frame is made out of a chestnut coloured wood. Two Pegasi are hanging up a sign. Arcane's Arcane... A magic store? Probably. A hornless, wingless stallion in a red squared shirt with purple lines and purple trousers comes out and looks at the two carrying the shops name. After they fix the sign in place, he nods and calls them down. Since I can't turn my head a hundred and sixty degrees without consequences, I look forward again.

I blink as I see a poster boy (Colt? Never figured that one out.) glue one on a wall of some house. The poster had Adagio, Sonata and Aria depicted on it in various poses over a faded purple background.

The grinning orange siren was dressed in a purple dress and purple pants, that looked like boots. She was bending forwards, one of her arms stretched downwards, the gloved hand making a horns gesture. Her other hand was holding a mic stand with a wireless microphone on it.

Sonata had a pink skirt and a magenta shirt with long-socks. She was in a mid-jump pose, using both arms to hold a black guitar with a magenta hue to her side, smirking at the observer. Her striped hair was in the all too familiar pigtail

The usually glum looking siren was practically beaming, as she was ramming away on the drums. Aria was wearing clothes similar to now, except she had a purple top instead of the skull shirt.

There's one detail, that definitely hasn't escape my sight: they all have a black silk necklaces with a red gem in the middle. I couldn't see Sonatas neck, but I assumed she had one too.

The Dazzlings. Battle. Full album live performance at the Canterlot Concert Hall, on the 26th of June at 7:00 in the evening.

I turn to the Rock Stars.

"Hey look! You're famous." They look at the poster and turn to me with annoyed amusement. It's uncanny how they can act the same at a time. Hivemind confirmed. "When's the concert?"

"On Thursday." Aria replies.

"No-o! Really? And when is that?" She's about answer, but Sonata beats her to it.

"Today is Monday. I think." She puts a finger on her chin.

"What, you wanna come?" Adagio asks.

"If I earn enough money for the ticket - I don't see why not."

Adagio looks forward again and frowns. I follow her stare and frown as well. We have reached the end of the road and it opens up into an even bigger square, than before. That is filled with Ponies, Gryphons and I think I even saw a couple Minotaurs here and there. How much population does this city have?! How big is it?! I move my jaw to the side and look at Adagio, she looks at me.

"Let's go around, it'll be quicker."

We turn around and after some distance: step into an alley to the left. After a couple more minutes of walking, we reach the end of the tight pathway and exit out onto another road, with fewer people this time. Adagio turns to Sunset.

"We need to go get something from the area. Sunset, could you..?" Sunset hands her the bag with the greens.

"Yeah sure, no problem! See you later." Adagio nods with a small smile and goes down the right end of the street with Aria by her side.

"See you two laters!" Sonata waves to us and catches up with them.

"So where's this boutique?" I ask, still looking at the skipping Siren.

"Right here." I turn to her and then turn some more.

"Oh."

We were, in fact: at the Boutique. The building has a curve to it and is made from neatly carved marble, and once again: has purple frilly designs. The building is a two story one, with a single balcony above the front door. I can see a multitude of various dresses and suits behind two display windows, located on each side of the entrance. The door itself is mahogany, with an oval window and has marble steps leading up to it. There is a sign on the door that says: 'Open all week from 9 until 6'. Sunset goes up to the door and looks down at me.

"You coming?" I hum in acknowledgement as I leap up the stairs. She pushes the door open and steps in.

There is a little jingle as the door closes behind us, but otherwise it's silent. The inside is pretty big and looks quite modern. Human modern. Sunset walks across the reflective onyx floor to the middle of the room, unzips her hoodie and puts both hands in the pockets. I saunter over to her, whilst taking a look around. Not much to note in all honesty: a set of stairs leading to the floor above, a bunch of dresses, a stage to the left, an odd looki-

"I'll be over there in just a moment!" And a voice that disrupts my inner monologue.

After a few seconds of waiting, a white Unicorn strides out of the curtains, that are on the side of the staircase. She's wearing a white blouse with a dark blue corset, that is matching her eyeliner, enveloping the blouses lower part. Rarity's also wearing a black medium length skirt, that has about four pockets and a pair of see-through socks that reach up to her lower thighs. The socks end at her hooves, allowing the horseshoes to touch the ground. She strikes a pose and starts swinging her raised hand from side to side.

"Welcome to Rarity's Boutique, where everything is chic, unique and magnifique! How may I help you today?" Her 'magnifique' hair stops swinging from side to side and she opens her blue eyes to look at us.

"Ah! Hello Sunset, how may I help you to...day... Hello, I don't believe we have met before?"

"Hi Rarity, this is my friend - Vadon." My jaw clenches for a moment. "He is in dire need of clothes. I suggested your establishment and here we are." Rarity smiles and looks at me.

"Ah a new customer. Well I am sure, that it is a pleasure to meet you good sir." I give a smile, that doesn't reach my eyes.

"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Rarity. Shall we get down to business?" She gives a nod of approval.

"I don't see why not. What would you like to have made?" I take a deep breath and look at myself.

"Well... I would like a pair of blue pants, that can be worn both outside and inside and are comfortable to quickly move around in. I would also like two long-sleeved shirts similar to the one currently on me: one being pure black and the other the same dark blue as this one. And if you would: a light pure black and a pure blue jackets, with pockets on the front left on inside left." She raises an eyebrow

"Seems a bit drab, don't you think? Maybe I should add a few designs. To spice things up a bit?"

"No it's fine. I wouldn't want to bother you with extra work, plus striped or squared clothing wouldn't suit me." Plus it won't be cheap. She smiles and shakes her head.

"Nonsense darling. It isn't a bother to me at all! And trust me: you would look fabulous in such garments. I can produce clothes with a motif, that will bring forth the best parts of your inner self!"

"Rarity. I'm sure, that you're a professional at what you do and an artist at what you make. But please understand, that I want to keep my clothing simple."

"But I do not understand why. I am sure, that someone as yourself would have a unique personality." ...D-Did she just make a racist compliment?

"That's exactly the point." "What?" "You're probably right about me having a rich personality. My inner world is vast and complicated, yet compact and simple." For me at least. "It took me a couple of years to figure it out, but I managed to do it. And because I did: I would like simple clothing, so no one even suspects my 'inner world'." I form quotes in the air, which makes Rarity frown.

"I do not approve, but very well I suppose. Anything else?" I suck in a breath of air.

"Do you work with underwear?" Rarity raises a brow.

"Not the first time I would have. Why? You have something in mind?"

"Two pairs of black socks and a pair of dark blue pants." Her eyelids droop. A moment passes.

"Alright. Come with me, I will take your measurements." She goes through the curtain.

I look at Sunset, who is staring back at me with mixed emotions. In the end: she just sighs and shakes her head in disapproval. I quickly roll my eyes and follow after the fashionista. The room on the other side appears to be her workplace. It's not that big, but she managed to fit a lot of stuff in here. There are metal tables on two sides of the room, with black cloth draped over them. There are sewing machines and kits on those tables and ten mannequins placed around the room with half-finished dresses on three of them. At the back of the room is a big mahogany shelf with different types of fabric on it.

Rarity is standing on the left side, rummaging through one of the kits. She pulls out a measuring tape, a red pincushion and three pairs of scissors. She puts everything on the table, except the tape, with which she approaches me. Sunset comes into the room behind me and leans on the wall.

"Please stand over here and undress to your undergarments."

"Should Sunset be here? Doesn't that break some sort of customer laws?" Mainly privacy.

"Pshh, I just wanted to talk with Rarity. But I can turn around, if you feel shy." And she does just that, making Rarity turn to her. Using only one hand, I quickly pull out the dagger and shove it in my pocket. I try to look, like I have been staring at Sunset this whole time.

"Nah. I don't really care, do what you want." I unzip my trousers and pull them down. Rarity looks at my legs.

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"Hmm."

"What?"

"Hm-"

"What?"

"You could use some exercise." Fuck you Rarity.

"I could use so-" I swivel my head, to look Sunset. She grimaces and shrugs.

"In all honesty Rarity: in the past couple of days, he shouldn't have been doing any activity, that would put a lot of strain on his muscles." ...I mean...She's not wrong.

"Why ever not?" Rarity questions as she measures my thighs.

"Because that's not fat. That's skin." She looks up at me in confusion and then turns to Sunset for an answer.

"...We found Vadon on our street during the storm. He was bleeding from... he was bleeding and looked like he was on the brink of starvation." I did not look that bad. "He didn't look like a skeleton." There you go. "But he didn't seem healthy either. We brought him into our house and lived with him ever since. He would occasionally help us with a few chores, but he would mostly read his book on magic." Rarity stands up and looks at me with surprised smile.

"Really? It's very rare to meet someone, who can use the art of magic and isn't a unicorn, so that's a pleasant surprise. However: I bet, that Sunset wasn't very impressed, since she has learned almost every arcane art there is. She can be like that." Rarity smirked and glanced at Sunset.

"Actually..." The fashionista had to do a double take on that. "The book he has, contains knowledge on a class of magic, I have never seen or heard of before. While it seemed to use mostly runes, I couldn't recognize any of them. That's why Vadon agreed to teach me some of his magic after he finishes reading the book." Rarity lowers her head.

"I see. But that still doesn't explain why he isn't in peak physical condition." Because I'm not a horse? Sunset let's out a sigh.

"After I told him about the storm, he... changed. I admit: I didn't know him all that well before, but... he just changed. He would lock himself in the basement with that book, apparently for entire nights. He refused to eat any food as well, his argument being: 'you never know when the storm is going to end'."

Rarity nearly drops her tape as she looks at me. I stare at her evenly.

"C-could you lift off your shirt?" I do as she asks, my face unchanging. When the shirt comes off, she lets out a horrified gasp and Sunset eyes widen.

"By the way: that is a lie. I have eaten." Sunset returns my gaze.

"What you ate, could not be considered food."

"I disagree. Honestly: why do you even care about me, I just don't understand."

"We already had this discussion." I make a grimace.

"Mmm. I wouldn't really call that a discussion." I shake my head at her, to which she frowns.

"Alright enough! I will not have anypony arguing in my boutique. Is that clear?" A few seconds pass.

"Yes." "Of course Rarity." She looks at both of us.

"Good! Now: Vadon please stretch out you arms and stand still." I spread my spindly arms and straighten my back, standing a whole head taller, than Rarity. She blinks a couple of times and gets to work.

"Sunset?" The unicorn hums in response. "You wanted to talk with Rarity, so go on then. Just not about me, deal?" Rarity goes around to the side and starts measuring my arms and waist. .

"Oh yeah. Alright. How have you been lately Rarity?" The fashionista stops measuring for a moment.

"I have lived better days, but all in all: it wasn't that bad. I am just worried about Sweetie..." Sunset blinks.

"She's in Ponyville at moment, isn't she?" I hear shuffling behind me.

"Yes, she should be with Applejack right now. Lower your hands darling." I feel the cold tape and nails running across my back.

"She's with Applejack? Well then: you have nothing to worry about, if she is anything like you told me."

"I know, but I can't help but be worried." I hear Rarity let out a quiet groan and something along the lines of: 'I hate tall customers', which makes me smirk. I was always considered short.

"What about Sassy - where is she? She can't be still asleep, right?" Rarity chuckles.

"No, I just asked her to restock on food and some sewing supplies. We've been running out lately." She hums in satisfaction and I hear the sound of something being written down. "You may get dressed now, darling."

She walks out of my peripheral vision and goes to one of the tables, while I start putting on my clothes. Making sure, that the shirt is tucked into the trousers, I close the black belt and look up at Rarity, standing with her back turned to me. She has a pencil behind her left ear and a notebook is now lying on the black cloth. Suddenly, she turns to me.

"I've been wondering, if I could make you a pair of jeans instead of simply pants." My head drops forward.

"J-you can make jeans?" I look around the room. "With what? I don't see any equipment, that could let you make them." With an amused smirk, she points at her horn.

"So: may I? I believe they would fit you nicely." I blink and shake my head.

"I don't mind at all. Just make them tight enough, so I can feel the pressure, yet still be able to move quickly and in almost any pose. Can you do that?"

"It will be a challenge. But I accept! I assume you'd like them blue?" She looks at me from under her brows.

"...Yes. When will you have everything done? A couple of days?" She looks offended.

"Darling, you offend me. If my assistant gets back soon, then I will have all your garments done in thirty minutes."

"Wha- How? What kind of magic do you have?"

"The common one, but I'm a professional as well, darling. Also both me and my assistant have magic and you have refused to let me make any kind of patterns on your clothes. And there is the bonus of you being Sunsets friend! Of which I am in doubt."

"Rarity!"

"Yeah. You and me both."

"Vadon! You are my friend and that's final!" My lower lip envelopes my upper one as I squint at Rarity.

"...For some reason, that doesn't really sound like friendship." She stares off into space.

"I have no idea, what you two have between each other. However if it makes Sunset lose her composure this much, I am all for it!"

We share a laugh, at which Sunset puffs her cheeks and crosses her arms. After we are done with the giggles, I look at her, grinning.

"Relax Sunset, we're just teasing you. I am actually starting to enjoy your company." The 'angry'-looking Unicorn gives a tiny smile. I turn to the other one. "Rarity, it's been nice chatting with you, but I have other business to take care of at the moment. Just in case I'm early: where could I wait?"

"There are seats in the foyer and some magazines should be lying on the tables. I will see you when I'm done." She says with a smile and begins levitating cloth from the shelf. The room is way too bright, for me to see her aura.

"Fantastic, Sunset? Would you mind helping find the other shop?" She leans off the wall and looks at Rarity.

"I'll quickly show him the place and come back. See you in a bit."

"Yes, see you in a bit dearie." Rarity responds, as she begins to work her magic.

We walk back out into the main room and I notice four purple couches to my far right and two glass tables with rounded metal legs. There is a neat stack of magazines lying on one of them, though I can't see what they're about. Probably fashion. Reaching the entrance, Sunset opens the door and we step out onto the street, the bell jingling again.

There are few people out and about, but those that are - seem like they have a large piece of silverware, stuck in a really uncomfortable place. The nose obviously, why do you think nobles always have it raised? Sunset walks down the stairs normally, but I instead choose to skip a step every next one. Landing on the marble road, I catch up and walk alongside her. We cross the street and reach a building straight across Rarity's.

"We have arrived." She says with a butler's bow and a troll-face expression. I purse my lips.

"So... If you're going to head back to Rarity, I will need some of your money."

Sunset slowly nods and pulls out a purse from her pouch. She hands me ten coins from it, with each one having the number ten on it and a capital 'B' crossed with two horizontal lines. I pick up one and twirl it around: the other side has a symbol of a fiery sun and crescent moon fused together.

"Here you go: this should be enough. I'll see you, when you're done. Bye!" She waves to me, while walking back to the boutique.

"See ya." I simply raise my hand.

I shove the bits in my pocket and turn back to the shop, thinking on how to approach this. Hello good sir! You might have noticed me not having any shoes, but not to worry! I am not a homeless person: I have a basement to live in! Yeah, that'll work. A take a deep breath and quickly exhale. I push the door open.

The first thing that catches my attention: is the interior itself. The flooring is made from some kind of dark wood with a huge orange carpet in the middle of the room. A couple of flat white and orange chairs sit on the carpet. There is a variety of footwear in a few display cases, that are placed on white stands, near the walls. The lighting has a yellowish hew to it and is coming from multiple in-built lamps on the ceiling. There's an orange brown counter at the back with a yellow book on it and a dark door behind it. There is an odd aroma in here, that I can't quite place, but it's not unpleasant. The last detail I note, is the other sole occupant of the room.

"Hello and welcome to 'Sole Mate', how may we help you today?" A yellow mare in an orange suit asks me. It's already not going to plan! Abort, Abort!

"Greetings, I would like to have some shoes made for me. Simple, pure black, slip-ons, with really low and wide heels." She looks down at my feet and frowns in confusion. "I know. That's kinda why I need new ones." She looks back up at me with a tiny smile.

"Would you like them for a special event, or everyday casual?"

"I would like to be able to go in them for both, so please make them comfortable to run in. Is that possible?"

"I don't see why not. Come closer, please." She motions towards the carpet.

My socks are slightly moist, but they have dried up slightly at the boutique, so I do as the consultant says. She pulls out a measuring tape out of her front pocket and walks up to me. She requests me to put my feet close together, but make some space between them. She kneels down and begins taking measures. After a couple of minutes she stands up, pulls out a notebook with a pen and writes something down. Eventually, her green eyes look up at me.

"So how exactly would you like them made?" I sit on one of the seats, pull up my leg and show her the curve in the foot.

"You see this?" She steps closer. "I would like the heel to be on this entire area-" I make a shape over my heel bone. "- and the sole right here with a slight vertical curve under this spot." The consultants face goes empty for a moment, before she pulls out the tape again and begins measuring my underfoot. After putting the measurements in the notebook she turns away.

"I will be right back." She walks around the counter and through the door.

Deciding to take a look around, I stand up and approach one of the shoes, that's being displayed. It looks like a mix of a sandal and a tall boot. The thing has gold lines engraved into it's blue leather and has odd patterns on two opposite sides. On the stand next to it, is a different shoe in a shape of a hoof. It's yellow coloration makes me squint my eyes, the yellow being too bright for them. I hear a door open to my right and turn to the source of the sound.

"Those are our best works yet." The same mare as before tells me. I look at her in amused confusion.

"So what: someone only has one of these shoes?" She chuckles.

"No: they have both, those are just exact replicas. Your footwear will be done in twenty minutes. Would you like to purchase some shoe polish with them as well?"

"I've only got a certain amount of money on me, so I would have to know how much everything will cost, before deciding anything." She doesn't skip a beat.

"Well, for the shoes it'll be fifty bits and fifteen for a single container of wax."

"I see. Yeah I'll buy one, I don't see why not. Say... how much would it cost if I wanted some sort of design on my shoes?" She tilts her head and one of her ears flops.

"I'd say about...eighty - eighty five bits. Why do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious." Sunset. Come on... "I'll just... sit here for a moment, if you don't mind."

"No, no, not at all. You're actually our first customer all day. With a unique order to boot!" Di-did she-e just make a shoe pun? She had a little grin, so I guess she did.

"Nice." I stretch my back and arms, becoming almost five times wider.

I nearly fall asleep after about twenty minutes pass. Or I would have, if Amber wasn't such a conversationalist. After she told me her name, I had to tell her my alias and then she couldn't stop asking questions, or telling anecdotes, or bits of her personal life. What I have found during our 'conversation' out so far:

1) Amber is married to someone named: Bolt Lace and their wedding happened two years ago.

2) Her husband and her brother work together in this shop: Bolt making the upper parts of the shoes, while her bro worked on heels and soles.

3) She likes strawberry hot chocolate.

4) The scent in the room is a fragrance of oranges. Note to self: have to try some.

5) And finally: some Ponies don't need lungs.

6) Oh yeah - six: They have good relationships with Rarity, but aren't big fans of her assistant.

She gets interrupted by Sunset entering. I turn to the unicorn and swear, that I see a bright light shining from behind her and a choir singing from somewhere.

"-Oh. Hello and welcome to 'Sole Mate', how may we help you?" Sunset looks down at me.

"Oh no, I just came for this guy, here." I raise an eyebrow and a corner of my mouth.

"What, miss me already? It's been only twenty minutes."

"Twenty five, actually. And I just thought, I'd check up on you. So, what did you pick?"

"You'll see. They should be done pretty soon." Just as I say that, the door behind the counter opens.

"So who wanted the-whoa. Hello. You ordered these?" A dark blue Pegasus with a yellow mane, holds up a pair of shoes.

"Yeah, that'd be me."

I rise and close the space between us with two strides. A hold my right hand out to him and he puts one of the shoes on it. The shoe itself is... perfect so far. It's pure black, the heel is not high enough to make me lose my balance, or be uncomfortable when walking. It doesn't have any laces, or any other kind of closing mechanism. The stiffener is hard, but quite flexible, the part, where the tongue would be, is connected diagonally with the stiffener and the lower part of the shoe with a fabric, that stretches. The insides are made of a greyish-blue fluffy material, at which I raise an eyebrow.

"Amber told me, that you don't have much in the fur department, so I thought you might need something to keep you warm." I looked at him with a blank face. He gets a nervous grin and starts sweating a bit.

I silently take the other one from his hands and place them both down on the carpet, in front of me. I stare at them for a moment: looking down at them, like I'm judging them. Which I suppose I am. I shove my right foot in the corresponding shoe, followed by the other one. I stand still for a moment and wiggle my entire foot. Then smile.

"I like them." He breathes out a sigh of relief. "I like them a lot. You alright? You looked like you were about to have a panic attack. Business not going well?" He shakes his head.

"Not really, but we used up quite a bit of money, before the storm arrived. So we want to earn as much as possible as soon as possible. It's a fun challenge to make shoes for other races, kind of a hobby and a job in one for me, ya see." I look at him for a moment, contemplating something. This could backfire.

"What was it, sixty five bits?" I reach into my pocket and pull out the coins. I hand him eight coins, putting the rest back in the pocket. "Keep the change, I really like the shoes." He looks up at me with a smile.

"Thank you" Amber walks up to me with two small containers, that have 'Wax for Black Footwear' written on them.

"Here you go. I don't like keeping the change." She tells me with a smile. Her husband looks at her, then smiles and nuzzles her.

"Welp: thanks for the shoes. I guess, I'll see you some other time." I begin walking to the front door.

"Bye!" "Catch ya later."

I step out onto the street, the heels barely making any sound. I tap my foot on the ground a couple of times and a quiet clacking sound comes from the shoe. Amazing. I sprint across the street and up the Boutique's stairs. Sunset comes up behind me, I turn the handle and open the do- Wait, it's push not pull... I push the door open and go inside.

Supposedly: Rarity should be finished already, so I walk up to the curtain, about to enter.

"-? There was this strange creature at the market, that made a poor stallion give him the goods for a lot less bits, than they cost originally. The thing submitted the vendor into doing so, by accusing him of things and even resorting to threats. At least that is what I have heard from the other Ponies in the market." A posh voice sounded out.

"Really? Who would do such a thing? I can't possibly imagine even talking with someone like that." Rarity said.

I slowly turn my head to look at Sunset from under my brows, with smiling tight lips. She stands stock still with a blank expression, but I can tell she's trying not to crack up, if her body's quivering is anything to go by.

"Me too. Oh by the way Rarity: who are we making these clothes for? They seem a bit dull." I step through the curtain.

"You're making them for this 'strange creature'." I say in mock annoyance, crossing my hands. A tall, light-blue Unicorn in a black flowery dress, shrieks and throws a pair of boxers at me, which I manage to catch and hold in my hand by my side. Rarity takes off her red glasses and inhales a volume of air, before exhaling loudly through the nose. She opens her eyes and sends me an unamused glare. I raise the pants up to my face, inspecting them up close. They seem to be already done and are capable of stretching without tearing. I look back up- down at Rarity.

"Don't you have any manners? One does not eavesdrop on a lady's discussion."

"You mean very loud and obvious gossip? Besides: if you're going to judge me, blame Sunset as well. You think I was the only one, who heard your conversation?" Rarity looks behind me and makes an appalled expression.

"Sunset! I am appalled, that you would do such a thing!"

"W-we have just come back and we just overheard you. T-that's all!" I shake my head at her.

"Sunset, when someone talks about you behind your back: you do not apologize to them for it. Unless you're some kind of weird- masochistic person, that likes to say they're sorry for actions, they haven't committed: then go for it." I say, even though Sunset didn't actually give an apology.

"I'm sorry for talking about you behind your back. I just didn't assume, that you were one of Rarity's customers." Oh: so if I wasn't, then you would? "I don't want to give a bad first impression-" Kinda late for that. "- I am Sassy Saddles - Rarity's assistant. May I know, who you are?"

"..." No "I am Vadon,-" I reach my hand out to her. "-you made these?" She looks at the underwear in my hand and shakes it.

"It's nice to meet you Vadon, yes: I made those." She stays silent for a moment. "If you don't mind me asking: are the rumours true?"

"The rumours about a powerful being of wisdom, that didn't let a Pony scam him and his friends? Totally." She blinks. Rarity turns to me.

"Can you tell us what happened? While I enjoy an overblown story once in a while, I'd like to hear it from someone who was actually there at the time." She leans back on the table. I lower my head in thought.

"I'll give you the short version. A mare bought five or six bags, almost bursting with food and the merchant made her pay very little for it. After we bought much less, then that mare: he tried to make us pay a hundred and fifty bits, which was almost double the amount of what she paid. I asked him a couple questions, he answered them and fell into a little verbal trap I set up. In the end we paid about forty five bits." Rarity's jaw dropped and I think Sassy's actually dislocated. Rarity restarted faster.

"Sunset. Is what he said true?"

"Every word of it." Sunset replies behind me.

"Well I'm glad, that that cheat got put back in his place. In all honesty Darling: I never expected you to do something like that." She looks at me with a smile.

"Love you too, Rarity." I deadpan at her. She gets a small blush and lets out a huff.

"Huff. Well I never. You should accept a compliment, when a lady offers you one."

Now, my choices are:

1) I'll definitely do that, when a lady tells me one. Or.

B) Who said I didn't accept it? I told you, that I love you didn't I?

Hmm...

I ignore her as I look at Sassy's tall form. Her curious amber eyes, almost a head and a half higher, than mine. Damn. I smile.

"Are my clothes ready yet?" She blinks, before nodding.

"Yes they are, you may collect them." I see Rarity shaking out of the corner of my eye. I set my poker face in stone.

"Excellent! May I see them?" She steps aside and motions toward the table.

My underwear and long-sleeves are lying in neat piles on the black silk. I walk up to my clothes and inspect them separately. My socks are warm enough for Autumn, but not enough to make me sweat during hot days. Perfect. My shirts and pants also can stretch and let through air, but not it's temperature. I nod in satisfaction and spin around.

I see Rarity frowning, but she looks at me expectantly. I reach her table and see two jackets and jeans on it. I feel both jackets and come to a conclusion: Rarity and Sassy are masters at what they do. Also don't mess with Unicorns. I pick up the jeans and look at one who made them. I quickly run out into the foyer, unbuckle my trousers and put on the jeans. After closing the button and zipping them up, I stand still for a few seconds. I decide to take a few small steps and then a couple of big ones, even for me. It doesn't chafe anywhere and allow a lot of movement, yet they wrap around me nice and tight. I notice Sunset staring at me with a smirk.

"Do you like them?"

"Can you pay them extra?" She pokes her head through the curtain.

"He likes them." She walks back into the room, I follow her.

"I'm glad you like them, Darling. Oh, before I forget! You clothes will not have any hairs or dust sticking to them, and don't need to be washed often." I gawk at her, then slowly turn to Sunset.

"...Can you please pay her extra?" She smirks.

"I only pay extra for my friends." She instantly pays her extra. Le sigh. Sassy puts all my stuff in a bag and hands it to me.

"Sunset. Should we leave now?" She looks out a window.

"Yeah actually. It is getting pretty late." I stifle a yawn.

"Thank you two, for making me these. I will definitely see you later." "Bye Vadon!" "See you later." I nod and leave.

After getting out on the street, I see that it's already evening, but the sun hasn't begun setting yet. I try to go the way we came here earlier, but Sunset stops me and says: there's an easier path. We start walking down the way the Sirens went. After a while of going down a mostly empty street- I find the lack of guards disturbing -we reach grey pavement. After coming to a sort of cliff face, we turn right and start walking along a curved road, with green fields below to our left. After a few minutes of travelling, I finally recognize where we are, because of the massive light show, that is the lightning rod.

I notice Novel entering his house, as we approach our home. We walk up to the door and I let out a long breath. Sunset knock and after a couple of seconds, Aria opens it in her usual home clothes. She smiles and lets us in. When I step inside, I take of my shoes and see Adagio walk out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and a smile. I ask her what's up with the chipper mood.

Apparently: it's their anniversary since they started living together and are going to celebrate it. Apparently I'm invited to the table as well. I chose to not fight against it, but told her, that I refuse to eat the eel, at which she laughed. After telling her that I'm going to go have a shower, she says that I can use her shampoo if I want. In all honesty: I think prefferred the old Adagio. After washing up and changing to my new clothes, we all sit at the table and enjoy the rest of the evening.

There was cake.

Author's Note

...

Fuck

I've been writing this chapter for almost three days straight. Do you know what it's like to write so much without coffee, tea or energy drinks? Answer: Horrible.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Read.
I know I didn't.

Request: Please tell me what you think about the characters and setting so far in the comments or mail.

If you want some answers about the storyline - don't bother. I won't spoil you anything. Or maybe I will. However you are free to post your own theories, as long as they're marked as spoilers.

I will take a couple of days break and probably get another chapter up, by the end of the week. This time: much shorter.

If you find any references in this chapter, post them in the comments below. If you want to, that is.

Order or Chaos out...zzzzz...zz-

Ch.7: Lived the days of Peace.

Chapter Seven: Living the days of Peace.

My body sighed, as I watched Sonata hand me a plate of cake. The cake itself looked very unique: its entire rounded surface was covered with seashells of both black and white chocolate. The filling was strawberry bits and tiny apple slices - strange, but I liked the taste. While I have a massive sweet-tooth, the cake felt like it maybe had a bit too much sugar in it...
I checked.

Oh no, yeah it definitely did. Thankfully, my mind began using all that energy for sorting everything I have read in the guide, allowing me to properly understand most of the text. I exhale once more, observing all of them laughing at a joke Adagio made, while I was simply smiling. I felt tired at that moment. Drained. I had to rethink my overall strategy and check for any flaws in it, so I thanked them for dinner, washed my dishes and retired for the night.

I put all of my clothes on the table and taking one of the jackets, dropped on the grey mattress, pulling the clothing over my torso. As I... snuggled into the piece of suit, I realized that I forgot to turn off the light. Groaning, I stood up and submerged the room into darkness. Finding my way back, I once again flopped on the bed, grabbed the jacket and fell asleep.

Only to find myself once more observing my soul. I decided to let myself get a bit of rest, by not thinking about anything. Only watching. I have found some very interesting details about my gear, that I saved for the next morning. This would have been useful during school. I muse, which instantly creates a bunch more memory copies. ...I really need to figure out, how to make it not do that. This is meta enough as it is.

I woke up, feeling more refreshed, than I ever did in Equestria. Dressing into my new clothes, I rose upstairs to the sunlit room and went along my usual morning routine. I was about to go back to the basement for more studying, when Sunset suddenly appeared behind me with a 'Good morning!'... I did not jump. All of my muscles pulled upwards and my body elongated, but my legs didn't leave the ground. Which made it worse because: I think, I might have pulled a muscle or two there. Releasing a grunt of pain, I started turning around.

"Fukhin hell Sunset, don't do that! Morning." Sunset at least had the decency to look sheepish and wear an apologetic grin.

"Sorry. I just figured you'd-"

"Have eyes on my back?" I interrupt, a bit salty.

"...I was going to say: not get so easily startled, but that works too." She endured my flat gaze like a champ. "So are you going to help me with my reasearch?" Now? I ran a hand across the side of my face.

"How are we going to do this?" She blinked in silence, so I elaborated. "I meant: am I doing this as some kind of freelancer?" She tilted her head with narrowed eyes.

"I guess you are, yeah. Or you could work with me full-time on my every assignment."

"I'll think about it, but for now I'm cool with a temporary job." She looked at me strangely, before shrugging it off.

"I have already completed the theoretical part, so today we are doing field research. Your payment will depend on how well you do the job and how much time it takes for you to do it." We're going out?

"No problem, just let me have a quick snack." She nodded.

"Of course. Will you help me carry some of my equipment to the spot?" I worked my mouth around.

"Can't you just... magic it with you or somethin'?" I receive a headshake.

"I can but it's going to exhaust me mentally. Levitation is easy, but it drains you quicker the more you do it and the more items you are using the spell on. And I don't want to risk teleportation, because some of the equipment is very valuable. Plus it's not too heavy. So, will you?" "Fine." "Be careful with it, okay?" "Okay." "Meet me up top." I raised a hand. "Not that 'up top'" I made a false pout, to which she just made her lips a straight line and went to the stairs. I went to grab something to eat.

After exploring around the kitchen for anything, that could last me a couple of hours, I decided on a natural caffeine energy bar and two clean apples, one of which I ate straight away and reserved the other in the pocket of my jeans. Getting up to the second floor, I saw Sunset standing over her table, packing scrolls, books and various other objects into a purple and black backpack.

I haven't really checked out her room last time, so I decided to do just that. The interior wasn't very spacious, the room being crammed with a lot of different mechanisms, that were mostly in the left corner, including a telescope. Ther were also shelves attached to almost every wall, a Sunset sized bed at the far left curved corner and a huge table on the right, that took up almost a fifth of the entire room. I barely noticed a tall lamp with a yellow shade, to the right of the door, hiding in the corner. I looked at Sunset, as she was putting on the backpack, already dressed in her usual hoodie and jeans.

I asked her what I will have to carry and she pointed at a peculiar device. The cubical contraption was made entirely of metal and crystals, but had a dark, sturdy-looking wooden frame. Probably, so it wouldn't collapse under it's own weight. While there were various bits and bobs on it everywhere, only two things stood out most. The decently sized, see-through circular piece of glass inside a circular frame made of gold, that had runes chalked on it and was sticking out the top, like some sort of looking glass. And a handful of white crystals on one side, imbedded in a vertical row with a number scratched next to each one of them, going up in value from top to bottom. I could carry it, but I would require both my hands for it.

I looked back at Sunset and asked: if she needed anything else brought with us, to which she replied with simply: 'not really except for that'. Another object was pointed at, which looked like a bronze spherical tesserract, with a blue gem in it's center, seen through the cracks. The entire thing could fit in my palm and then some. I deadpanned at her and finally noticed how much her backpack was bulging. It reminded me of my old days, when I went to school and was too lazy to be bothered using the lockers, so instead I carried all my school items in my backpack, which was almost always with me.

Maybe... if I play this right. After a short debate, of whether or not I should take both: Sunsets backpack and the boxy device, she finally gave in, but told me, if I feel like I am over exerting myself, then I should let her carry something. I told her in a joking manner, that if I did that, then she would have to carry everything straight away, at which she laughed a little. I wasn't joking.

Thinking about it, I asked Sunset to carry my blue jacket for me, while we're walking to the spot. She agreed and I handed it to her, took the pack and put it on, finding myself hunching over a little from it's weight and sturdy material. Just like the old times... I put the thought away and picked up the 'Thaumic Meter', as Sunset called it, which was much heavier, than it looked. She took the brass ball. On our way out, we met Sonata, who was climbing up the stairs in her usual cheery mood and humming a tune under her breath.

"Oh hey guys! Where are ya'll going?" The Siren asked, with a curious tilt.

"We are heading out to work on my assignment, Vadon has agreed to help me. What about you?"

"Oh cool! Adagio wants to practice for the show some more." Sonata's look turned conspiratorial and she checked down the hallway and stairs. She moved closer to me. "She feels quite nervous before these sort of events, especially when she hasn't eaten in a while. It's been almost two months, since anyone got excited around her." I raise an eyebrow. So many innuendos I could make, with those two sentences alone.

"That statement makes me feel, like this is a very boring place."

"Oh no, quite on the contrary, but sometimes you just don't find anything thrilling enough, you know?"

"Yeah, I guess." We stood in silence for few moments.

"Well I better not keep them waiting, have fun you two!"

She waved to us and headed down the corridor, turning left at the end. After she stepped through a door, we went down into the living room and began putting on our footwear, that was placed near a grey carpet. When Sunset unlocked the door a question came to my mind.

"Are we the only ones, that are working on this? Do you have any colleagues, or anything of the sort?" Sunset stopped turning the handle.

"No, it's just us... Although I used to have one. Sort of. He was more my friend really. While I was Princess Luna's student, he was Celestia's, but that didn't stop us from helping each other on our separate assignments. However: when I left the castle and started living here, he stayed behind for... reasons. Besides..." She whispered something, that I didn't properly catch. "..e..ed...mmo..th..i.o." She pushed the door open and we left the house.

A beautiful, but deadly view opened up before us. The edges, of the now almost pure black cloud, were much closer to the shining rod, with multicoloured lightning hitting it from all directions. It was surprisingly quiet for so many strikes happening at the same time. Glancing around our street, I noted, that once again: there were no people in sight. Probably somewhere around the centre of the city . I followed Sunset to the left of our home.

I shoved my hands in the pockets, but didn't bother with straightening my back. After a few more minutes of walking up the path, I finally realized, that I forgot my dagger. Shit. Well I can't go back now, I've got no plausible excuse. We reached the T-intersection with the street to Rarity's Boutique and I saw another Storm Tower being constructed 'Red Alert' style in the far distance, on a forest's border. The forest itself was dark and massive, easily reaching the horizon. I noticed a tiny grey dot in the foliage, but I didn't know what it was.

Sunset turned abruptly, which made me walk past her, but I soon noticed her missing from the corner of my vision and twisted myself around to her. After I caught up with her, she looked at me with an amused eyebrow, which I decided to ignore. She opened her mouth nevertheless.

"-"

"Sh." Closing her mouth, she looked forward again, still smiling.

When we started seeing the boutique, I noticed a glimmer in the distance. I blinked in worry, squinting to check if what I saw, was indeed - what I saw. Mother- "Hmhmm." I quietly hummed to myself. On the plaza, there were quite a few white Ponies in golden armour, standing watch.

I could reveal myself to them and hope for the best. But the way Aria described me Celestia, she doesn't seem like much of a rational person, or a nice one. I could try to convince them, that I am a legal citizen of Canterlot, or a tourist, but I doubt I will convince them, and I don't think Sunset would lie to the guard. What I might do though, is avoid them for now, and hope that Luna has some influence over them even if she is just a princess. The quicker I can help Sunset with this assignment, the better.

"Hey, Sunset? How far is this place?"

"What, getting tired?" I pull my neck into my shoulders and make a face.

"Come now. I'm not one to get tired so easily from such a simple task as carrying a box."

"That's not a box, that's a Thau-"

"Does it have a cubical shape?"

"Yeah, but-"

"Is it huge?" She stopped and turned fully.

"No?"

"is there space inside of it?" I leaned my head away from her and raised both eyebrows.

"Yeah, but you don't put anything in it."

"...Does it have stuff in it?"

"Well yeah, but-"

"Then it's a box." I finished with a smile, but Sunset looked like her whole world was a lie. "Anyway: I was asking, because I thought, that maybe you know some shortcuts."

"Uh- yeah. Yeah actually, I do. Why?"

"I just felt, like we should take less time with this. The faster we complete your job, the sooner we'll have more free time for our own things."

"Don't get your hopes up. We might be stuck with this for a couple of days." Uhh... Does she have the Twilight complex?

"I mean: I doubt, that the princess would give you a task and would wait for over a week for results. I don't know her-" I shrugged my shoulders. "-, but as far as I understand: she gave you this assignment a week ago. Yes I know: the storm happened, but she still could have asked somebody else, to do it sooner." Sunset shakes her head.

"No, because I made that "box", myself. So no one else could possibly find out, what's causing the fluctuations." Huh...

"Do- Do you know if it works?" She shook in a negative.

"No idea! But that is why I have all sorts of tools and parts in the bag, so that I can tinker with it. That's why it might take a while." I blink.

"Well then. Let's not take any longer, than we have to, shall we?"

"Yeah, alright. Come on, we are taking a shortcut."

We took a right turn, a couple shops before Soul Mate and as we were entering the alleyway, I stared at the guards to make sure: they didn't point their heads at me. A while later: I noticed a wall of a huge building to my right, made of grey stone and decorative marble half-columns. Actually: when I looked closer: I noticed more houses were made out of grey stone in this area, than any other. I marked that as interesting for later investigation and kept going along a not so cramp alleyway. They built this city big. I guess they had to, since Minotaurs used to live here.

After many twists and turns, we finally reach our destination: a park. The park was pretty spacious, but well taken care of. The paths were made of light-grey, flat stones of various shapes and sizes, with dirt seen between them. The bright grass was trimmed at the same level everywhere and little pathways of sand led up to trees, that provided much wanted shade, from the glaring sun. There was also a fountain, roughly in the middle of the park, with a large metal statue on it, resembling some sort of symbol.

The top of the statue was on a short cylinder, that had various engravings on it, depicting... something. I was too far away, to see exactly what they were. Attached to the sides of the fancy platform, were six wings extending outwards, with cloud-like patterns, that held up a sphere, connected to both: base and wings. It looked like an atom without electrons on it's orbits and had swirly pieces extending from them. Except instead of a core, there was an orb of two celestial bodies fused together. The sun, with neatly curved spikes, and a crescent moon, with star-shaped craters.

Pulling my eyes away from the fountain, I noticed Ponies walking about their day in the far parts of the park. Most of them seemed to be 'simple' folk. By that I mean: there were no nobles in sight. Sunset called me over to a nearby tree, telling me to set up there. We weren't quite under the shade, the hot-ass sun burning into the back of my head. Sunset walked around me, unzipped the backpack I was wearing and pulled out a picnic blanket. After she set it up on the sand and folded my jacket on it, I took off the weight from my back and laid it on the blanket, still holding the magical box.

Sunset pulled out the brass thing, the inner layers were spinning like crazy now, a blue light coming through the cracks. "Yup, this is the place. Can you set the Thaumic Meter over there?" She pointed at a patch of grass nearby.

I laid the device on the ground and made space for Sunset to begin fiddling with it. Moving her hand, that held the orb, around, she pushed the boxTM a short distance. After she seemed satisfied with its placement, Sunset started pressing various little switches, which in turn made the contraption let out steady buzz. Holding the orb in front of the box's lens, which was now almost a solid bronze glowing blue, Sunset flipped another switch.

Nothing happened.

Except the runes on the golden circle lit up a white light and were flickering a little. But otherwise: nothing happened. Sunset released a heavy sigh and flicked the same switch again, which I took as a sign, that we might be stuck here for a while. She took out a book from her backpack and started looking through it's index.

"So what exactly, are we doing?"

"We're trying to find out what is causing the fluctuations in the ley-lines." Sunset said, still having her nose in the book.

"An-nd that implies?.." She finally looked around at me.

"No one in recorded history, has ever encountered this... anomaly. So nothing was made to study the worlds energy pathways in depth. And even if it was, it has probably been lost to time." Sunset pulls out a set scrolls, searching through them for something. "This Thaumic Meter should do exactly that: measure the amount of magic running through an area."

"I'm sorry, but I thought, that you do the magic, don't you?" She swiveled her body around and crossed her legs.

"Yes and no. Unicorns can cast spells, but they require ambient magic to do so, also known as - ley lines. There are areas, such as the Everfree Forest, where multiple ley lines cross, creating a very magic saturated place. There are also places such as the Badlands, where magic is practically useless. As far as I know: runes are the only type of magic, that can work without being in direct contact with ley-lines, but they still require thaumic or arcane energy to function." She takes a deep breath. "Those, that use runeless magic, have to be in a ley-line for their magic to work. I have a theory, that the more magic is running through the pathways, the longer a Unicorn can cast their spells without putting in much effort. However, that also depends on how much magic a Unicorn can actually use. If one were to go into the Everfree and try to cast spells there, there is a very high chance they'd uh... fry." ...Most of the book makes sense now.

"Uh-huh... So you're trying to measure something, that no one has ever before. If the box measures magic ,then what's up with the brass thing?" She takes out the spinning orb of doom and looks at it.

"This is meant to find the ley-lines by the astral energies they radiate. Princess Luna helped me with this, the faster it spins, the more ley-lines are in the area. And it seems that there are at least two of them in Canterlot and this is where they hypothetically cross." I nod in understanding and then an idea hits me.

"You said, that they have an astral signature, right?" She gives a nod. "What is the ring and the lens made out of?"

"The ring is almost pure gold and the lens is a magic-conductive and absorbing crystal. What, did you come up with something?" I unwrapped the energy bar and ate it in one bite. It was very small, but it wasn't called an energy bar for nothing.

"Give me a sec." I sat down on the grass and closed my eyes, attempting to fall unconscious.

Some time passed and I started giving up, when my soul appeared before me. Repressing the urge to blink, as to not wake myself up, I bring forth all the memories, that had to do with runes, putting away those that were fiction. I take a few seconds to process the information, creating multiple rune formulas, that might do the trick of detecting the amount of magic. As I am doing that, I search through the memories regarding the astral plane. Since necromancy has some things in common with the sub-dimension, I have already read about it. Iron is a good material for making runes, that affect the astral plane, how are my iron levels? Stable? Good.. I feel someone shaking me, which instantly wakes me up. I looked up and came face to face with Sunset's concerned eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I was just remembering something. You wouldn't happen to have anything made of iron would you?" She reeled back in confusion and looked away, putting a hand on her chin. A moment of silence passed.

"No, I don't think I do. Why?" Fuck. I dragged a hand across the side of my face with a sigh. I looked at Sunset from under my brows. She bit her lower lip.

"Are you sure?" "...I will go check." She crawled to the backpack and began rummaging through it's contents, placing them on the blanket.

"Sorry I don't have anything made of iron. I have plenty of steel, gold an aluminium parts though, if you need them." I chewed on my lower lip. Eventually I sigh and resign to my fate.

"Sunset, give me something sharp and clean, and also something round and thin."

She looked puzzled for a second, before handing me a metal triangle with a sharp side and a cylindrical rod. I scooted over to the box and used a part of the blanket, to carefully wipe off the runes on the ring. I sat the box between my legs and asked Sunset to not distract me no matter what and before she could question further, I cut my hand, hissing slightly from the pain. I heard Sunset gasp behind me, but chose to ignore her, by dipping the rod into the wound and carefully writing out runes. Hopefully: there'll be enough iron in my blood spread out on the circle.

After meticulously inscribing both necrotic and normal runes for nearly an hour, making sure, that there was enough blood on both sides of the ring and that none of it would make splotches: I was finally done. The cuts had just stopped bleeding and dried up a little.

"Would you like to do the honours?" I asked Sunset, as I turned to her with a smile. Her face told me, that she wasn't happy about what I did.

Exhaling, she walked over to me without a word and knelt down. She flicked the switch and instead of a buzz, like last time, a hum came from the device. My blood lit up light-blue and the lens suddenly became a shifting mass of multiple colours. Sunset's mouth fell open and the general look on her face told me, that she was happy with what I've done. However, I might have been mistaken, as she went ahead and started scolding me. Women. My face was the near definition of 'nothing'.

"Why would you cut yourself!? Why write the runes in blood!?" Really?

"Iron works best, if you want to affect the astral plane. It works as a sort of magnet for it's energies and since I have iron in my blood, I decided to use it." She looked at me as if I was an idiot. Oh wait, that was written in the guide...

"We could have bought something from the nearby shops." And waste time? I don't think so.

"Are you goin' to take notes on the data, the magical box is providing you with, or not?" A blink and a red and yellow whirlwind appears before me, before slowly materializing into Sunset, with parchments and ink bottles around her, a pen grasped in her hand.

She stared intently at the white crystals, which were acting like a bulb being turned on and off. Barely half of them lit up, with the fifth one flickering sporadically. Sunset frowned. Hard. She started slowly turning the ring. After she turned it about ninety degrees, three more gems lit up. After she rotated it again, the three gems dimmed and then stopped glowing altogether. Sunset's frown increased and I saw her attempting to pick up the parchments with her magic.

"This is wrong." I heard her whisper. "This is all wrong." She slowly looked at me, still on her knees. "T-theoretically: the normal amount of magic running through the ley lines s-should be at least a twelve hundred thaums. Canterlot has about si-six hundred thaums at the moment." She starts talking to herself. "Where is all the magic gone? It can't just disappear, that doesn't happen. Ley lines are literally the magic of Terra, so what..." She looks lost, but I give thought to what she said.

"I have... two theories and one conclusion." Her cyan gaze moves to me. "Either A: Something is clogging up the magic somewhere. Or B: the magic is getting drained from somewhere. Eith-"

"That's not possible. If anything is clogging up so much magic, then there would have been an explosion of arcane energy already. And if it was being drained so much, well... I know of nothing, that could possibly store so much magic. Plus the energies would eventually stick back together if you took it far enough away from the ley line. Even if a part of it was sent across to the other side of the world. No, this is like magic disappeared." Just a hunch.

"What if it was sent beyond the planet?" She raises an eyebrow. "Just a theory, but think about it. If you're right, then that would mean, the only possible way for so much energy to disappear: is for it to go outside the planet's atmosphere." Hopefully, they know the word. Sunset mouth formed an 'o', as she breathed in some of the magic-desaturated air, but froze with her eyes widening a little. Her eyes started moving, but her body was still.

"Holy fuck." I blinked at Sunset, as the now almost erratic Unicorn was scribbling something down on the parchment, mumbling to herself all the while.

"Experiment successful?" I offered. She pierced me with the most haunting gaze. My lips pressed against each other.

"Thank you." Her voice sounded hoarse. "Thank you so much, I would not have been able to find this out, if it weren't for you. I will deliver our finding to the princess, you can come as well if you want."

"...I'm not sure if I can handle royalty. I think it's better if you do it instead. Mention me if you want."

"Obviously I'll mention you! You might have just prevented something really bad from happening, of course I'll give you credit!"

"Alright. Calm down. If the princess wants to meet me, what should I do?" Sunset raises an eyebrow.

"Meet her, of course." Well... can't really argue with that. "I am going to head to the castle right now, I won't even take any more notes with me. Could you please carry all of the equipment home?" I gave her a nod and an encouraging smile.

"Sure thing. Good luck." She took a relaxing breath, grabbed the box and with a nod stormed off into the streets.

I looked down onto the mess we made and, with a sigh, began cleaning it up. After I was done, n Wait. If magic is decreasing, then how did Rarity make me jeans? Or was she just boasting? I thought as I put on the jacket. After zipping up the sack, I bent down to it.

"Hello good sir. Today is a fine day for a walk in the park isn't it." Still bent over, I slowly turned around to find the last people I expected to run into, here.

"Hi." I offered flatly. Finally straightening up and putting on the backpack, I took a good look at Fancy Pants and Fleur.

Fancy had his trademark monocle on and his azure hair seemed to have gel applied. He was a few centimeters taller than me and wider in the shoulders, dressed in a fine black tux suit, white shirt with gold buttons, a navy blue vest and a magenta bowtie.

Fleur's curly at the ends hair was magenta with a few white stripes, but not from age. A blue dress with magenta floral patterns enveloped her thin frame. She had one of those big French hats, you'd wear to shield yourself from the sun, which was also blue and had a white feather in it. Fleur's dress didn't reach to her knees, however that didn't really reveal anything, since she had legs for days, making her almost as tall as Sassy. She was carrying a white purse and both - Fleur and Fancy wore heeled shoes and small amused smiles.

"I-uh I'm sorry. I was a bit surprised, by your sudden appearance, I am Vadon." I held out my right hand for him, whilst hiding my other one in a pocket. He looked down on it and gave it a solid shake with a smile.

"I am Sir Fancy Pants, it's a pleasure to meet you." His twitching mustache is unnerving. It's blue. "I assume you recognize me? Yesterday at the market?"

"How can I forget someone with such a recognizable hairstyle. Love it by the way." A slight smirk crawled it's way up his mouth.

"Allow me to introduce my wife - Fleur De Lis." His left shoulder twitched, like he wanted to put a hand over Fleur's shoulder, but chose motion to her instead with his right one.

Fleur moved a part of her hair and held out her right arm at full length, with the back of her palm facing upward. Which I promptly shook. Fleurs's eyes widened noticeably and Fancy's smirk grew for some reason. The tall Unicorn gracefully pulled her hand to her side and then onto Fancy's shoulder, preferring to lean slightly on him and look in some other direction. ... I look up at Fancy with a pleasant smile.

"I must commend you on your chivalry at the market yesterday. Not everypony would have done something like that." Something tells me: you are going to be very fun to talk to. I suppress the urge to grin.

"Thank you and honestly: it's kind of a shame really. May I ask, as to why you are here sir Fancy Pants?" He leans his head forward a little.

"Please, you don't have to call me Sir. It's just an old title." I hear a bit of melancholy in his voice. Wait... in what way is it old? "I personally enjoy walking among the lower parts of the city. It has a- different feel to it."

"I bet it does. I wouldn't know though, since I've never been on the upper one."

"Yes. Well, I suppose we also have other reasons, but I'd like to think most of them are quite mundane." My smile stays the same. "If you don't mind, would you tell us: what business you are on?"

"I am assisting a researcher in carrying their equipment to a place."

"This researcher wouldn't happen to be the student of princess Luna - Sunset Shimmer?" If I didn't know any better, I'd say he is faking the smug attitude.

"Yes actually. We have found something out and Sunset went to report to her highness."

"Hmm. If you don't mind me asking, what is it that you have found out?" ...

"I don't know if this is top secret or anything, but maybe it isn't, at least not yet. First I'll ask you a question: has your magic been acting up?"

"Yes, quite so."

"Well: I with the help of my employer, have found out the reason behind this abnormal behaviour." I lean in forward, to the side of his face. "Just in case: I'd like you to keep this a secret, at least for the time being. Will you do that?"

"You have my word." For all I know - it means jack.

"Ley line energy in Canterlot, acts a bit off."I say a bit... "My advice? Try to not use magic, unless it's an emergency." I take a step back and see Fancy frowning, while Fleur still has her smile, although it's obviously strained.

"I see." The noble says as he falls into deep thought. I decide to lighten the mood. And answer a question, that's been bugging me for years.

"I've always wondered. Is there a purpose to monocles, besides aesthetic value?" They both blinked at the strange question and Fancy took off his monocle to look at it, instantly becoming younger.

"I suppose it has a bit of an intimidation aspect." He told me with a smile, putting the monocle on again. I leaned backwards and narrowed my eyes.

"I can see that, yeah." Someone creeps up behind my right.

"Good day. You can see what, darling?" Despite the weight on my back, I leaped forward. But because the couple was standing there, I had to spin in midair, to land by their side. My expression hasn't changed and was still wearing that pleasant smile, as I looked at the third white Unicorn in our little group.

"Good day miss Rarity. It is always a pleasure to see you." Fleur said.

"Ohh, look at who's now eavesdropping." Rarity get's a bit reddish.

"I sincerely apologize for that. I am currently on a break, I was on my way to get some tickets for an upcoming show and saw you, so I decided to say hello."

"Hi." We stand in silence for a few moments. "Don't you work from nine until six?"

"No, darling. My boutique is open from nine until six, so you can order garments during that time. However we make them, when we have time unless there is a deadline. Plus: I've completed all my orders already." I nod a few times in understanding. "Have my dressmaking skills been to your liking?"

"No Rarity. They're horrible, that's exactly why I am wearing them right now." At first she looks hurt, but quickly switches to unamused. "Come on, Rarity. You really have doubt in your skills? Because in all honesty: I think you can please any customer with you work. And that's difficult, because everyone has their own preferences."

"Well... Thank you." She smiled.

"Have you had any trouble with making these?" Fancy looked curious as well.

"A little bit, but nothing that would affect the result."

"I know you might need to use magic for dressmaking, but try not to, unless it's runes." Rarity tilts her head.

"Why ever not?"

"Magic fluctuations. All I can say. You'll have to ask Sunset for more." She looks confused, but seems to understand in the end.

"Alright." She gave a nod.

"Welp. I have to go now, have a good day everyone." I said, looking at each one of them.

"Could you hold on for a moment? We would love to enjoy your company over at our mansion. We'd like to invite you two to our humble estate for some tea." Tea? Sounds nice.

"I would be delighted Sir Fancy." Rarity lowers her head in a small bow.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I will be able to, I'm a very busy man. Right now: I have to carry all this back somewhere far and then I have even more stuff to do, but I'll consider it."

"Oh no, of course. Will you be available on Friday? "

"Like I said: very busy. But I will try to make some time. Where is your estate?"

Fancy told me the name of the street, where their mansion is located and we exchanged pleasantries one last time. When I arrived home, avoiding all the guards like the plague, I left Sunset's items in her room and began searching for one of the Sirens. I didn't have to look for long, because we met in the corridor when they left the room, Sonata entered that morning.

They were on their way to have some dinner, but I refused to have some at the moment, asking them for something that can disinfect a wound. Of course they were curious at first and then worried, when they realized that Sunset wasn't with me. I tried to ease their concerns, by telling them, that Sunset went to the princess and it was I, which got hurt. It didn't help. I waved their questions off and showed the cut, asking for the whereabouts of a disinfectant cream or anything similar. Aria suggested searching in the fridge. I thanked them, applied the cream and bandages, offered to me by Sonata. In the end: they managed to convince me to join them for fried eggs and fish.

Going down to the basement, I theorized about how Rarity made my clothes. Maybe magic levels were higher yesterday? I decided to give some thought on the matter later, or more precisely: that night, while I would have direct access to my memories. In the meantime: I began writing a list of things I'd like to buy, for when the payment arrives. If any. Done with the list, I began making more schematics while playing songs I enjoy.

It was really late in the evening, when Sunset came home, but she looked more energized then before, although: still had some lingering worry on her face. I call them faces because really: if you look their muzzles from a certain angle, it would look like a human face, albeit a furry one.

Sunset seemed to be in a good mood and I soon found out why. Both of us earned two thousand bits each, straight from the Princess of the Night. Apparently: Luna told her, that we both did an outstanding job, doing something nopony has ever before and did it faster, than her sister's students. I sense some rivalry there. Of course: Luna wanted to personally meet me as well, but not at the moment or anytime soon probably, since she took over the project for now.

"Four thousand bits for about an hour's worth of work? The princess must really like you." Sunset blinked in confusion.

"Wh- Oh! No, my payment was two thousand bits." What?

"What?"

"Hm-hmm. She said, that we have done Equestria and the whole world a great favor, by figuring this out. She gave us each two thousand bits."

"...Oh." I simply said.

"Yeah, she would like to meet you as well. But if she isn't busy, she told me to ask you: if she may visit you in your dreams." So she can do that. At least she asks for permission first.

"That would probably be an interesting conversation, if I had dream."

"...Yo-you don't have dreams." I shake my head. "But- what?"

"I dunno. I just don't dream."

"O-kay then, is that normal?"

"Yes." Now it is.

"If you say so. Anyway: the princess is gathering mages and scientists to delve deeper into this matter. Obviously: I will go help tomorrow, since they might need the Thaumic Meter with them to do any proper research."

"Co-" They might need my help to understand the rune's functions. "o-ol..." I purse my lips.

"What's wrong?"

"Eh. I just remembered something. You know: I'm free at the moment, I can explain to you some of the runes, if you want?"

You have three guesses as to what she said and you magically used up the first two already. I've spent the rest of the evening teaching Sunset the exact runes, I drew on the ring. She of course, took notes and after we were done: thanked me and gave me a hug. It was an awkward one, since she came at me from the side and I was sitting on a chair. After she left I decided to eat the second apple I was carrying around, then entered 'night mode'.

The next morning doesn't arrive suddenly. Luckily for me: I can 'skip' to the next memories, since, at the moment, I don't want to watch myself thinking about the transpired events.

I decided to get out of bed at ten in the morning, unsurprisingly: Sunset was already gone. That mare needs to relax... Did I just think mare? I mean... it's not wrong... I wanted to skip breakfast, instead choosing to visit a shop. I picked up my list and shoved it in my jacket's pocket, not forgetting the dagger, which I once again hid in the same spot. Grabbing my bag of bits and pulling out about thirty percent of my coinage, which I stacked on the table, I exited out into the world. But not before Sonata graciously handed me her pocket bag, for which I thanked her and put the sack of bits into it.

There were more Ponies on the streets this time, going about their day and some seemingly ignoring me, but not in a rude way. Have news spread about me? Better not have been Rarity... Although: she might have told everyone that I am a moral gentlestallion, that'll protect a lady. It couldn't be further from the truth, if that was the case. Plus: I highly doubt, that it would matter to a cold-blooded killer... Or a hot-blooded one. It's not like murders happened every day, but I don't read the newspaper, so I wouldn't really know. Plus it never hurts to be cautious. Which is exactly what I was doing.

I've finally arrived at my destination, standing before a light-brown door. The gateway, to the solution of my current problems. I enter the building and a strong smell of parchment and saw dust hits me. The room I walked into wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. I'd say somewhere between four and five meters wide and A couple of stairs led from the cornered entryway to a planked floor, that had a red carpet over it. There were two connected display counters: one in front of the carpet and one to the left of it. Various trinkets laid beneath the glass, illuminated by the dim sunlight coming through a window, to the left of the entrance. Some masks and other things lined the walls of the shop, but I didn't pay them mind, my attention focused on the owner behind the left counter.

"Welcome to my little magic shop, hopefully you will find what you are looking for." A grey Earth Pony said with a polite smile.

I walked over to him and took notice of a door behind him, in a corner. I also noticed that he is working out, but not exactly the buff kind. I need some time to adjust to this darkness. I blinked and stuck my tongue out, running it across my dried lips. Taking out my list, I look into his purple eyes.

"You are Mr. Arcane I presume?"

"You presume incorrectly. I am Arcane Scroll, no mister if you would."

"Right. Well- On this parchment, there is a list of things I'd like to buy and before I make you get any of the items, I'd like to know their price." I pass him the scroll and he takes a look at it, without even squinting from the dim lighting.

"Hmm... Yes I have all this, but may I ask as to why you would want all this?" My eyes became a bit shifty, before finally settling on Scroll.

"Magic?" He stared at me for a second, then smirked.

"Alright I won't pry, but at least please tell me you're not trying to summon anything?" I blinked.

"Uh... what kind of things can you summon?" He visibly relaxes.

"Many things." He tells me with a foreboding undertone. Didn't really answer my question though.

"No, I'm not planning on summoning anything in the foreseeable future."

He wrote the prices on the paper, although he was a bit confused with a few. Since I didn't know what the items were actually called: I gave them each a description. But it would seem, that my handwriting is not acceptable, so I had to explain some to him. Arcane, taking my list, went through the door behind him and down some stairs, that were hidden from view. He had everything, or at least things similar to those I wanted and best of all: I could afford it all. I waited patiently, while he got all the wares from the apparent basement.

When he came back up, he was carefully carrying a cardboard box. Placing it on the table, he began taking everything out and laying it on the counter. While he was taking out a red gem, a part of his slightly messy hair fell to the side and made me realize that I was wrong about him. He is not an Earth Pony. Poking through the short hair was his horn, though it wasn't whole. He took notice of me taking notice.

"Ah yes, that. You're probably wondering how it happened?"

"I wouldn't mind knowing, no. I can keep this a secret if you want. Did a brick fall on you, or something." He let out a chuckle.

"Give a Unicorn's horn some credit. They are much tougher, than that." He sighs. "No. It was an accident at work, that involved magic and let's leave it at that." Something tells me, you fucked up.

"Sure. I have my own concerns to deal with anyway." I looked through all the items. After everything seemed in order, I paid him five hundred and forty bits. Magic is expensive. "I will probably see you again sometime, Arcane. Have a good day."

"Same."

I went back home, to leave the bag in my basement. When I came back: Quick Novel was drinking either coffee or tea with Sonata and Adagio, in the kitchen. My closing of the door has alerted them and I was heading towards my room, when Quick turned to me with a smile. Which promptly disappeared when he saw me. I pursed my lips and walked over to the group.

"Hello, what are you lot doin'?" Everyone replied with a greeting of their own.

"We're just catching up. You?" Adagio replied, genuinely interested.

"I bought some stuff for my research and am about to get myself a ticket for your show. Can you tell me where I can buy one?" She put's a fist on her cheek.

"Oh, um... I-In the big dark building to left of our house. It's near a small park, we have a map of Canterlot if you want."

"...Will you need the map back?"

"We might, although it's highly unlikely. You know, that we can get you a VIP spot by putting you on the list, right?" ...Huh?

"Uh- How much?" Sonata opens her mouth to say something, but Adagio beats her to it.

"A hundred and seventy." Sonata frowned at her sister. As did I.

"A hundred and seventy bits for a VIP spot?" Adagio nods sagely.

"Yeah, I know. Surprisingly cheap eh?."

"I'd say too cheap." I narrowed my eyes, the action causing her grin to falter.

"What?"

I calmly walked up to the lying Siren, still suspicious. She slowly craned her neck to look up at me, with a pretty good poker face. Too bad I can tell it's a poker face. I slowly put down my purchases by my side and stacked the amount she said on the table next to her. I don't trust you, but you don't need to know that. Adagio looked at the coins with a thoughtful look, but before she can say anything, I spun towards Novel, who flinched and stared at me. I walked around over to him: my body turning, but my sight focused on him. His eyes moved towards me with newfound resolve. Almost preparing for a fight.

"...You don't like me." I stated plainly. Novel blinked.

"I can't say, I enjoy your company, no."

"You barely know me."

"I know enough." I grinned, closed my eyes and let out a dark chuckle simultaneously.

"No. No you don't." I looked at him with a smile, that was absent in my eyes. He noticeably gulped. A few seconds passed in the silent room. "Tell you what. I don't like you either, but that doesn't mean: we should hate each other." Although I do. "So why don't we try to stay out of each others business and not do something, that'll in the end: harm us both, ey?" He looked dubiously at my reaching hand.

"Alright." He gives me an unsure shake. I grin.

"That's the spirit." Adagio looked at me, as if she's seen me for the first time. "Don't break the deal now. There will be consequences for both sides." Novel seemed worried, but I ignored him. "Well: I'll be off in the basement. If any of you need something from me: Knock first okay?" "Sure." "Yeah." "Um..." I gave them one final look, grabbed my supplies and went experimenting.

Sunset came back late again and paid me a visit, thankfully knocking before entering. She was a bit confused, when she saw various schematics and diagrams taped to the walls. I used them mostly to cover something I've been working on: a gift of sorts. However I also used them for their actual purpose of being schematics for my other projects. I had to hide the magical items in the cardboard boxes beneath the table, because that is not something I'd like her to see. Sunset would question me so much, I wouldn't be able to explain anything to her without lying.

"How have you been?" I asked her, as I finished turning in my chair.

"We made a bit of progress, the Princess sent out an investigation party to the base of the Mountain and the Queen personally congratulated us on our progress. How about you?" Sunset told me, as she was looking in concern at my bandaged hand.

"I've been alright. Bought more paper-" And a few other things. "-and gave Adagio some bits, so she would get us a VIP spot for their show."

"That's nice."

"Sunset. Is there something you're not telling me about Pony anatomy? Are all Ponies, as affectionate as you?"

"We are a bit, yeah. We can be very emotional at times." She let's sadness drip into her voice. "I just... don't like seeing anyone hurting themselves for me." Oh. OH! Childhood memories much? Or something similar at least. I rise from the chair.

"Sunset. Don't." "But-" "You would prefer to hurt yourself for another's sake." She looks like a nail went through her head.

"I-I don't want anyone hurting because of me."

"Sunset. There are people, that have the same mindset as you. What if you meet one such person? What would you do then? You both wouldn't want each other to be in pain, yet you'd jump at the chance to ''protect''." I gave her a look, that left no room for an arguement. Sunset found some.

"But why should they!?"

"Why shouldn't they?" Sunset reeled back, flabberghasted. "If they want to hurt themselves for your sake, without being under the effects of mind control: why not let them?" Sunset glared at me with the sort of anger, when someone doesn't understand them.

"You just don't understand." See? I replied with complete calm.

"I do." She's still glaring at me. "I really do." I trailed off as I looked to the side. Sunset's features eventually softened. I don't usually feel pride, but I think I can spoil myself once in a while.

"Please, just... don't hurt yourself okay? For me?" It's practically impossible to hurt me. Harm me? Maybe. But not hurt. I looked at her and my head bobbed up and down. "Thank you." I gave her a kind smile.

Deciding, that I have ingrained all the details to the top of my head: I open my eyes and get out of bed, stretching my limbs. I used to crack my joints, but after I arrived: they just refused to crack. Except this time they do. Letting out a moan of pleasure, I grab different clothes and head upstairs. Nobody is awake yet, which I use to my advantage to prepare for the long day. Stepping into the hot shower, only one thought rings in my mind about the upcoming event.

Today will be very interesting.

I mean... I wasn't wrong.

Author's Note

Hi.

Mistakes?: If you find any typos, please send me a mail telling me what they are. Don't write them in the comments.

Location: What do you think of the city so far?

Characters: more characters introduced and more information revealed about the 'old' ones. What are your impressions?

Predictions?: always welcome, but once again: add the spoiler effect.

A possible comment: But this is a displaced story dude! Where's all the Michael Bay action?! Where's the overused scenario and when are the crossovers?!

Me: Mate. I did not put this story into the displaced folder.

Order or Chaos, OUT!

Can you hear the whisper?

Ch. 9: Long Live the Queen.

Chapter 9: Long Live the Queen.

I chuckle lightly as I stare at my work. It’s been over three hours since I woke up and everyone else seemed to be refreshed. I, on the other hand, didn’t sleep well. At all. Even by my new standards. I was plagued by… thoughts of the various possible outcomes of me running into the Mermaid...s. So I decided to make a sort of charm, that would give me a chance to resist the effects of their magic. The thing was made from my last blue crystal and a bit of scrap. It’s not a very effective trinket and would require some mental effort on my part, but it’s better than nothing.

The AAA or the anti-atherical array has also been completed - the runes on the walls. It should make it so, that any active vesselless souls would not be able to get in… or out. At least without me carrying them on myself they won’t. The construct also blocks any attempts of distant scrying, both ‘close’ and ‘far’. Any scrying spell should be unable to see this room and it will come up as a nonexistent structure. The basement is literally invisible to magic casters, hopefully: the merchant as well. I put in a lot of effort into this after all, it‘d be kind of a shame if it was all for naught. It had some other functions, but I considered those to be the most important.

I also had two red gems, one of which I used for a makeshift welding tool and the other for another project that I had planned before and wanted to never use. All in all: I had a pretty productive morning.

I hear a knock on my scratched door and walk over to open it. I press my thumb against an aura recognition rune which glows at the contact. I grin and pull open the door revealing Rusty and more runes on the other side of it.

“Morning, Vadon. What’s with the scribbles on the… door…” Rusty looks at the now note lacking walls. His jaw drops as I let him walk deeper into the room. “I know I’ve had memory problems… but I’m pretty sure none of this was here yesterday. Did you do this in the night?” I look at the clock. Damn, nearly five hours? Didn’t feel like it.

“No. Most of it was just hidden, but the rest I did this morning. I just couldn’t get much sleep done, so I thought… why the hell not? What else do I have to do?”

“I suppose.” He trails off as he examines a constructive rune.

I turn back to the table and begin taking off all the finished schematics and placing them in a neat pile. I notice another piece of paper that has something written on it, lying on the side of the hard metal. I pick it up in confusion and my eyes widen when I recognize what it is. Oh yeah. I agreed to be there today, didn’t I? I muse as I read the time and date for the tea chat at Fancy Pant’s place. Right. Gotta get dressed. The hair?.. Eh, it’s fine.

“Hey, Rusty. I have a meeting a have to go to soon, so behave.”

“Or you will explode me, yes yes, I get it. I was actually kind of curious, how would that even work?” Should I?..

“Well... you won’t die as much from the explosion as from being turned into the explosion.” I explain.

“What?” He says with a blank face, clearly indicating that the subject for him is too early in the morning.

“Look. Don’t worry, it’s not a painful process as I am not a sadist. Plus I am willing to not do it… unless you want me to.” And that implies: willingly doing something, that would cause me to press da button.

“I think, I’m good.” We stare at each other for a few more seconds. “Oh right! I came down here to say goodbye, I am heading back to my home, the mares are willing to let me go, even though they had tied me up before I fell asleep.” He says, while rubbing his shoulder.

“Right. In that case: take this.” I turn around to grab his kitchen knife and hand it over to him.

“Oh, thanks. I nearly forgot about that.” He suddenly gets an alarmed look, “I- I meant the knife, not the- you know.”

“Rusty.”

“Yes?” He asks.

“Chill.”

“I-... Alright.” He says, visibly relaxing.

“I’mma gonna go grab a munch and head off. You” I point at him, “are going to get to the f- flippin’ guard and ask them for help. Tell them that you have been mind-controlled and nearly used for murder for the sake of revenge. Do tell them, that you have been freed of it and that no-one has actually been lynched.” I think back to the amulet I made, contemplating. Nah… he gets snatched again, it’s his own fault. “Any questions?”

“What if I get magic used on me again?”

“I suggest avoiding the pretty ponies.” He looks at me strangely.

“That sounds really condescending for some reason…”

“You’re just having a long morning.” I breathe in and clap my hands, “Let’s get to it then!”

We leave the basement and head off to our respective places: the outside and the bathroom. After working the magic on my teeth, I release a toothy smile and get surprised, when the mirror doesn’t break. Usually had to use bulletproof glass.

Getting back into the living room, I find the three Sirens wide awake at the kitchen table, talking. None of them are having breakfast, so I slip into the room and walk over to the fridge. They finally take notice of me, when I open the fridges’ door and each give me their own version of ‘good morning’.

“Hey. So what are you talking about?” I ask as I pull out an apple.

“We were discussing our next course of action. Do you have any suggestions?” I turn around and take a bite.

“Well…” I look at Adagio, “You could wait for Rusty to report what happened to him yesterday, to the guard, or you could go yourselves and give your own version.” I say, taking another bite.

“Oh, he left already?” Sonata asks, to which I hum in response.

“I am unsure as to how I would be able to help except for moral support. But I’m really shit at that, so I’m heading out.”

“Where are you going?” Adagio asks.

“I agreed to have some tea at Fancy Pants place with Rarity… I know, horrible timing, but honestly? What do you expect me to do?”

“We are a bit lost by ourselves. We have so many options to choose from, but can’t seem to decide on one.” I stare at her for a moment, a thought instantly jumping into my head.

“Why not ask Sunset so she can ask the princess so she can ask the Queen?” They gaze at me with unamused expressions, “What? Just ask Sunset, so that she can inform the princess directly. The thestrals seem pretty intimidating although I am unsure about their effectiveness.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Adagio says putting a closed palm over her mouth.

“Don’t dwell on it too much, otherwise you’ll keep being indecisive. Take a course of action and see where that takes you.” She purses her lips and stays silent. “You know… I’m actually meeting the princess today at around four. We could go together, if you want to.” They exchange looks, before looking back to me and nodding.

“I think, we’ll do just that.”

“Welp, I’m off! See you all later.” I throw away the apple core and head out of the kitchen.

“Good luck with that high-ranking noble!” Aria shouts.

I first make a visit to the basement and stare at my inventions on the table. Releasing a sigh, I pick up the charm and tie it around my neck with a little string. I flick the visible part of the gem with my finger and it flashes, then the runes turn black. I frown and walk over to the wall. Tapping the wall does nothing and I am unsure whether it needs some sort of signal, but it should have done the same already. I walk over to the detector rune and tap it. Nothing.

Maybe it doesn’t need to visibly change? Then why do these keep turning black? Is it because it’s a passive spell and won’t show any signs of change unless magically interacted with? I look at the time and decide to think about this later, since I might be late if I don’t hurry up. I need to find the place first after all. I shove the thing under my shirt and take a few other things including the dagger, my pouch and move out. It’s pretty sunny outside, but thankfully: not too hot and the sun isn’t glaring. Fixing my jacket around the shoulders and back with a firm shake by the lapels, I start walking to the northern part of the city.

There are plenty of Ponies near the market, but it is by no means even close to half-full. While walking through the place, I receive a few surprised stares, a few very haughty ones and a couple scared ones as well. The usual then. At this point, I don’t actually care, but it’s still a bit amusing to see the fear, not so much as the hate though. At least it’s nothing personal. I release a gaping yawn and cover the pit with my hand. Blinking away the tiredness, I release an even bigger and longer one. I stare into sky-blue sky and slack my shoulders. It’s really clean here. I stare at its’ wide expanses for a few more seconds, before snapping back to the road and continuing trudging on.

After a while I finally come across a pretty big mansion, that has the French flower designs on the metal fence. Probably the place. The mansion itself is located a little further in, with a small, bright garden outside the front. The road is neatly paved and there are two small paths leading to two fountains and flower beds from the main path. The three-story building itself is blocky and simple looking. Its’ walls are white, with a tint of grey and the sloped roof is made dark blue tiles, that for some reason remind me of a british-frenchish design.

I tap the metal gate and realizing that it’s open, push forward and walk across the smooth stone. I reach the door and was about to knock when I found a more effective way to announce my arrival: there is a rope to the side of the door, so I pull that. A muffled jingle rings out and I wait a couple of seconds.

Luckily, I don’t have to wait long and a grey Earth Pony in a black tuxedo with grey undertones opens the door.

His white bushy eyebrows rise in surprise at the sight of me, “Good afternoon... sir. May I help you?”

“Good day to you too. Say: is this Sir Fancy Pants’ abode?”

“Yes. May I know who is asking?”

“I am Vadon. We had a scheduled meeting for some tea~” I say with a, what I mean to be, disarming smile, showing my pearly yellows a little.

“Ah! Yes. Sir Fancy and Lady Fleur are expecting you. Follow me. I must say, you are right on time.” I walk inside and he closes the door behind me.

“Am I? Aw, I wanted to be a little early. Give a bit of surprise.”

“I am sure my Lord and Lady would have found that quite pleasant.” We walk to the left of the wide stairs, located in the main hall. The floor does have a red carpet, although it’s not too rough on the eyes.

“So. You are a butler?”

“Yes. Stone Grey - the personal butler of the Sir and Lady of this house.”

“You work alone?” The silver-haired stallion lets out a small chuckle.

“No sir. There is another, much younger butler, although he doesn’t serve neither of my masters.” That… sounds ominous. Or it would, if he said it with contempt. Which I am glad he didn’t. “This house also has many other servants, but they each have their own designated purpose.”

We reach a hallway on the second floor, with windows to our right. You’d think a guest room would be on the one below, but I guess the architects of this entire city went ‘fuck it’ at one point and decided to build whatever, however. Fucking maniacs.

There are paintings on the walls, depicting nature in a pretty similar form of art. The paint seems to be oil and the artists used quite a bit of green and yellow. Oh no, wait: there are a few winter peisages every now and then. All of the paintings have a very detailed frame made of what appears to be gold and bronze. The entire house seems to have a half dark half light atmosphere to it.

We take a left turn and stop at another door, deeper in this new hallway. Stone opens the door and walks in, allowing me to do the same. The interior is pretty nice, if a bit odd. The room is pretty spacious and it sort of looks like a ball-room, but at the same time it isn’t. There is a new set of stairs leading to what appears to be a sort of balcony overlooking the room from all around it. The ceiling has a glass window in it, letting through little sunlight, unfortunately for the potted plants in the corners. A couple of meters away from the door is a sofa and two fancy chairs with a wooden table between them, that has a teapot and a single plate with a cup. The sofa houses Fancy Pants and Fleur, while Rarity is occupying a chair across them. Fancy and Fleur turn around to see who opened the door and when their eyes fall on me, Fancy breaks into a smile and Fleur looks at her cup then the empty one, with an unknown expression.

“Sir Vadon has arrived, my lord.” Stone announces.

“I can see that, Stone. Thank you for bringing him here, you are free of tasks for today.” The butler bows and leaves through the door we came through, closing it behind him.

I walk over to the table and give a curt nod to Rarity, Fancy stands up and extends his hand. I shake it, slightly raising a corner of my lips.

“It is pleasant to see you again, Vadon. Please, sit.” The noble asks, sitting down himself and motioning to the empty seat, to which I happily oblige.

Fleur picks up the white pot with her hands, pours some tea into the ceramic cup and hands it to me with the plate to which I reply with a nod and a ‘thank you’. I hold the cup close to my stomach area and straighten up in the chair.

“How have you been these past few days?” Fancy Pants asks.

“I’ve been quite alright.” The same can’t be said about the others though. “This is quite a boring city, isn’t it? Does anything happen here? At all?”

“Sometimes, although it is astonishingly dull most of the time, so I can’t honestly say yes to that, no.”

“Then why would anyone want to visit here at all?” I inquire.

“Oh, why the sights of course. The ponies and the food, the shops and various other notes of culture. This is, after all, ‘the city where the peace began’.” Yeah. Winning a war would do that.

“So may I ask, as to what you have been doing while waiting for me?”

“We have been chatting about the latest trends and our plans for the nearest future. I apologize, that we started before your arrival, but we simply had so much to catch up on and Miss Rarity has arrived quite early.” Fancy says.

“It’s fine. I honestly don’t mind.” I take a sip of the sweet tea, “The tea is pretty nice. Can’t recognize the taste though.” Fleur raises an eyebrow and Rarity adopts an odd expression, one between horror and pity.

“Why, it is made with cherry. It is the most exquisite tea you will find in Canterlot.” Bragging already? I smile.

“I don’t doubt that.” At the moment. Fancy turns to Rarity.

“So, miss Rarity. I believe we have left off on the matter of your-”

They talked about various things, such as Raritys’ ideas for new outfits and details about Fancys’ proposition to help her with the funding. Fleur bragged gracefully about some maid, that has supposedly outdone herself this morning. They also discussed the latest news, drama and the like. A part of me was paying attention, searching for any hint that they know of the murder, while the other part was lost in deep thought. I suppose, that is why I didn’t hear Fancy calling out my name at first.

“Hm?” I look up at him with a start.

“Are you alright?” He asks in concern.

“I’m fine. Sorry, I was just a bit lost up there.” I look at him apologetically, “Would you mind repeating that?” His smile grows and he releases a short hum.

“We were wondering if there are interesting news, you’d like to share.”

“...I can’t say there is, honestly.”

“Are you implying that nothing interesting has happened with you?”

“I~, I mean: I went to a concert, but other than that, nothing really amazing happened.” Fleur looks at me, surprised.

“Truly?” I give her a few nods.

They share a few looks and Fleur turns back to me, “Well, what are your thoughts on the latest rumours from the palace at least?”

“What rumours?”

“I am talking about the rumours from the palace about a dangerous monster roaming the streets in broad daylight. This morning, as far as I know, every noble has been warned to be cautious and not let anypony suspicious, or well not a pony at all, in their homes.” I look down into the reddish liquid, blinking rapidly.

“I can’t say I do, honestly.” Are they about- No, it can’t be. If the warning is from this morning, then they couldn’t possibly have found out about the Mermaid, at least not from us. “I’m just as confused. Are they real?”

“Nopony knows.”

Rarity finally decides to break the ice, “Well. I have to say, the outfit really suits you, darling. I’m surprised: I have never thought of wearing both jeans and a jacket before~” I look at my clothes.

“ I mean… it’s nothing special, right?” Because otherwise: that is exactly the opposite of what I was going for.

“Oh, but it most certainly is! You are very close to giving me an inspiration, but I feel like something is missing…”

“Sunglasses?” She stares at me, unblinking, before quickly leaning forward and pointing at me.

“Actually ...Yes! That’s it! That is exactly what I- Ohhh~ I will have so many fabulous designs made, thank you, Vadon, you are a great help.”

“Glad to help.” My gladness level is below nine thousand.

“Well, you certainly know how to brighten the mood, miss Rarity. It is nice to see things progressing like so.” Fancy states, “On a happier note, my wife and I are planning on hosting a party soon. There will be multiple noble houses attending and we would be delighted if you two did as well.” Rarity practically squeals in glee.

“Oh, I would absolutely love to!”

“I’m sorry Fancy Pants, but I have to refuse.” Rarity looks at me in shock, as if had just uttered the forbidden word.

“How so?” Fancy takes a bit more of a serious tone, but stays still mostly in a jovial mood.

“There is trouble arising for someone I know and I believe I will be sucked into a chain of events, that I wouldn’t find very pleasant, if I don’t help them resolve it.”

“How serious is it?” I smack my dry lips twice, before deciding to answer.

“‘Not fitting for teatime’ serious.”

“...Well, you certainly know how to bring the mood down, my friend.” I look down.

“Sorry.” I mumble.

He laughs and looks at me with a grin, “You are certainly an interesting character, Vadon.” I feel, like that is not your only reason though…” I sigh and look at him with complete seriousness.

“Fancy. If I may call you that, I’ll be brutally honest here. Let’s stop this, while it hasn’t grown into an uncontrollable mess of events, which we both might not be able to control or get anything useful out of. Even if you are incredibly kind, that does not mean you’re stupid. Which means: you wouldn’t simply invite me to an event, where multiple nobles gather, even if you really enjoy my company, which means, that you need something from my presence there, so let’s not be manipulative dickheads to each other and come out clean. What do we both want?” Two jaws dropped and Fancy took a completely serious expression, devoid of previous joy, which nearly gave me chills.

“Yes. A very interesting character indeed.” He says leaning back and narrowing his eyes, which made me start to think, that I have fucked up. I won’t back down though.

“Di-did you just-” Rarity begins, before Fancy cuts her off with a full on out guffaw.

The two mares in the room stare at each other, one in utter confusion, the other simply awkwardly smiling and shrugging, before looking at me.

“You realize: I am allowed to call you out on a duel or even worse?”

“Of course I do, sir Fancy Pants. But I do not want and will not participate in this stupidly overcomplicated and unnecessary mindgame either way.” He laughs a bit more while nodding, before eventually calming down.

“Fancy.” He says, “You may call me Fancy.”

“...Can I call you Pants?” He cocks his head at me in bewilderment.

“You may call me sir Fancy Arphegious Corona June Pants the third, if you wish. Or just Fancy.”

“...Are those real?”

“Perhaps, perhaps not, who knows? But you may call me that in any case.”

“I will keep that in mind… Fancy.” He nods.

“Well then, I will not drag you into this, but I cannot promise you will not be brought to the attention of other nobles.” Great.

“That is all I can ask. Thank you.”

“You are very welcome. But it still would be nice to have some more chats. I feel as if though you are not unlike a breath of fresh air. Not many Ponies would dare to speak to a noble in such a way. I suggest that you refraining from calling the other nobles that.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

“...Also, you realize you could have either simply declined, or said that you don’t Fancy such events?” I stare off into space.

“...Oh yeah...”

Fancy chuckles before turning his head left and snapping his gaze somewhere up, “Ah, dear! Come down here, would you? We are just having a bit of tea with Rarity and our new colorful guest.”

“I heard the laughing and decided to find out what’s going on.” A female voice says from the top of the overhang.

Walking by the marble railing is a pale mare, wearing a sort of red dress-like attire. She gets to the stairs and starts walking down them. Her short hair is a pure white and her eyes are a cold grey, that focus on me as she climbs down mid-way. She stares at me in surprise, not unlike a deer in the headlights would and attempts to do yoga with her mouth, before I finally decide to help the poor girl.

“Hello. I am Vadon, nice to meet you.” She blinks, before continuing her decsent.

“Hello. My name is Rose Fleur. It is quite pleasant to meet you as well.” I stare at her blankly for a moment, before eventually nodding.

“Don’t be shy dear, come on over! You may join us if you wish!” Rose doesn’t move for a few moments, before finally deciding to approach our table.

A blonde stallion in a tux with white undertones appears on the stairs and seems to follow Rose, who takes the place of Fleur, while the tall mare decides to go make some more tea. Probably not the main reason, but that is what she told us before leaving with the pot. The blondes' eyes narrow at me, while I simply look right back at him and blink leisurely once. Whatever happened, that I could not see, seemed to satisfy him and he relents his ‘intense’ stare and smiles faintly. But only for a moment.

“Dear, it so good to see you again. How have you been?” Rarity says.

“I’ve been quite alright miss Rarity. What about you?” The familiar girl asks.

“Oh, this and that… My life mainly consists of business and dressmaking, I have no interesting stories to share as of late. What about you on the other hand? Something interesting must have happened, right?” Rarity asks, a fist under her cheek.

“Well… I went shopping… alone. And also to a public event… it was quite fun.” She uses that word a lot, doesn’t she?

“Oh?” I inquire, assimilating Raritys’ pose.

“Um… Yes. It was a musical event. It was quite nice.”

“...Want a piece of advice?”

“Um… S- I- sure?”

“Try not to use ‘quite’ as much.”

“Whatdoyoumean?”

“It makes it look like you’re faking your sophistication.” Fancy looks at me over his nose.

“Qui- He is correct dear. Although I have to say: you are progressing quite nicely.” Fancy stares off into space and chuckles, “It just dawned on me: how often we nobles use that word.”

“Yes. Well there are many other substitutes and you still can use ‘quite’, but try not to say it in every sentence.” The guy standing by her side shows no reaction and I nearly thought he was a statute.

“...Um… did we meet before?” Rose asks.

“Harsh.”

“Dear, do you two know each other already?” Fancy asks, looking at each of us.

“...Yes. We do, sort of. Sorry dad, I guess he recognized me.” And she mumbles something that sounded like: ‘even though I had an impervious disguise’.

“Right, well. Vadon, may I ask you for a favor?”

“What kind of favour?” I ask, intrigued.

“Could you keep it a secret, that my daughter went to that event?”

“I could… but why though?”

“It is a complicated matter, which I do not feel like discussing. So… what do you say?” Maybe I should cement it?..

“How about a deal?”

“A… deal?”

“I don’t like doing favours,” And promises hold zero value for me, “so instead let’s shake on it. Nor you, nor any part of this house will make any sort of attempt in pulling me into your ‘game of thrones’ and I will not reveal any secrets you’d like for me to keep to anyone in the city. Deal?” He looks at me oddly.

“...You realize I was not going to do that anyway, correct?” He says narrowing his eyes.

“I know, I just don’t work that way. So how about it?” I extend my hand.

“...Deal.” We shake hands and I smile.

“Right, so… What did we stop on?”

We chat a bit more, well: they chat a bit more, while I sort of awkwardly sit in silence. They would occasionally ask me about my thoughts on the matter they were discussing at the time and I would either reply with ‘Hm, I suppose so’ or ‘That’s… really stupid. Because so and so’. Fleur came back at one point with more tea and a servant maid, that helped her bring a sun-chair. Why she had one, I have no idea, but she did and sat on it between Rogue and Rarity.

We shared stories and laughed a bit, although Fancys’ daughter was a bit shy. She didn’t mind joining in on conversation and even shared some tales of her own, but I think: I unnerved her and she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act around me. I kind of understand her, since I felt kind of the same way around my dads’ friends.

Fancy was also interested in the magical anomaly that was over most of the city. I tried to explain the as much of the situation as I could, but I didn’t know all the details since I only helped discover it, not research it. All of them were also interested in my profession which I didn’t have. I told it was more of a hobby that brought me money and they started asking questions about my own personal research. Nothing too specific thankfully, just general stuff such as what I specialized in. They were very surprised when I said it was runes, since not many Ponies apparently like that type of magic, saying it was too complex and hard to follow at times. I laughed.

An hour or so has passed, Fleur has left again, saying she had something to take care of, and I remembered something important. I let Fancy finish one of the times he spent in the knighthood with his mates, before speaking up.

“Can anybody tell me please what time it is?” They look at each other, before Rarity speaks up.

“It should be around two o’clock… why?” I put the pretty much empty cup on the table.

“I have to apologise for the sudennes, but I have another very important meeting to get to. I must prepare for it, so I will have to leave now.” I stand up and deeply nod to Fancy, “Would you thank Mrs Fleur De Lis for the delicious tea?” Fancy frowns for a moment, before nodding.

“Of course. If I may ask: where is it, that you are headed?”

“The palace, I heard it’s quite lovely this time of year. Also I’ve been invited for some reason, so…”

“The palace?” Fancy says, clearly surprised or impressed. “Well then good luck, my friend.” I nod.

“Have a good day everyone, it has been nice having this little chat.”

I give them one last polite nod, before leaving through the door I entered earlier. The elderly butler is nowhere to be seen and as I get further away from the room I faintly hear an amused Fancy say: ‘He’s quite an odd one, isn’t he?’.

I come across a few maids walking the halls, that nearly shriek or faint at my appearance, but there is one that keeps a calm and collected facade. Probably their leader. I find my way back to the main entrance and take my leave.

“Vadon?” I turn around. “I have to congratulate you, because I believe you have left quite a memorable impression on my father.” I stare at the rosish Pony, “Have a great day, Vadon.” I nod one last time and leave through the metal gate.

Along the way, I experience familiar feeling of an upcoming pit of pain and despair, that I will fall into for my actions. Of course, at the moment that will only prompt me to see how far and how fast I can fall into it. There is a chance I will never reach the bottom… but who cares? The feeling instantly intensifies.

I pay a visit to Arcanes’ store for some materials, that I need for completion of my construct. Oh, the array may be finished, but there is one more piece of the puzzle that I want to add. The recognizable smell of wood and some other spice float in the air as I step into the much unchanged shop. Maybe a few things have been sold from the counter, but that’s pretty much the only difference.

“Hello, Arcane.”

“Ah good day… I don’t believe I caught your name last time.”

“I am Vadon. Sorry, I guess it was a little impolite of me.”

“No worries. So what have you come for today?” I purse my lips.

“Mmm… Do you have a~ metal ring? Around this big?” I spread my arms, showing the size I wanted.

“...A metal ring?”

“Make that two. I also must be able to write on them and they must conduct aetheric energy.”

“...Are you sure that you’re not trying to summon anything?”

“Well for one: I don’t know any summoning rituals or spells, and for two: I am trying to accomplish the exact opposite, but also something similar although not exactly.” His stare shows how much trust he has in me. “Do I look like someone that would do something to doom everyone around me?” Arcanes’ gaze lingers on me for a few moment before he finally sighs.

“Anything else?”

I ask for a few more blue and red crystals, some special chalk with a certain metal dust in it and bits of scrap that he didn’t need and had lying around. It cost me around four hundred hundred bits, a price which I was willing to pay. He asks what I was working on exactly and I say that it’s an invention. It technically is in a sense, because I have merged some of the runes, so it’s my own personal creation of my own design. Arcane graciously provides me with a bag to put all the crystals and metal bits in, while I put my arm through the rings to carry them on my shoulder. I get back home, happy with the fact that I managed to not reveal much.

Shutting closed the door behind myself with the key I was provided, I head downstairs to drop off all the stuff, once again pressing my hand against the second recognition rune and walk over to the soft chair in the living room and drop on it and simply lie there for an unknown amount of time. I rise with a groan, when I hear the girls coming down the stairs, who look fabulous.

By which I mean: more presentable to royalty than me, but I digress.

I give a good rub to my eyes and we head out. I stretch a bit, while they close the door, nearly poking myself with the super sharp dagger and I slowly straighten myself as to not ruin more than just my trousers. That was a horrifying thought. Dying from having your soul sucked out of your ass.

“Adagio, I nearly forgot something. Could I go back for a moment? I’ll be quick.”

“What is it?”

“Something that will keep bugging me.” She opens the door and go downstairs to grab the sheath for the weapon. Why I didn’t think of this sooner, I have no idea. I strap the sheath to my belt and meet up with the Sirens again.

“Are you done?”

“Yup!”

Adagio shakes her head in disappointment and we go on our merry way. They take the lead, seeing as I don’t know the path. I walk by their side and all of us are mostly silent, except for a few exchanges. I ask if they have ever met the princess, to which the reply is: no. But they have heard a lot of praise for her from Sunset, who also said that Luna is a bit awkward at times, being lost in deep thought often. She also, and I quote: ‘Has a very peculiar sense of humor, unlike that of a Pony. That’s what Sunset said.’ and I believe it. If she has been stuck on the moon for a thousand years and if I were in her position: I would have a very peculiar sense of humour as well.

The palace gets closer and closer as we near the the lower castle. The is only one last street we have to go through, before reaching it. The street itself is nothing noteworthy, being similar to those before. Although it’s eerily empty and that’s the strange part. I would expect with a few scattered shops and a cafe, there would be at least somebody here, but no. No one likes this street. Poor street.

Suddenly a flash of movement appears in my peripheral vision as something yellow takes Adagio, the Aria and finally Sonata with it, each exclaiming as it does so. As the objects gain some distance, I realize that they are Pegasi clad in light golden armour. What?

What seemed like a hundred guards rush out of the alleyways, teleport far down the street, or land on the roofs. Each of them has a spear pointed at me. A transparent purplish dome appears over all of us, leaving the Sirens and the guards that are holding them outside of it.

I just stand there and blink before looking around at the armored ponies that have surrounded me in less than five seconds. Each of their armour looks bulkier than I have seen before, has purple cloth underneath and an insignia of a blazing sun upon their metal shoulder pads and chestplate. Most of them are earth ponies, but I see a few unicorns within and outside of the shield, with their horns glowing. The front row keeps a distance of six or more meters from me.

The guards ahead of me hold their spears upwards, turn and step aside, letting through a unicorn in gold armour, with metal plates that are purple of colour whose horn is also glowing a pur- lavender shade. He stops when he is within the makeshift circle and pulls out a sword. The guards close the hole made for him, leaving no room for escape. The unicorn strikes a pose extending his right arm, holding the sword and pointing it at me.

“Listen here, you foul demon! I am Shining Armor - Captain of the Solar Guard and I-!”

“Well that’s a bit rude, innit.” He looks at me as if I have sprouted a second head.

“Sorry, what?”

“You show up here, looking all many and intimidating, point yer weapons at me and then insult me.” He blinks. “How dare you?”

“Uh…”

“Right, sorry for the interruption. As you were.” I motion for him to continue and he takes a moment to compose himself.

“Ahem. I have been ordered to capture you and bring you before her majesty! I suggest coming with me peacefully.” He proclaims, having reverted back to his angry face.

“Oh, funny. I was just on my way to see her majesty myself.” His eyes narrow.

“What for?” I extend my arms as if it should have been obvious.

“To- to talk?” I see his muzzle muscles twitch.

“I request that you don’t play games with me. I know who you are and what you are, so you can stop playing these games.” I blink as a million thoughts run through my head, before one eventually stops.

“You were sent to kill me.” He blinks again and his eyes widen.

“Why- Why would you think that?”

“Oh please. There are almost a hundred guards here all pointing their weapons at me, we are all trapped in a dome,” And if they wanted to contain me, then they would only trap me instead of all of us, “and the first thing you do: is march up to the front with a face full of fury and point a sword at me… that is glowing.” It was glowing a white light. “You want me to bring before her majesty… just not alive.” I see his covered hooves twitch and he mouths something under his nose.

“I-”

“Will you really attack an unarmed sapient creature? Do you have no honour? Fight me like a man… stallion.” He looks a bit confused when I say man, but downright baffled after I finish talking. I think he probably didn’t get the message, so I stand in a boxing stance. “Go on, watchu waiting for?”

“...You realize, that it is much simpler for me to do this armed and not alone, right?”

“And I also realize that you, as a captain, care for these stallions and I am willing to spare them, if you fight me one on one. I win? I leave. You win? Well- I don’t leave.”

“My guards are capable of fighting you.”

“Fighting? Yes. But if I beat you: I doubt they’d be able to.” Because they won’t want to A few seconds of silence pass as he seems to consider it, “Eugh. Fine: you can keep the armour on if you want to.” I say dismissively.

“Ar-are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Because the armour will make you heavier, therefore: slower… unless it has spells on it and your mobility isn’t hindered at all, in which case I gain no advantage.

“...Alright.”

He sheathes his sword before approaching me, stopping at a distance of around three meters and taking a boxing stance. I, on the other hand, straighten up and make myself look relaxed. Captain Armor raises an eyebrow at this, but says nothing.

He starts slowly circling to my left, while closing the reach between us simultaneously. I simply follow him with my head, my eyes focused, though relaxed. I don’t follow his legs or his eyes as I observe his shoulders for any change. Ah, there it is. His shoulder move in separate directions: one forward, one backward, as he sharply comes charging me, rearing up for a right hook.

I let him get close and kick the left greave while pulling my upper half backward and downward, away from his fist. The kick catches him by surprise and I sidestep as he trips and falls. He quickly turns over as if expecting an attack, but I just stand there looking down at him with a complete calm on my face. Shinings’ eyes narrow as he stands up and readopts the stance.

A sudden jab comes from him catching me in the shoulder. I grab his arm around the middle and put my leg behind his back as I push and pull, throwing him onto the ground again with surprising ease. I guess the armour is enchanted. He looks strangely at my legs, as if incomprehending their existence. He stands up, smirking for some reason.

“Let’s try to not hurt each other too badly, yeah?” I suggest.

His smirk grows, before he charges me again, this time: he lowers his right arm to his abdomen and throws the other in a sort of strange haymaker. I try to intercept his abomination of haymaker while also punching him in the face. I manage to slow down his attack, but my punch is what keeps my own face intact. I satisfying shout comes from him as bone connects with bone and Shining takes a few steps back, covering his nose.

“What happened to not hurting each other too badly!?” He asks, looking at me.

“What, that hurt? You wimp. I barely have any muscle.” I say with a grin, “I’m Vadon by the way.”

He pulls away his hands and I notice that he was grinning, before it turned into a scowl. He spins on the spot and throws out his hoof in a bucking motion, which is slightly slower than that of an Earth horse or Rustys'. I immediately hop to the side and grab his leg, his horseshoe barely grazing my chest. I heave him as he releases an alarmed shout and a grunt when he lands on his chest.

We keep exchanging blows, as I hand him a few sparta kicks and keep throwing him on the ground in almost every way possible, alway changing my movements as he tries to adapt. I am hoping to tire him out and show the others, that I am still standing. He may be a trained, fit royal guard- or Solar, whatever. But he is still a pony and a prey species. I have human biology, which should give me at least some advantage in lasting against him, right?.. Maybe I’m just being delusional from the lack of sleep.

I see him panting on the opposite side of the ‘arena’ whereas I simply breathe deeply through my nose, standing tall and proud.

His eyes look up and down my form, “What… the tartarus… are you made of?”

I look at a spot on my covered arm, where my watch would usually be, “You know, Captain. We haven’t even been going at this all that long. Only… what? Six, seven minutes? You can surrender you know.” The girls at the back are still being held by the guards and seem half amused, half disbelieving that I am able to hold my ground against a captain of the Equestrian guard.

“I-”He suddenly gets a confused expression and looks back to the castle, “What? T-” He stays silent for a few moments, “Right. I gotcha. Please stop using magic for this.” He says solemnly and turns back to me, then looks at all of the surrounding guards. With a sigh, he pulls out his sword, holding it in his left grip and takes a few steps towards me.

“Captain.” I say, a warning tone in my voice.

“I’m sorry. But I have orders.” He hasn’t yet held up his sword, instead holding it by his side.

“...As am I.”

I sprint across to him, holding myself close to the ground and practically leap upward with a punch, before he can even do anything. The hit connects, stronger than any before and I grab him by the jutting out details on his armour and spin around, throwing him. He manages to land unharmed, but I stomp over to him, before bring my foot down on his face. A crack, a groan-shout and his nose starts bleeding. I pick him up and throw him again, the adrenaline making the task easier. I have a complete sense of calm on the inside as this all progresses.

He catches himself again, before standing up, just as I kick him under the insignia of his mark. He surprises me by not only managing to not lose his balance, but also take a swing at me.

I try to take a step back as the sword flies toward my face in an ark, but I am too slow. My eyes widen as a blinding pain seares through me. I think I hear an alarmed shout and someone calling out my name, but I can’t be certain at the moment. I hold both hands up to my face, taking a few steps back and bend forward, screaming the whole time. I distinctly feel something sharp, warm and wet drip and fall onto my hands. I feel my nose and skull pulsate as blood flows from them.

“Argh! You fucker! I just got those fixed!” My hands are as shaky as my breath. I slowly pull away my hands and quiet gasps ring out.

“Not a pretty sight, ey?” I ask rhetorically, my voice deathly cold.

“I-It’s fine. He can just regenerate them-!” Shining says, sounding a bit sick himself.

“What am I, a fucking lizard!?” I say and feel my eyes drop from my palms onto the ground, rolling away somewhere. I take a few calming breaths and chuckle, “Oh, look what you made me do.”

“Come with us and maybe the doctors might be able to help you.” I chuckle some more.

“Can they regenerate optical organs?” I hiss as I open the lids.

“Well, no.” I stare at where he should be, with mostly empty sockets.

I steady my breathing, before reaching into the inner pocket of my jacket and fish around for something. Once I determine that it is what I am looking for, I pull out the small tool.

“What is that?”

I ignore him as my breathing increases in intensity and search for a bump on the stamp-like trinket. Funny how things happen. I feel the crystal inserted into the very simple and makeshift, but hopefully working contraption. I find the correct side side and let out a breath, before raising the thing to eye level.

“What are you-?”

I apply pressure on the activation rune and insert the thing into my left eye. I instantly scream. The runic circle on the part that is inside burns itself into the back of my eye as I my mind nearly blanks out from the agony. I think I hear someone hurl, but I can’t understand or do anything except scream my lungs out. I come to, finding myself standing on my toes, bent over and shaking. I take a second to stabilize.

With effort I rise, my eyes shut tightly. I open my second eye, no longer bothered by the air on the open wound. I align it with the other socket and plunge it in, screaming again, although managing to stay mostly conscious this time. More guards vomit as I pull it out, my spine and shoulders limp.

I put the stamp back into the pocket and straighten to my full height. I lean my head to my left shoulder and my neck releases four, then two and finally one last crack with a jerking motion. I proceed to do the same for the other side, releasing seven more pops, before restoring my head back into its’ original position.

I open my eyes.

The colourless purple unicorn takes a step back as his see-through eyelids widen over his glowing eyes. The figure takes an almost scared stance, as a dim light shines in its’ hands like veins. I see a multitude of colours shift behind it, as if uncomfortable with something. I rear my head back to look at the runes dancing across a purple dome. I have never seen anything like them, as if it’s a language which has no visual or vocal interpretation. I may not understand it, but I know the result of the equation. It is the same as if you would know the number ‘four’ is a sum of two numbers, but not what those numbers are. I focus back on the unicorn, whose horn also has similar runes spinning around it. There are the two numbers. I faintly see multiple lights behind the shield, but I pay them no mind.

I slowly reach behind my back with my right hand and pull out the dagger, spinning it into an ordinary grip as I hold it extended by my side. I start walking towards the colourless creature that stares right into my 'necromancers' eyes'.

Shining Armour.

I lower my head and tense certain muscles in my body, while leaving others relaxed. I do a complete check of my capability of switching between them. All responses are positive. I am only a few steps away from the pony who is already on guard.

You fucked up.

He lunges forward swinging his blade in another ark which leaves a white smokey trail behind itself. I sidestep and kick as hard as possible, nearly indenting the armour and pushing him to a preferable distance.

Eye…

I stab at him, but he evades to the right, copying one of my earlier moves. He switches grip and raises his arm, preparing for a downward swing.

...For…

I quickly adjust my muscles, just as as the sword starts coming down. But I was already moving before it did. My dagger connects with the shining blade and there is a new metallic sound, just as something white flies through the air and lands somewhere with a cling. The figure takes a few steps back as I my hand keeps moving and my knees bend.

Eye

I unspring from my crouching position, dagger in hand launching from behind my shin. I soar through the air, aiming at his head as I notice his eyes widening. So close.

The tip of the blade is only a few centimeters away from his face, when a golden light begins to envelop him and he disappears, making me stumble a bit when I land over his spot. I straighten up, searching for the source of the spell. And then I find it. A bright spot getting bigger as it gets closer, the other lights parting before it and moving away from me, but keep their spears pointed at me.

The big spot is actually two golden spots with a white hue, that move like clouds in an invisible wind. The figure stops a few steps away from me and I have to crane my neck to look at their face as they are almost over a head and a half taller than me. They are wearing a dress, that has a banner like piece hanging down from the waist and ending in a rombuculous shape. There are more bits that seem folded symmetrically over each other on both sides, covering the wearers legs, almost to the fetlocks.

The tall Pony has a sort of belt made of a solid material around their waist, that seems to have some engravings on it and a gem in a shape of a rhomb in it’s center.

Her shoulders are uncovers and have light stretching down to her fingers in root like patterns, disappearing from view only behind the large braces, which cover most of the second halves of her arms.

The tall mare has a necklace-like decoration made of solid metal over around her neck, that has a socketed oval gem around her upper chest, but it seems cracked. The piece itself has many engravings on it, but I don’t take a close look at them.

And finally, her extended wings, which might as well blot out the sun, are the biggest I have seen so far on any living thing, their span reaching at least six meters at their fullest. A tiara-crown is worn behind her long horn which has some wisps lingering around it as she looks at me with colourless eyes, except for a golden light, shining out of their pupils right onto and into me.

Celestia Kosm.

We stare at each other in silence, as her tail and made exude a mixed gold and light-blue light. No longer in my ‘lust for blood’ mode, I note that everything has the faintest blue tint.

The queen opens her mouth, but I silently raise a finger and she closes it. I walk over to one of the tables outside of the outdoor cafeteria, as all the guards point their sticks at me. Then let me pass, although reluctantly and I take a clean tissue and go back to the main circle, the guards closing the way out behind me. I walk over to a spot on the ground and pick up my destroyed eyes with the tissue, fold it and put it in my other pocket.

I stand once more before her highness.

“Why do you have a tail?” The queen calmly blinks.

“Whatever do you mean?” I notice two purple figures behind the ranks, although one is bigger than the other and seems to be a mare looking at me, holding something like a clipboard.

“Why do you have a tail and the others don’t?” She follows my eyes and looks back to me, doing so without any obvious tension.

“They do. Most just prefer to cut it short.”

“I see.”

“May I have your name?”

“I am Vadon, it’s not very nice to meet you.”

“Why ever not?” I look at her and we both say nothing. “I suppose, I can see the reason from your perspective.”

“You came here yourself. Why?” She puts on, what she thinks is, a disarming smile.

“I wish to talk with you.” No, you me to talk… alright.

“In private?” A spell forms around her horn and suddenly a white egg-like dome appears over the two of us.

All the guards instantly get roused up and start voicing their protest of leaving me alone with her. The egg dims as Celestia opens her mouth, “I wish to talk with Vadon alone. Do not disturb us and don’t let anypony near this street, is that clear.” A muffled ‘Yes, your majesty’ came from the ones outside as their captain begins assigning them to take various positions.

Her horn glows once more and a simple metal chair appears behind her with a flash. There is also a flash behind me. I dare take a look and see that it is a chair from the cafe on this street.

“...” I take a seat on the soft seat and fold my hands, putting my right leg over the others’ knee and lean against the metal spine, “So… Nice weather we’re having.” Her eyelids twitch ever so slightly, which I nearly missed from the brightness, but it’s surprisingly easy to see movement when there are no shadows.

“Indeed. I would first like to know what you are.” I smugly smirk.

“I am something you have never seen before.”

“I highly doubt that.” The smirk is still there, although the smug is gone.

“...I suppose I am a human.”

“A human? What is that?”

“Told you: you never saw anything like me,” I adjust myself into a more comfortable position, “so: a human, in a rough sense of the word, is a mammalian omnivore, capable of survival in harsh conditions.” Of course they don’t always survive, but that’s besides the point.

“You know that from personal experience?”

“You could say that.”

“Hm. So why ‘suppose’?

“I… like to think that my mentality is different than that of a human. I have different values and a completely different view on the world and my interactions with it.”

“How different?”

“It will take me a while to explain and I don’t think I will be even able to do it with my current vocabulary.”

“I have the time.”

“I don’t.” She actually chuckles, “What?”

“I’m sure you do.”

“Uh- no? The lifespan of a human is only around a hundred years and the brain starts to deteriorate at the age of eighty. Plus I might die even earlier than that.” She raises a curious eyebrow.

“Oh… so you won’t tell me anything about yourself?”

No.

“Are you sure?” I lower my head and stare forward with a smile.

“...Get the fuck out of my head.” I say roughly, my face locked in a look of serene calm.

“Ah. I apologize, but that is a bit hard to do, especially when I can quite literally see your soul.” I look up again.

“You know what a soul is?”

“I do. Necromancer.” I stay quiet for a moment and then chuckle.

“I am not a necromancer.” She tilts her head with an ‘Oh?’ “I may study necromancy, but I am no necromancer. I can’t even cast spells!” I shake my head, chuckling.

The queen stares at me with an undecipherable expression, “How peculiar.” She says more to herself, than me.

“Yeah, well. Let’s get back on topic: you have sent a platoon of guards to exterminate the only specimen of the human race on this entire planet and then the captain of said guards made me blind, although not for long. And a~ll this, without any sort of hostile actions from me against you or your country. Nation. So… what is you next course of action?” She looks at me as if she didn’t expect me to turn the tables on her so quickly.

“I have to know more, before deciding anything. You are a possible threat.” I sigh, stand up and walk around to the back of my chair.

“I don’t know what kind of necromancers you have met in the past, but death is not always the solution.” It is most of the time though. If the problem still exists, apply more death. “I honestly have no intention of going against you or your people, unless you or they take any action that will harm m-” My breath catches in my throat as I stare into the sky.

What… is that? The sky has colour, which I have only just realized. But that’s not possible, is it? Unless… Oh… ohohohoho. I chuckle airly as I stare into the storm.

“Your majesty? I believe I can convince you to not imprison... or kill me. As I may be of use to you.” I say, turning around with a grin and a plan.

She raises an intrigued eyebrow. I got a hook. I can make the chain as I go

Author's Note

Hello everyone. I decided to love cliffhangers. Did you enjoy the chapter? Do you have any questions?

Well some of them will be answered in the next couple chapters, which hopefully won't be nearly 19 k words! Yeah?

I will post this story in a few other groups... maybe ask for a proofreader and an editor, that specializes in cliffhangers.

Posting Schedule:

I decided to post at least a chapter a month, since I am quite busy with stuff over on this side of the screen.

Featured:

This story has been featured during this chapter. Two in a row!

On a Sidenote:

There is another story I have posted the first chapter of. Check it out, if you so desire:zelda.

Leitmotif:

This is the theme of the story: Tiago D. Ferreira - Do We Fall [Aram Zero Remix] , I think it fits quite well.

If you have any actual feedback (besides 'Ooh, nice chapter. Can't wait for more.') that would be appreciated. Not trying to be rude or anything, but c'mon. This story ain't perfect in every sense, is it? What, you got no complaints you'd like to share?

Order Or Chaos... out.

Ch. 10: Bargaining for My Life.

Chapter Ten: Bargaining for my Life.

“No.” A firm voice spoke to me.

“No?” I asked.

“Absolutely not. You must not think much of me, if you assumed I would to agree to that.” Celestia looks at me from her chair, before standing up and boring down on me.

“...Are you really sure about that?~” I tilt my head with a grin. “How much knowledge of necromancy do you have? In any form?”

“Enough to not need any more. I will not allow you to use any of your magic.”

“But, pr-” I break into a harsh cough, holding a fist to my mouth and an open palm to Celestia, “What? Even if the knowledge might save millions of lives and aid you in the long-run? Be reasonable, your highness. That storm is not something you can figure out with your magic.” She looks somewhere behind me, before turning back to me with a calm expression.

“Are you implying that the storm is made of souls?” I give a short hum.

“I’m not implying anything, your highness. But the fact that I have this much progress in identifying the origin and purpose of that storm with nothing more than a glance, means: I just might be your Ponies ticket to a more peaceful life. All I ask: is that you let me get a closer look at it and after I tell you the results of my investigation, you do not make even an attempt in trying to subdue or ‘get me out of the picture’.” The glowy alicorn looks me over.

“You are not very tactful… Vadon, was it?”

“I apologize if I seem hostile.” I give a mocking bow, “But that is only because I’ve recently had hostile actions taken against me.” Multiple ones, in fact.

After blinking as if she had zero fucks to give, Celestia looked up at me and spoke in an even, but interested tone, “And what do you have to offer exactly?”

“Well: I can make you a sandwich, maybe toast. I can also con-, cre-, hmm.” I look down in deep thought.

“Form?”

“Yeah! I can form a partnership of sorts with you. I research stuff and give you the results.” Not all of them, but only those that I consider you not being able to use against me.

“Stuff?” She sounds serious, but I think she’s amused… just a bit.

“Pff. Don’t tell me this world is known in and out. You’ve had necromancers as enemies in the past for reasons your own. Why not get one as an ally?” I extend my hand. She looks down on it.

“I thought you said: you weren’t a necromancer?” Her eyes move back to mine.

“I’m not. But I do know necromancy and more magic is always useful, plus… what do any of us have to gain by becoming enemies? We’ll only gain loss.” My attempt at being somber and moody works and she stays silent for a few moment, probably sending a mental signal for some kind of airstrike on my position.

“I see… reason in your words. And surprisingly no deceit in your eyes. And no fear.”

“I thought I told you that already, no? Besides: I don’t lie, don’t like doing it and hate those that do.” -lie to me, but I hate everyone anyway. “Also, what did I say about getting in my head?~”

The Queen of Equestria, the land of ponies, menacingly stands up, looking down at me like a judgemental person. Her slowly swirling vortexes remind me of something, but I can’t put my finger on it at the moment. After the blazing depths have probed enough of me, they seem to ease back their intensity slightly.

“I propose we continue this in more pleasant accommodations. Would you be willing to come with me to the palace?” Like I have much of a choice.

“No, I absolutely refuse, because you don’t have tea and crumpets!” I could almost see her jaw stiffen at my first word, but relax by the end and sport an untelling expression on her face.

“We actually do.”

“Oh. In that case: lead the way then.” They have crumpets? She takes a breath and is about disperse her shield bubble, before I beat her with a question, “Who is that, by the way?” She turns to look over where my eyes wandered for the second time and after a second of silence, turns back to me.

“That is one of my students - Twilight Sparkle. She is quite talented and her genius has been noted by others multiple times. I ask for you to not speak with her, because I have zero doubt that she will want to ask you questions on our way.”

“Right… pff~ I’m not some kind of ancient evil spirit or mastermind that is going to corrupt her.”

She says nothing as the runes around her horn dissipate and the matrix falls apart together with the shield, getting rid of the slightly white tint everything outside of the egg had.

The Queen doesn’t seem to have anything else to add, so she simply turns and motions me, which I take as a sign to follow. As we pass the ring of the remaining guards, I look to her student. A unicorn mare, putting away a notebook or a clipboard in a bag hanging from her shoulder. She is dressed in what looks like a sweater and a that type of skirt skirt that looks like it had been cut by scissors. Her face has a calm smile on her face as her eyes glow brighter than her brothers, who is standing right next to her, looking at me, arms crossed a serious expression on his face. Twilights smile is on the opposite contrast of her eyes, as she stares at me with a slight head-tilt. She looks like a tsundere. Or is it yandere?

In any case, Celestia approaches her, so I follow the tall alicorn as Twilight fixes her straight hair with a small movement of her hand and switches her attention to her mentor.

“Twilight Sparkle. May I know why you had not left with your brother?” The unicorn flinches, before bowing.

“Forgive me, Queen Celestia, but I wished to stay and record as much about the creature’s physical appearance as possible. Maybe even ask it some questions.” Her head lifts for a fraction of a second as her purple eyes glance at me, before bowing down again.

“I see.” I shuffle a little on my feet, stealing a look at Shining Armor, who feels a bit uncomfortable himself if that little hoof shuffle is anything to go by, “...I will allow you to accompany us to the castle, but you will keep at least three hoofs away from him and you won’t attempt to make any sort of conversation with him. Am I understood?” Celestia can be pretty scary, like a teacher who won’t take any more of your bullshit but tries to be lenient.

“Yes, your highness.” Twilight unbends and looks at Celestia with a smile, before blinking her gaze to me, “You have a little something on your face.” She says, tapping her nose.

I reach to my nose ridge with an index finger and release a quiet hiss, grimacing slightly. I pull away and look down to see the tip of my finger being slightly wider, bigger, fatter, what have you, than the rest of it and I feel something wet flow down my nose for a bit. Welp. My nose is utterly fucked. How am I able to breathe though? Shouldn’t blood be filling everything in there? I take a look around the street and find a tourist shop, that’s selling shirts and various accessories.

As I walk over to it, nobody around says a word. I notice trios of unicorn guards standing around… things. They appear to be some kind of battery, having a rough cylindrical shape with open sides, revealing the biggest crystal I have seen in my life placed inside a ring in the middle of the structure, locked into place from both ends. Of course it looks all fancy and stuff, having bits and pieces twisting and turning into symmetrical shapes over the crystal. Some crystals are ‘greyed out’ for a lack of a better word, but some have a purple and blue shimmering glow to them.

I look through as set of glasses hanging from those metal stands and pick what should be black tanned glasses. I look at the price tag, which also has a description. Black Tanned Glasses made by ‘These Guys’. Yup. Tearing off the tag and leaving a few bits on the nearby table, I put on the glasses, the ridges of which also cover the wounds on the side of my head. The world stays the same.

Returning to the trio magic users, I look up at Celestia, “How do I look?”

“Less creepy.” Is Shining’s smartass response, before Celestia can even open her mouth.

I slowly turn to him and lower my glasses, looking at him over them. He stares right back at me, seemingly no longer affected by my fiery gaze, but I can see that little jaw shift.

Fixing the glasses back on, I look up at Celestia again, “It’s very considerate of you.” What a tactic reply and she’s correct. It’s very considerate of me~

“Your majesty, may we accompany you?” Adagios’ voice asks and I turn to face her. Orange, red, eyes like a boiling storm. A dark purple and light-blue figures stand by her sides.

Celestia turns to look at me with a raised eyebrow. I shrug in response and she turns back to the sisters, “You may, if you wish. However I will be discussing something alone with Vadon.” I nod.

“Right, well: lead the way.”

Her majesty spares me a last look before walking off and I try to catch up with her. Thankfully: she is trying to elegant, showing off her glowy tail and hair, which allows me to take up my normal pace. Which I have found some to be unable to match. Twi and Shi walk behind us as I can hear the big brother, if he is her brother, whisper something to Twilight harshly as she whispers back.

“So, Celestia-” I thought the guards travelling beside each one of us in lines would impale me right then and there, “-what kind of tea is it?” I look up to the side and find the tall Alicorns muzzle facing me with wider eyes than usual.

“It is cherry flavoured.” She replies with the same calm tone, some would consider it warm, but I see it as cold.

I grimace and groan in distaste, “Maybe we could try something else?” Celestia looks forward again as we keep moving.

“There is a new type of tea, that has arrived today. My sister has tried it already and says it is to her tastes.”

“Something new is always nice.”

“I would have to partially disagree with that.”

“You have a dark mind, Celestia.”

“I have a realistic mind.” That actually made me stop, look at her, grin and then keep walking with a genuine smile on my face.

The road suddenly goes up and through a large drop gate built in between tall smooth marble walls. If this was a fortress, then why aren’t there any archer holes? I note to myself that little detail, but the inevitable answer is probably magic. We keep going straight uphill, passing a bunch of manor-like buildings, before twisting on a rounded turn and continue even higher. There are very few ponies that are outside, most of them nobility and there is a really muscular marmalade coloured earth pony pulling a half-open cab across the street, with a fancily dressed unicorn inside. He was really tugging at it too. I turn to Celestia.

“Is- is that, like, legal?”

“It is. If the driver pony is being paid fairly. I suppose I can see how that might seem odd to you, but don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal.” ...ok.

We carry on in silence as we climb higher and higher, before enter another gate, but this one is smaller and has guards on each side. On of them is green, while the other is blue, both look ahead of themselves. Like a clockwork mechanism, they both stand at attention smack the bottom of their spears at the ground. Is that like a sign of being ready for battle, or something?

“Your majesty.” Celestia ignores both of them as she passes them.

They go back to their ‘relaxed’ state. Although I can see one glance at me for a fraction of a second. I look over to Celestia and see a little evil smile on her muzzle. We pass a bunch of buildings that remind me of barracks or something belonging in a military. Forges, closed training grounds, five massive towers splotted in various places, of which I cannot see the bottom and a garden that represents a hedge maze right next to the palace.

Oh, and the palace. I can’t see the colour of the material, but I can see a few wisps flowing through the walls themselves. It’s probably enchanted or something, as it reminds me of Shining Armors Sword, making me wonder what kind of effect it gives. I can, however also, discern the absolutely ridiculous amount of attention that went into the making of it’s outer walls. Ridges, pieces that seemed to be jutting in an jutting out, all forming spirals or either shapes, that eventually turned into either lines or circles of various sizes. And that’s just the outer walls! Another pair of guards pull open the main gate to the palace and we step inside.

The carpet, probably red, occupies most of the floor on which you can step on. There are flower vases on pedestals and flowery vines hanging down columns on the sides of every corridor we walk down. Everything has been paid attention to, even probably the very air itself, but what the hell do I know? Didn’t exactly get much of a view through the forms of the accompanying guard and those that stood still by the columns. The ceiling was pretty nice though.

We arrive at a familiar room, which seems to have been made super tall for no apparent reason. There is a set of stairs ahead of us, branching off in two directions and two giant blue and yellow windows right in the middle. The carpet on the main floor also leads to two other doorways on opposite sides of the room. We stop right in the middle of the room, above a golden star, and I once again get enraptured by the far away ceiling.

“Captain Armour. Take your guards and return to your prior activities, I will call on you if something is necessary. I shall be in my room.”

“Yes, your majesty.” I hear guards walking away.

“Twilight, I would like to ask you to return to the observatory, I believe you would like to share this information, but I will ask you to not tell anything to anyone about Vadon, until I say so.”

“Of course, Queen Celestia.” Twilight probably bows, before I hear her hoofsteps getting distant.

“As for you three. You may visit Sunset if you wish, I believe she is in the observatory.”

“Thank you, your majesty.” Adagio speaks again, before the leave as well.

A moment of silence passes, before Celestia speaks up again, “Shall we?” I hum in response.

That was apparently the wrong answer as my eyes widened and I felt like multiple hammers struck me like an anvil from all directions. Lights dance around in my eyes as I stumble, turn to look at Celestia and fall backwards on a couch, my head flops on the seats spine, eyes opened, body stuck in an odd unmoving position.

A moment of silence passes.

“Vadon?”

I say nothing as I keep staring off into space.

“Vadon, are you alright?”

No response from me once more, not even breathing.

I hear the queen whisper to herself, “Did I kill him?”

I hear hoofsteps approaching, making my neck snap upwards, which causes Celestia to nearly jump, “No, but that would have been more preferable. The hell was that?” I ask holding the back of my head.

“That was a teleportation spell, have you not experienced such a thing before?” I stare into space.

“Once.”

“Oh, well I have to apologize for the suddenness, I hope you can forgive me.” She sits on the couch opposite of me, a short table separates us.

“Nothing to forgive, really. So far the only thing I am annoyed about is the apparent lack of tea and crumpets.” She looks at me, her smile a straight line, before picking up a little bell and ringing it, “Magic?”

“Magic.”

We wait for a few seconds, before another jingle comes from the bell, however she didn’t move her hand, “Kibitz? Would you go to the kitchen and ask chef Glutton-” She pronounced it like a french name... “-to bake some crumpets just like my sister prefers them.”

“Yes, your majesty. Anything else?” An old, elegant male voice comes out of the bell.

“Bring some of that new tea for two, would you? The one that my sister likes so much.”

“It will be done.”

“Thank you, Kibitz.”

“My pleasure.” I notice a faint blue glow from within the bell disappear, as Celestia puts it back on the table.

We sit in silence for a couple of minutes as I look around the lavish room. The arch to the balcony has open drapes, moving in waves with the wind, with simple designs sewn into them. Bookcases line one of the walls, containing tomes and scrolls, most of which look pretty old. Between the shelves is a large bed. And I mean LARGE. Easily could fit three grown men on it. Although, considering the size of the room, it’s actually fits and leaves some space. The tips of my shoes touch the ground as I sit head-level with Celestia. There seems to be a door, probably to the queens clothes collection. Symbols ignite around Celestia’s horn and something happens, whatever it is, she seems satisfied with it as the magic fades.

“You did not use my title when addressing me.” I blink, prompting her to continue as I ease back into the couch, “You stopped using my title instantly after I dropped the shield and everyone could hear us.”

“Right, Celestia, I don’t much care about titles. It’s not because of a lack of respect or anything like that, but because you are not my ruler and therefore: not a necessity to say your title. If I do, it’ll probably be in sarcasm.” She stares at me for a few moments.

“Sarcasm?”

“You don’t know what sarcasm is? I can make you a little sign, that has ‘sarcasm’ written on it and everytime I use it, I can hold it up.” She actually smiles.

“Yes, thank you, that would be very kind of you.” My own smile grows.

“Want me to add some glitter on it?” She shakes her head.

“No, but make it out of gold.” My smile turns awkward and I look off into space.

“I’m not sure I can afford that, princess.”

“...Wait, princess?” My head looks directly at her, as my eyes roam around her, searching for a response.

“I just can’t call you queen. You look too young to be that.” I actually don’t know if she does. She smirks.

“Flattery will get you nowhere.” Brain, staahp!

“The couches are already here, so I won’t have to go far.” She stares at me for a few seconds, before tilting her head.

“What?” I open my mouth to reply, when the door to her chambers opens and I turn left to look who it is.

A light blue unicorn steps into the room, carrying a platter with dishes and dressed in a fancy looking suit with a chain connected to his tuxedos’ collar, leading into his front pocket and something that reminded me of a scarf, covering his chest and lower neck underneath the tux. The pony was also wearing templeless glasses on his… nose, which seemed to go well with his brushy mustache and ponytail. He looks at both of us.

“Your majesty, I have brought tea and desert for you and your guest, as per your request.”

“Thank you, Kibitz. You may leave them on the table. That will be all.” The butler bows, still holding the plates in one hand, and does just that.

Not saying a word, Kibitz bows again and leaves the room, the platter under his arm. I pick up my plate of three crumpets and break a buttery piece off with a fork. I hear Kibitz outside, say ‘oh dear’ and Celestia’s ear twitches in the direction of the door.

“Va-” Celestia doesn’t finish her sentence as your typical guard rushes inside the room.

“Your Majesty, I come with a report on our investigation of the Dazzlings’ residence.” The guard says, saluting. Celestia slowly turns to me. I put the piece of the crumpet in my mouth and chew, looking at her. “Uh- Have I come at a bad-?”

“No, you may continue.” Celestia says, looking to the uncomfortable looking stallion.

“Right, er-. We have searched the whole house and nothing illegal has been found in any of the rooms.” Celestia nods, “However: we cannot enter the basement.” I take another piece inside my mouth, but don’t chew at first, as an invisible gleeful smile slowly spreads on my face.

“The basement? Please explain.” I look off into a spot on the carpet.

“There appear to be some strange runes on the door. The mages tried deciphering it, but failed to come up with anything. They tried opening it with various known spells, but the lock wouldn’t budge. We tried both physical and magical means.” My chest and shoulders begin to spazm.

“I see. I know there are troubles with magic, but have you tried scrying it?” Celestia asks in an odd tone.

“We have. Both attempts resulted in failure.” I’m sure I have a grin on my face.

“What about breaking the door down?”

“Physical means, your majesty. Either the door is made out of a very resilient metal, or there is some kind of enchantment on it.” I begin chuckling.

“...You find something amusing in this situation.” My chuckling increases and becomes something close to a laugh as my body spasms even more and I raise my head, pumping my fist.

“Yes~” I chuckle more, ”It works!” I begin to laugh in absolute glee as I set the plate on the table.

Celestia does not look amused when I turn to her, “What works?”

“Heh, heh~ I wrote those runes, it’s a passive construct. Don’t you know the basic rule of physics? ‘F’ equals ‘m,E’.” Or was it 'E' equals 'MC' squared? The guard and queen share a look. As long as they use anything smaller than a basement, they won’t be able to brute force their way in. Or dynamite.

“And what does that mean?” Celestia asks me.

“That means, princess. That the more force you apply to it, the more force it uses to push you back. Basically, negates any force you apply to it. And the reason you cannot unlock the door with magic, is because only ‘I’ can open it.” At the moment. I take off my glasses.

“What are you hiding in there.” Celestia narrows her eyes. The guard actually gulps.

“My stuff.” Her eyes narrow further.

“And that is?~...”

“Let’s see… a weapon which I have no idea what it does, a tool that I do know what it does and... a suit of armour.”

“That’s it?”

“Everything you’d care about. Other than that, nothing much. A set of changeable clothes… a bed. A couple of other tools, which I used to make the thing that did this.” I stick a finger in my socket, making it feel colder. I pull out. “Ooh, that’s weird...” I finally notice the guard trying to look away, so I put on my glasses back on.

“Is the armor also magical?” Celestia asks.

“It has some magical properties, yes. Most of which I don’t know.” The alicorn stays quiet for a moment.

“You will go there and open the door for us so that we may study these objects.”

“Are you mad?” The guard’s eyes widen, “You want me to what? Study? You don’t even know anything about necromancy, how the hell are you going to study it?!”

“We have mages and scholars with more knowledge than you. I am sure they can manage.” I don’t say anything, mulling over her tone which shows that I don’t have much room for argument.

“Fine, but under two conditions.”

“How-” The guard starts.

“Name them.” He looks at Celestia, before shutting up.

“The first is that I can take three items from it-”

“What are the items?”

“‘Thorn’, the helmet and a book.” She lightly tilts her head curiously.

“And the second?”

“You do not bring Sunset or the Sirens into this. In any way.” She just looks at me.

“Very well.” Celestia finally speaks with a nod.

“One last thing.” An eyebrow gets raised, “Don’t you dare get my items lost or broken. If I find out that something like that happened to them, I will not be happy. Am I understood?” She stares at me in silence, before opening her mouth.

“Of course.” I visibly relax and speak tiredly.

“And please… be careful.” The two ponies blink as if surprised at my now tired form.

“Guard, return to the investigating group and call them back for a recorded report.”

“Yes, your majesty.” The guard salutes and marches out of the room, leaving only my slack form, Celestia’s thoughtful face and a relaxing breeze.

“You spoke the truth. Which is why I wish to know more about you. However… I cannot let you stay in the city.”

“What, why?”

“A report came to me today. Supposedly: a pony had their family butchered and eaten alive, while they themselves have been mindontrolled by a weird creature, but then freed. The pony also claimed to have died, but been brought back with a slight side effect of sudden death.” ...RuuuUUUU-!

I purse my lips and smile. I open my mouth a couple of times, but close it with a clack as my teeth connect, “...Well: the mind control and the um… the feast… so to speak, wasn’t me.” I reach into my jacket and pull out a picture… before putting it back inside, “Not fitting while at a table, but trust me: I would not have done that. Ever.”

“I see. And as for the rest?” I chuckle nervously.

“Um, well~... kinda was me. Yes.” Her eyes start narrowing again.” But! I had a good reason at the time. Or at least a, uh… logical course of action.” No one says anything.

“Explain.” A please would have been nice.

“So, um. The pony, I believe hasn’t told the whole story or he was misinterpreted. Basically:-” The doors to the room slam open.

“SISTER!” Holy shit!

In the doorway stood another alicorn. This: a dark blue one with black parts. Blue tail and mane, also moving in the aetherical wind. She was dressed in a different kind of dress. While Celestia’s attire reminded me of a sundress, hers was more close to a coat. Covered shoulders and revealed front of the legs. Her dress had many designs that seemed to have a starry theme going on. It’s not as much as what was sewn onto the dress, as much as what parts of the dress were made of. This Alicorn was around half a head shorter than Celestia, but surprisingly more regal looking. The wings reaching from behind her were made of feathers halfway down, up until they got a leathery membrane like that of a bat. Her eyes were a calm cosmic blue and black. She also had a little tiara on her head.

“Luna, what are you doing here?”

“Sister, that creature is innocent, sir Rusty has approached me and explained everything… After I listened to miss Dazzle.”

“What makes you say he’s innocent?”

“It has done nothing wrong in our eyes, despite breaking a few serious laws.” ...go Luna?

“Luna. I will need an explanation. Now.”

“No time sister! I fear I need the creature come with me this instant. I wish to ask him some questions!” Luna proclaimed.

“Luna-!” Luna doesn’t wait for her sister to finish talking and grabs me by the arm and lurches me off the couch. I instinctively try to grab my plate off the table, but miss.

“You will have to trust me, sister! I promise to tell everything later.” I turn my head back to look at the wide eyed Celestia and give a little wave, as Luna practically drags me out of the room.

The two stationed guards outside the room seem to be seasoned veterans, but I bet even they are shocked under their stone facade. The grey windows to our right probably have the sun shining through them and look really pretty with the imagery on them, but what the hell do I know, when I’m getting dragged past a corner.

A night guard, unicorn mare with light-grey eyes is standing in the next corridor. How do I know it’s a night guard? Them curves~... Also slitted eyes, that helps. Her armour is a bit different from the ones I have seen, having a couple more details and a massive insignia of spark in a sort of bubble with a few lightnings reaching from the spark. The mare raises an eyebrow, but says nothing as ‘we approach’.

“Your highness, I see you have brought… him with you.”

“Indeed I have.” Luna finally lets go of my arm allowing me to grab the spot and shake the hand, “I apologize for the suddenness.”

“Don’t worry the only thing I’m not happy about is having not finished the crumpets… and tried the tea.” I look up at her with a smile, “But it is nice to finally meet you, princess.”

“I believe I can say the same, Vadon. It is really nice to meet you officially.” She smiles.

“Yes, well… you must have dragged me right out of Celestia’s bed-chamber for a reason right?” She nods.

“Yes, I have. Shall we walk and talk?” I agree with her suggestion and we start walking down another corridor, this one the same as almost every other I’ve been to, however this one is not empty and has a few maids cleaning nearby tables and vases, or simply walking by, “You have not used my sisters title. Do you not respect her?”

“Respect her? No, Luna. I do not respect her. But I don’t disrespect her either. Just don’t see much of a point in titles. Occupation name? Sure, but that’s not mandatory to use.” The princess hums as I walk by her right side, while her guard silently walks on the other.

“I see.”

“Yeah, no, you’re definitely sisters.” Luna looks down at me in confusion, before laughing and politely closing her mouth with her hand. “Oh dear, that seems to have rubbed off on me. I suppose I will have to just… see it through.”

“Funny.” She humphs.

“You could at least show more enthusiasm with my jokes.”

“Sorry, princess, not in the mood for jokes.”

“Ah, yes. I have heard you’ve been attacked. Are you alright?” She asks, sounding genuinely concerned.

“Not really. So um… who’s the guard?” I say, leaning to the side.

“Oh, forgive me.” She stops and puts a hand on the mares armoured shoulder and motioning to her with another, “Allow me to introduce one of my captains of the Lunar Guard - Platinum Spark.”

“Hello, Vadon.” I stare at Platinum before slowly moving my head upward.

“Serenade?” I ask, looking at Luna.

She smiles sheepishly off to the side and chuckles very awkwardly, “Serenade is not here today.” She then puts on the same smiling face again. I nod.

“Gotcha.” We start moving again, “Nice to see you again, Platinum.”

“Same here, Vadon.” She replies.

“Thank you for your understanding, but yes. I like the moonlight.” I sigh.

“I want you to tell me how though later.”

“Of course.” We take another turn and walk deep down, “I used an illusion spell I know, it allows the caster to cast an illusion upon themselves or someone else, making them appear as someone else.” Hmm, seems very taxing. “Let us not speak of this again in public. Now, do you mind telling me why you are not alright?” I stop and turn.

Not saying a word I lower my glasses, but close my eyes. I hear them both gasp and open my eyes, making them prolong their gasps and Luna nearly choke as she begins coughing. Like a princess.

“So it is true. You are a necromancer.” She looks down at me, though there’s a notable lack of hostility.

“No, but I do know necromancy.” I say, raising my finger.

“Then what about sir Rusty?” Luna counters.

“About that… I suppose I technically am one, aren’t I? Despite not having used any direct spells.”

“Correct and I am glad you are not against us."

“I don’t think Celestia really believes that unfortunately."

“It is understandable, considering her past experiences with the mages of death. But I have learned it is foolish to stay in the past, you must live in the present and look to the future!”

“Very motivating speech princess, but I’m not the one that needs it.”

“You say you do not care much for titles, and yet…”

“Well… let’s just say it’s a bit like sarcasm.”

“I believe we will get along just nicely.” I chuckle.

“I hope so!” We grin at each other before we start walking again and I put on my glasses, “So, Luna. What is it that you wish to ask me?”

“I suppose my first question will be: where have you come from?” Ah.

“I will answer that when Sunset and the girls are present.”

“Understandable, a long tale?” I hum in response, “Well, in that case: what about what you are?”

“Oh, that’s easy. No idea.” I receive a questioning ‘what’ in response, “Except that biologically I am a human. Doubt you ever heard of one.” My companions slack behind for a bit before catching up, “A mammal, omnivore, magic less…” I grunt and rub my eyes under the glasses, before looking down at my hand.

I finally notice that my hand has cyan nerves within it, glowing and pulsing. Huh, I got the default, have I? Luna breaks me out of my musings.

“Are you alright?”

“Kinda odd seeing your own soul, y’know?”

“Ah, I have never experienced such a thing before. What is it like?”

“Well imagine everything being colourless, except for root like structures within living things of different ‘colours’. I can’t see shadows as everything else is not so much as grey as much as just… colourless.”

“Sounds dready.” Platinum remarks.

“Not really… maybe a bit, but there are pluses. For one: it doesn’t strain my eyes so I don’t have to blink. But I do so sometimes out of reflex.” Luna hums.

“Interesting.”

“More like creepy, your highness.” Platinum remarks.

I look up at Luna, "Speaking of interesting, while most peoples eyes are just bright lights, your ones are literally space and stars." She blinks and I nod. "At least I can beat anyone in a staring contest, amiright?” I say with a grin, Platinum opens her mouth.

“I don’t think anypony would-”

“Oh look, we’re here.” Luna says, making me turn to a big door open halfway with lunar designs and decorative constellations embedded on its dark bark with silver.

“And here is?...” I look out the many windows to our right, trying to catch a glimpse of what is outside.

“My observatory. Sunset and the others should be in there.” Someone walks through the door, making me tilt my head ninety degrees.

“O-Oh, woah!... U-Um hello, your highness. Hello, uh- I presume: you are Vadon?” Says a nerdy looking and sounding unicorn, wearing a sweater and glasses. But the good kind of nerdy.

“You presume correctly and who would you be?” He rubs his goatee out of reflex.

“I-I am Sunburst. A scholar under Queen Celestia’s wing.”

“Sunburst, it is good to see you. Is Sunset in there?” Luna asks with a smile.

“Y-yes, your highness. She is catching up with her friends and um- Rusty.”

“I see, thank you.” He bows, “You don’t have to bow to me, Sunburst. But thank you for it anyway. Why don’t you join us for a bit? I am sure Vadon would be willing to answer some of our questions.” She looks down at me with those blue eyes.

Sunset exits the door, “Hey, Sunburst, have you-” And with taking only a second for her to widen her eyes, runs up to me and hugs me around the torso. Hard.

“Shrunshet!” Her hold on me doesn’t lessen so I awkwardly purse my lips and pat her on the back, hugging the unicorn in return. Her horn is poking me, but not too badly.

“The FUCK is wrong with you!?” She looks up at me with fire in her cyan, crimson eyes.

“Sunset, language please.”

“Sorry, Luna.” Of course the commotion brings out the Dazzlings and Rusty out of the room, making them peek out.

“Hey, what’s the commotion al-!” Aria blinks at me, “Oh hey, Vadon. We haven’t told her much, thinking that you would want to do it.” I smile. You fucking sons of bitches!

“Sunset, mind letting go of me? I’ll need a lot of air for the upcoming QnA session.” She reluctantly lets go and takes a few steps back, looking me over.

“What’s with the shades?” I pull them off. Sunset and The Nerd gasp.

“Wha-wha-what the tartarus happened to you!?” Sunset exclaims trying to get close to me again, but I extend a hand.

“Right. First question: what the hell happened to me? I got attacked without any provocation. The guard apparently thought it’d be cool if they decide to get my head as a bounty for their ruler.” She stammers for a bit.

“I- But what about?...”

“Second question, second answer: necromancy. Pretty cool, huh?”

“He branded runes inside his eyes.” Aria says causing an obvious reaction from four ponies.

“She did not have to know that!”

“Yo-you what?” Sunset… let’s be reasonable here.

“Heh… uh… any other questions?”

“Vadon-!”

“If people can cut my eyeballs in half, then so can I fucking stab myself with a rune at high temperature to see again!” Sunset takes a step back and Sunburst shuffles.

“Should I leave?” He grimaces, probably seeing a sign from Luna to stay.

“Sunset, listen… I did what I could in the situation. Now: it wasn’t the best choice, but wasn’t the best situation either, now was it?”

“I have to agree with him on that one. He did what he could, even tried to not hurt captain Armor too badly.” Adagio says.

“Wait, captain Armor? As in: Twilight’s brother?” Sunburst looks at her incredulously, then at me.

“Twilight has a brother?!” Sunset turns to him in shock.

“Ok, people. Shocking revelations, big deal. We are all finally here and I am willing to ask questions.... Answer questions.” Rusty leans against the big door, with arms folded, but looks away each time my eyes glance at him.

“I wish to go first.” Adagio takes a step forward.

“Feel free.” Luna says, making the Siren nod and look at me.

“Where did you come from?”

“Ah, the question all want to know the answer on.” I look at everyone separately, “Are you sure you can handle the truth?”

“Just spill it out already.” Adagio says a little impatiently. Although her tone is patient.

“...I am not from this world.” Disbelieving, questioning and incredulous stares, all accounted for.

“What?” Sunset, Aria, Adagio, Sun- basically everyone says almost at the same time. The sisters are, again, in perfect sync.

“How do I put this. I never lied to any of you. Remember how I told you I was teleported to Equestria? How I got some of my stuff from a merchant? It’s all true, except I didn’t say that I was transported to this world after I bought the items from the merchant. The guy probably wanted to transport me to another world himself, but… didn’t do it in time. Someone beat him to it, made all my things magical, put knowledge of necromancy into the book and BAM! Dropped me off in the middle of the street in the cold pouring rain.”

“Why does this make so much sense so far?” Adagio asks noone in particular.

“Prob’ because it’s all true? I mean: I come from a world entirely populated with humans, no unicorns or Sirens or pegasi or anything like that living in my previous world. Not openly at least, hell if I know, maybe they’re somewhere underground and some people found them by falling down a hole.”

“So… you’re an alien.” Sunburst asks.

“That about sums it up, yeah.”

“B-but you know about magic.” Sunset notes.

“Yeeees. But that’s only because of fantasy novels and other such things. Humans have no magic, they go down the path of science, although they always try to divide the two and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because magic for them is a miracle and they live in a world where those are rare. Plus never seen it, so they can only guess as to what it is. Anyways: I come from another world. Boom. Sleep on it.”

“That sounds like a plan.” Aria says, looking... well: normal for the situation. Hand to head and all that.

“So why are you here?” Luna asks.

“Vacation.”

I turn around to look at the princess with the wings and Platinum rears back for some reason, “Careful.”

“What?” I ask.

“You nearly hit me with your hand.”

“I have?” I look at it as I begin feeling drunk and unstable on my feet, as I take a step backwards. I snap my fingers and point at the two of them, “I’ve made a deal with the prin-que- Celly. ‘Member: I am a necromancer, I will come back and possess your asses.”

“Sorry, what?” Luna asks, looking at me strangely.

“...” I look down into the floor and purse my lips.

“...?”

“Night.” I begin falling backwards and everything goes black.

“-unable to-”

“What-?” Confused?

“Are you sure he isn’t an agent of-” Same voice?

“-lutely-... -estia, you cannot-!” Loud! Who?!

“-rest, that’s all.” New, old?

“...Get some-” Estia, that you?

“-e could be a-...-us all. He’s a new-”

“Yes, which is exactly what we-” Luna?

“Shh, let’s go...” Luna, you so nice.

Hello again, memories, how are you? The void me glistens and lights up with what I’ve feel and think. Perhaps a little tweak is required? I seem the most stable during the age of sixteen and maybe that’s the best choice, considering the situation I’m in… yeah… a mix of now and a base of sixteen, sounds perfect.

This world… it’s so different. Too different, I’m not even sure if Luna has been banished or if the Helements of Armony are a thing… Twilight appears to be mildly insane, Celestia is a queen, everyone walks on two legs… what next? And that’s not everything, is it?!.. Maybe… I should delete my memories of the show? Give me a richer experience?.. Can I even do that?.. I could simply repress it far enough… then I would still be able to remember everything if I wanted to… There is calm in the void. I just won’t think about it. The show, all the fan fictions, everything. Maybe about a few, that I’d like to take advice from. Maybe.

What about my-... oh. Well that’s interesting. Health readings show stable… heartbeat - slow. I seem to have been taken care of? How strange. Also, what the hell were those three talking about? Well obviously me, but… I guess I just have to wake up and find out, don’t I?

I slowly open my eyes, yet still darkness greets me. Huh. What, why-? Oh right. I concentrate on the feeling of pushing out into my eye socket, my face twitching and grimacing with every attempt, before I find the way and vision greets me again. Gotta ignite them. Feeling slowly returns to my body as I shuffle around on some kind of bed. I take a deep breath to et my blood rushing and an odd smell enters my nose. Or rather lack of one.

I slowly lift myself up on the hospital bed and look around, my head still swimming a bit. I get to edge of the bed and step onto the cold floor, grimacing lightly from the change in temperature. I appear to be in some kind of medical ward, probably still in the castle, if the clouds outside the open window are that low.

Instead of my usual clothes, I am dressed in a gown for probably obvious reasons. The ward looks like your typical ward, a cold-ass tiled floor, some beds against a wall, all of which are empty with kempt covers except for the one I crawled out of, a few desks with medicine and medical stuff on them. Truly a room of horror. I find my clothes on a nearby chair. The glasses and the dagger lie on the folded clothes as well, surprisingly. The dagger… with the black hilt.

I walk up to the thing to inspect it close. I pull out the blade out of the sheath, revealing more pure blackness. I hear hooves stop on the floor and a gasp, which breaks me out of my contemplations. A pony in a nurse’s outfit stands frozen by the open door.

“Hello.” I say to the awkwardly staring unicorn mare.

“G-good morning. Y-you’re finally awake?”

“It appears so. And you would be?~” I ask, placing down the dagger and picking up my socks.

“I-I am Care Taker. I’m a castle nurse.” Really?!

“How long was I asleep for?”

“A-around sixteen hours.” My eyebrows rise.

“So it’s about~...”

“It is eight in the morning.” The nurse confirms with a nod.

“So how come I’m not dead from starvation?”

“T-that would be because I have fed you with mushed food while you were unconscious. You really should begin eating properly, if what miss Shimmer told me is true.” Yeah, yeah. I start pulling off the gown. “Wh-what are you doing!?... You’re naked!” She covers her eyes with both hands.

“I’m changing, I thought that was obvious? Besides: haven’t you already seen me naked?”

“B- th- you were unconscious!” So? Some nurse you are. “At least turn around!” I roll my eyes.

“Fine.” I drop my gown on the nearby desk and turn around.

“You don’t have a cutie mark.”

“And you are staring at my ass.” She stammers for a moment before falling quiet, “Hm. Maybe I should stretch a bit first.”

“Please don’t... Oh my goodness.” I start stretching, my hips and tailbone releasing a couple cracks.

I do a few stretches, the room submerged in complete silence, except for the occasional pleasant pop of joints. I make sure to get my whole torso twisting and moving for a solid two or three minutes.

“Ahhh~” I breathe shakily standing back up with a small smile, “So good.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?” The nurse finally speaks.

“The first time it might, but not after that. It feels really good actually, almost euphoric.” I put on my pants and turn around, “So what do you think?”

“You are incredibly flexible.”

“Don’t let anyone take that out of context.” I say with a grin.

“I do not think that will be a problem.” The really shy nurse notes, making me ‘heh’.

“Anything I should know about?” I ask while putting on my shirt and jeans.

“We have run a few tests on you while you were unconscious. To get the basic information.” She adds at my questioning gaze, “Queen Celestia also helped heal your face.”

“Oh, has she now.” I throw my jacket on, buttoning it.

“Yes, Princess Luna has convinced her majesty to do it.” I strap on the dagger, throw on the amulet and grab my glasses, before walking up to the nurse, “We have also taken some samples from you.” I slowly look down at her.

“Samples.” Care nervously bites her lip.

“Y-yes. Some tissue, a bit of blood and other secretions.” I keep looking at her, “We needed it for her majesty to heal you!”

“I see.”

“Queen Celestia also wished for me to notify her when you wake.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do that myself.” “But-” “Where is she now?” The nurse looks around.

“She should be in the dining hall, having breakfast. But-!”

“But don’t you worry your little head about it.” I tussle her hair, glad to see someone shorter than me even if by a bit, “Thank you for looking after me.” I walk to the door, “Take care, Care Taker!” I step out into the corridor and look at the two guards, making their stone masks fall apart nearly then and there, “You wouldn’t happen to know where the dining hall of her majesty is?”

“We do, sir. Would you like us to lead you there?” One of them asks.

“That would be very nice, thank you.”

They lead me through a few similar corridors with even more maids, that do lose their shit over at my sight. Of course one of the guards asks me if there is any possible way I could cover my eyes, to which I reply by putting my glasses in my front pocket and saying:

“No.”

They drop any other conversation after that. Since everything in the caste seem to be fit for its rulers (which makes sense) the massive doors don’t appear as big. Oh, who am I kidding, they are still very fucking huge. The guards stationed there greet me with silence until I approach them.

“Business?” They ask.

“Breakfast.”

I push open the double doors with surprising ease, probably because I’m sup- Oh wait, no, the guards are helping. Within the huge room is a long table plasted right in the middle with at least twenty chairs around it. One of them has Celestia on it, calmly sitting with her arms folded on the table. A long set of decorative windows is to my left. Really, it’s just a glass wall at that point.

“Ah, good morning.”

“Good morning?” I ask, stepping inside. “What do you mean by good morning? Do you wish me a good morning, or is it simply a good morning whether I like it or not? Or, perhaps, you feel good on this particular morning, or that this is a morning to be good on?” Thanks magical helm powers.

“I… I suppose everything.” I simply walk over to the chair on the opposite of her, which happens to be the closest to the entrance, and take a seat.

“Well hello, Celestia. How are you doing today?” I ask, assimilating a pose.

“I am quite well, thank you. And you?”

“Terrific.” A few minutes of silence pass.

“Luna will be joining us shortly, as well as a few others.”

“Oh, that’s nice.” Some service ponies walk inside and set down platters with various silverware and food straight away. It is crumpets and tea for both of us.

“You won’t touch the food?”

“I’ll wait for the others.”

“The tea will get cold.” I don’t reply, “I have a few questions, mainly: what brought you here?”

“The thought of having a discussion with you early in the morning.” She chuckles.

“I meant to this world. To Equestria. To Terra.” I notice that it’s only the two of us within the room.

“Well… I actually have no idea. I was just grabbed and literally thrown through the space of spaces at close to light speed.” She tilts her head curiously.

“No idea at all?”

“Probably some kind of powerful being or something. Might have been an accident for all I know.” She hums and takes a sip of her tea.

Shining Armor phases out of inexistence through a side door, bowing, “Good morning, your highness.”

“Good morning? What do you mean by-” And she goes off to play the same trick I did on her, leaving him greatly confused. His answer made me laugh.

“What’s the right answer?” Celestia seemed to find that very amusing as well as she chuckles, “Oh… well I suppose it’s no longer a good morning, is it?”

“Why ever not, captain?” Luna asks walking up from behind him.

“Because, your highness, my morning was much better before I have seen… Vadon.” I raise an eyebrow, “Nothing personal.” Now that made me look at him like he’s an idiot.

“Nothing personal? Nothing personal?”

“Vadon…” Celestia says in a warning tone, as Luna takes a seat beside her.

“Captain.” I say with the most poisonous smile I can manage, my tone calm, but words fast, “Why don’t you take a seat, so we can talk? Catch up on things.” He stays on the same spot.

“You may take a seat, captain.” He sits closer to me, but keeps his distance.

“Nothing personal you say?..” I tap my temples, “Then what about this? Thank you for fixing my face by the way.” I say, glancing between the two rulers, earning a ‘you’re welcome’ from Celestia.

“I… I am sorry for that. But I was under orders-”

“Oh, so if you’re under orders, all is fine and forgiven, is it?~” A grin flashes across my face for less than a second, “So if you were ordered to kill every living thing in the radius of infinity, then all is fine, because you were under orders? They are still your actions. And you are not under mind-control.”

“What was I supposed to do! I couldn’t have-”

“You could have not aimed at my eyes! You could have literally cut off anything lower than that and I might have been slightly annoyed with you, but noooo~ You had to go for the eyes.”

“I could have, but… I...”

“Captain?” Luna asks, warily.

“I panicked, alright?!” He throws his arms in the air, “I got scared, I panicked, you scared me!” He breathes heavily, before slow taking deep breaths, “Your sudden change in movement terrified me... you suddenly became… savage."

I stay quiet for a moment, before chuckling, "Savage, I like that. I fits." He simply nods, talking to me with steeled look.

"I have never sparred with anypony that moves anything like that. It was as if every part of you moved... separately.”

“Probably because I’m not a pony?”

“Yeah. And combined with those eyes, I thought you would have killed me.”

“Oh, I would have, but I’d bring you back.”

“Y-yes. I have been… informed about the incident of Rusty. It is very unfortunate what has happened to him. I think I actually remember him once being in my platoon... I met him, he's a good colt.” I sigh, thinking over this.

“I understand why you did it… I still hate you though.”

“I apologized, what else do you want me to-”

“I want you to give me my eyes back.” I stare aimlessly into my ‘empty’ teacup. Not like that’d ever happen. “I can't see colour. I can’t even see my reflection. I can’t even see the tea!” I raise the cup in the air. Luna perks up at that.

“I can actually help with that.” I look up at her from my plate. “I can try to find the spell for healing your wounds, but I need time. We have already preserved your eyes, so I will know what to regenerate.”

“I’m not sure I’d be able to afford that.”

“Nonsense. This is much as my fault as my sister’s. If I had told her about you earlier, this could have been avoided. But… I wished to give her a little surprise.” I look at Luna, my mouth - a flat line.

“I’d appreciate that, thank you.” I take a sip of my tea and my eyes instantly widen from the taste and smell, “Mmm! This is earl grey!”

“Earl grey?” Celestia asks.

“This tea’s name, we have this one back in my world.”

“I see. I still prefer the neighponese cherry however.” Neihgpo-... What? Next a capital of Singapone?

“To each their own.” I take a big sip, “Captain, I am curious. How come I didn’t bleed from the wounds?” Celestia opens her mouth to say something, but Shining interupts her, not being able to see her.

“Ah, that would be because of the enchantment on my sword. The sword you cut clean through.” I chuckle.

“Ah, yes. I suppose we’re equal then.” Like hell we are.

“We have taken a look at your dagger. We couldn’t recognize any of the runes, it’s as if it is some kind of new type of magic.” I look at the solar, probably diarch, with raised eyebrows.

“It’s… necromancy. It basically stores a soul.”

“Necromancy with runes is unheard of, which is why I took a particular interest in you, Vadon.” Luna says, making me flash a nervous smile.

“I see. And what is this dagger made of? It must be something strong and durable.”

“It’s probably some kind of metal.” I furrow my brows, ”I think. No wait, it feels like metal to the touch, but doesn’t make the same noise during collision…” She nods.

“That is what concerns us. That dagger is made of dragon bone.” My eyes widen. Ohhh, yeah!~ My armour does look draconic. Huh, didn’t realize that until now. “It is probably either a tooth or a claw.” I nod.

“But that is not what concerns us.” Luna says, “We have never seen such bones, except for once. A very long time ago, there was a dragon, blacker than darkness itself. We have met this dragon… I say met, we have only observed it from far distance. Death followed it wherever its wings took it. So our question is, how did you come into possession of such an item?”

“...When I was transported here, I told you that all my items gained magical quality. I personally think they're entirely new items that look similar to what I had before. So wherever it came from, I don’t think it was obtained from that dragon. However: anything’s possible.” I take a bite of my crumpet as the other three at the table exchange a look.

“And you are not worried about this?” Luna asks me.

“Well… not really. But what is there to be worried about? That this dragon comes after me, searching for his little teeth and scales?”

“Scales?” Celestia asks almost alarmed.

“Or rather chitin. The armour. I believe it is also made from a dragon.” They just sit there in stunned silence as I chew more of the delicious breakfast.

“I-” The doors behind me groan as I hear hooves across the marble floor.

I look behind my chairs’ back, “Ah, hello girls and guy, how’s it going?”

“Morning, Vadon! Good morning your majesties.” The three Sirens and Rusty follow suit after Sunset, as they approach the table.

“You wished to see us?” Celestia, being nearly done with her breakfast, quickly and elegantly finishes her last pieces and sets down her silverware, before responding.

“Yes. After much discussion with my sister last night and our recent talk with Vadon, we have come to a decision.” She cleans her mouth with a napkin, “I believe it would be best that Vadon leaves the city.” Sunset didn’t seem to particularly agree with that.

“What!? Your highness!-” Luna raises a hand, shutting up the Unicorn.

“It has also been decided, that Vadon will report to my sister on any findings he makes in this new magic and what applications to it he finds.” Luna decides to take up the stage.

“Indeed. Vadon, you will be sent to a nearby rural town. You will not be sent alone, as I have prepared a guard of mine, who will report to me every week on all your major actions and interactions with the residents of said town. We would allow you to stay here, however we do not trust you entirely.” By ‘we’ you mean Celestia, right?

“So instead you are sending me to some kind of town who knows where to study things for you and get stalked every moment of my life.”

“It is not like that at all.” Celestia replies.

“You will be compensated for your efforts of course. And there is more to it than that.” Luna says, trying to keep up the image of Celestia in my eyes. Too bad, she’s failing, “I also wish to discuss something before your departure.”

“Alright, no problem. So, Celestia, should we head out now?” Of course Shining looks at me incredulously, but to his immense surprise, Celestia answers me in a non-frustrated manner.

“Yes, that would be best. I will allow you to spend half an hour with your friends. After that you will have to leave the residence.”

“Sounds good to me.” We both stand up from our chairs.

“Captain, will you accompany us?” He stands up and salutes, putting on his helmet that was buckled at his side.

“With pleasure, your majesty.”

We exit the dining hall and walk down a lot of corridors and stairs, before finally reaching the familiar tall room. All the while, Celestia talks with either Sunset on how she is doing lately, or with the one known as Rusty the dumb Fucker about his past couple of days, before finally switching onto the sisters. Rusty the dumb Fucker eventually approaches me and we walk in silence on the streets.

“I am sorry.” I crack the joints in my arms, looking forward the whole time.

“I want to talk to you about something later.” He nods.

“Alright.”

We leave it at that, but Shining sends suspicious stares at me.

“Rusty, do you know what this means?” I show him a gesture, hiding it from Armor’s sight.

“N-no. I have never seen that, what does it mean?” Perfect.

I show the same gesture to Shining for a few good solid seconds, before dropping my hand, as we begin walking down the familiar ramp to our house. Our house. Heh… funny. Sunset opens the door for us and welcomes us inside. I take off my glasses and lead Celestia and her little pony to the basement, opening the door with the mark of my soul. Or DNA, whichever. Shining looks impressed, so does Celestia, her face falls slightly when she notices my armour.

“So!” I clap my hands, “This is the infamous armor.” I walk to pick up the helmet, “As per our agreement, I will take the three items and you may keep the rest.” The helmet looks pure black, but I can see all of the runes glowing softly on it. Or more accurately: in it.

“May I see the book first?” I raise an eyebrow and stand aside, making a ‘here you go’ gesture.

She walks over to my table and I realize how uncomfortable she must be, bending her back all the time, so her horn doesn’t scrape against the ceiling. Though it seems, she doesn’t have to do it much as the room is plenty tall for her.

She looks at the book, her face turns to another a cold mask, but I can see the very slightest hint of disdain. She goes to touch it, but the captain intervenes.

“Your majesty, are you certain this is a good idea? We do not know if this might be a trap.”

“I believe that if Vadon wished to kill me, he would have done so already.” The captain flinches at the word ‘kill’ but nods anyway.

“She’s right, but I’m just too lazy for that.” I say leaning against the metal slab, a fist under my cheek.

The diarch under question steals a glance towards me, before finally touching the book and running her fingers across it. I could see her wings shiver, before she picks up the book and tries to open it. She fails. She furrows her brow and doubles her efforts, before trying to use her magic on it as a symbols dance across the invisible formless bubble around the book in seemingly no particular order. She fails again.

“Allow me.” I reach a hand and she gives me the book, but not before glancing between it and my palm.

The book instantly ignites at the contact with me and she let’s go, taking a step back, sending some of my schematics on the wall flying as Shining pulls out a brand new sword, though this one without a glow. I grin.

“This,” I open the book, “is what allowed me to do a-ll this!” I spread my arms, motioning to all the runes, “Also this.” I put the book down and pick the second one up, “You can have this one.”

“Runic Magic and its Uses by Clover the Clever?” Celestia raises one mighty brow at the title of the book in her hand.

“Yup. But you can’t really have that, because that’s Sunsets.”

“I see.” She puts the book down and looks around the room, before she spots one of my tools, “And this is?”

“My welding torch. It melts metal together by using high temperature. I can give you the designs if you wish.” It doesn’t use flames, but instead high temperature at the contact, there are, however, a few tricks to it.

“Please do. If it is ever used, I will pay you accordingly to its requirement.”

“Have you never had anything like this before?” I ask in genuine bewilderment.

“We had no need for such objects. It appears you have made a substitute for a non-unicorn to make a few jobs that much easier.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how well that’s going to work on armour or swords, but you can give it a try.” Her neck snaps toward me.

“I do not-”

“Oh, please. First and foremost: you are a ruler of a nation, that has just discovered someone capable of doing all this.. on their own… and you feel behind the times.” She says nothing, so I continue, “You see me as a threat, first and foremost. Your sister sees me as an ally. I can tell that you are not sure which I am.” She keeps listening to me, “Celestia… I come from a world, where an entire nation could be destroyed in less than a second.” Her eyes widen at that, “So please understand… I won’t share all my knowledge with you. I don’t wish you that kind of harm.” Even though I don’t know how most of it works, but I can still make a substitute eventually.

“That is fair.”

“Of course, I can share the pretty and harmless things with you and the tools to make them.” She stays silent.

“I will… think about that.” She looks back over to the table, “That is Thorn, correct? You may keep the tool and take the second dagger with you.” Oh, honey. Thorn isn’t the tool, the dagger is! “We have scanned it and see absolutely no use for it.” Really now? Alright.

“Learn to read between the lines, princess.”

“What do you mean?” She asks, only to receive no reply.

I separate ‘her’ stuff from my stuff on the table and she teleports everything to nowhere.

“How come you put almost zero effort in doing that?”

“Hm. I suppose it’s because I am quite literally imbued with magic.” She winks at me with that solar eye.

“Please don’t do that, you don’t realize how creepy you already look to me. Cool, but creepy.”

“Oh?” She chuckles.

“Your eyes literally remind me of a swirling magma inside a volcano.” Shining looks between me and her, probably because she looks nothing like that at all.

“So how do you see-”

“Ask Luna.”

She finally leaves me alone in the basement with all the schematics, saying that I have the mind of a madman, because she can’t make any sense of them. What? She expected me to keep only the working designs?

Sunset comes down first, for a soppy goodbye with a hug, as I remind her that we might see each other again and that this is not a death sentence… Is it? She punches me in the arm for that, grumbling that I joke just like Luna. I laugh a bit, telling her to send Rusty first.

“What’s up?”

“Rusty, I have a favour of you to ask.”

“What is it?”

“Could you… I dunno, start training again? I kicked your ass that night.” Slowly does it.

“What? I thought you were going to be angry at me!”

“Oh yeah.” I nick him in the shoulder, “Why the fuck did you tell them that?”

“So I came in for a normal debriefing. And… well they brought me to none other than her majesty herself once I told them I was brainwashed. She cast a truth spell on me and through a couple of questions managed to pull out of me that I had died and found out about you.” Pathetic… I managed to withstand such a spell!… Unless it was a proper truth spell. Now that’s a scary thought, wonder how it’d work?

“So.. you couldn’t lie?” He shakes his head.

“No, I did it when she was checking if it was working or not and it told her I was lying. She requested I told only the truth from that point.” ...Fuck my life. Waitaminute. Is that what she cast on me in her room!?

“Right, gotcha. Well that’s all I wanted to say to you, send the trio in.”

“Wha- really?”

“...Good luck, man. Stay near trouble.” He flaps his mouth a couple of times, before agreeing with a sigh that that is a good advice and leaves the room.

“Hey, Vadon.” I give little wave, before putting the hand back in my pocket, “Why do we have to say goodbye to you in our basement?” Aria asks.

“Close the door.” When I hear the click, I instantly rush under my bed and pull out the two giant metal tetradecagons. Or a fourteen sided ring, for those who haven’t finished school.

“What are those?” Adagio asks as I carry them across the floor to the middle.

I grab my toolkit and begin inscribing runes like mad, “Adagio, you see that little complicated looking rune at the top right corner of the door? One of the five?”

“Uhhh… Yeah?”

“Cut your finger and press the wound against it. Not the middle one.”

“What, why!?”

“It’ll give you access to the basement, now don’t interrupt me I’m working here.” She tries to grab the dagger off the table, “No, don’t use that! Make a papercut or something, Jesus Fucking Christ.” I shake my head and concentrate back on the final piece of this whole room. The whole point of it.

I finish the first ring in about seven minutes and get to work on the second one. The girls already have left all their marks on the door. I tell them to use the separate runes, because otherwise their DNA would mix and the door wouldn’t work for them. Finally finishing my rings I sigh in content and pour blue dust over them, making the runes glow, before dimming and then begin welding one ‘circle’ onto the floor. With some help, I pull the bed over the one on the floor and, again, with some help I start to melt it into the ceiling while Aria and Adagio hold it for me from the other side.

“Whew.” I collapse on the bed, “Let’s get this back in the corner.”

One clean up later, I begin tearing off all the papers off the wall. I grab a cardboard box to put all of my stuff inside, that I would be bringing with me and hide all of my ‘evil’ stuff under the spare clothes. Sonata gives me her shampoo as a gift. I do not decline.

“Adagio, I have a request for you.” Aria and Sonata left to the top, probably to chat with Sunset.

“What is it?”

“I need you, in exactly a week, to put an apple, a cloth, something metal and a living fish in that circle.”

“...I’m going to have to ask why...”

“Jus-just do it. Trust me. You’ll understand later.”

“I mean alright. I will do that. But… I’m not sure how I feel about that.”

“Yeah, well… how do you think I feel about this whole situation?” Nothing but tiredness and annoyance actually. But at the same time relief.

“Yeah.”

We stand in silence for a moment, before I give her a hug.

“Whoa, what’s up with you?”

“I’m gonna miss your hair.” She chuckles. I let go and look at her, “Remember: exactly a week. See ya!”

I grab my box and head upstairs. Everyone is waiting for me and Celestia is drinking some tea, while sitting in a chair, with Shining by her side.

“What is that?” She asks curiously.

“All the stuff I’m bringing with me. My money, my clothes, what? You thought I was a hobo with a single set of clothes?”

“What’s a ‘hobo’?” Ohhh. I hand her the spread out design to the welder.

“Lucky you. Welp, goodbye everyone. Stay safe. And Celestia… don’t focus on me too much. Make sure to get the real monster as well, ey?” I step out of the house as everyone waves to me and says their goodbyes.

On the street outside is Luna with a pegasus chariot. Near her are also a bat pony in armour and a unicorn in armour. The bat girl looks like a double edged sword. She looks cute, but she’s in the guard after all… Not that that says much. Behind her are two generic looking Lunar Guard motherfuckers.

“Hello again, Vadon. Excited to leave?”

“Oh yeah, definitely, totally, absolutely.” The bat whispers something to Platinum that sounds like ‘he looks cool’. But was probably meant as an insult, hell if I know.

“I am glad, that you are!” Careful now, Luna~ That was almost royal canterlot there. “On a more serious note, I have a proposal for you.”

“Really? I thought it worked the other way.” She smirks and looks down at me. Dammit, she expected it.

“In Equestria: both ways are allowed. But that is not what I am proposing. What do you think about becoming my student?” I stare at her. I stare at her good.

“And what the fuck would I do? I got no magic, princess. I can’t magic! What am I gonna do?”

“Ah, but I can teach you many other things.”

“Not interested in politics, sorry.” She laughs softly.

“That is not what I meant. I could teach you strategy, Vadon. I can see where you lack in magic, you have in potential. I can see it in your soul.” I raise a brow, “You are a warrior by nature. You are not afraid of violence, yet try to avoid death when unnecessary.”

“What a way to call me lazy.”

“I know what you are trying to do, but think about it.”

“...How would you even teach me? I’ll be literally kilometers away from you.”

“Kilometers is a measurement of distance, I presume? That won’t be a problem. If you allow me into your mind, I can teach you while you dream.”

“Princess… I didn’t lie when I said I couldn’t dream. I literally cannot.”

“Do you know why that is?”

“I do, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Alright. Then I have a second plan. Platinum and her lieutenant, Silver Shade will teach you combat instead.”

“...I mean, I am not complaining, but why would I need that exactly?”

“Because: the world is a dangerous place. And I will offer you opportunities to go out into it.” Sounds interesting~

“I assume, payment is a thing?” I obviously ask.

“It is.” The princess replies with a small smile.

“Fair enough, I accept.”

“Splendid! Now, I wish you a safe ride. I suggest getting along with the Ponies there. Last time I’ve been there, they were… a bit skittish. But they warm up to you.”

“Beautiful.”

“Indeed. Well I will not hold you off for any longer, may we see each other again!” I smirk and nod before getting in the carriage, "Oh, I do have one more question." I raise a brow as she walks closer, "Yesterday, before passing out, I believe I remember you saying you were going to..." I nod, having to slightly look up at her.

"Possess your asses." She gives a nod herself.

"What exactly did you expect us to do?" The Alicorn tilts her head a bit, her spacey eyes roaming around me for a second.

"...Anything that would result in me having to posses your asses." I state and a short silence falls over us.

"We do not see any profit in doing so. Especially if it results in thou 'possessing our asses'." She makes something between a laugh and a chuckle. Was that the royal we, or...? "May the fortune be favorable with you, Vadon." She says with a smile.

I nod and smile back, "Same for you, Luna." She nods and walks off to her guards, talking to them about something.

I set the box between my feet and take a seat on one of the side benches. Platinum and the bat get inside as well, closing the doors and sitting opposite of me.

“Hi, I’m Shade! A guard under princess Luna.”

“I’m Vadon. A prisoner and torture bag under you.” They exchange looks, but Shade giggles.

“Yeah, I can see him getting along with the princess.” I notice the Solar Pegasus guard who is our pilot flickers his ears towards us a little before straightening out again. Naughty, naughty.

I see Celestia exiting the house and share one last look with me as our pegasus takes off, following our ride for a bit with her eyes, before walking off with her big entourage, probably back to the castle with my stuff. I turn back to those in the carriage with me and try to find any differences in the armours of Shade and Platinum, but lose interest after a while, simply chalking it up to ‘captains have cooler armour’.

As for physical appearance, not much can be described about a Thestral. Pointy fangs, the small tips of which show from the upper lip at times and poke at the lower one. Another detail I notice about them now that I am taking a good look at one is when Shade takes off her pointy gauntlet. Thestrals, unlike ponies, have nails, which I am surprised I hadn't noticed until now. Although they are more like claws on a dog's or cat's paw, but smaller and wider. ...Luna had more human-like nails actually, I wonder if she paints them?

"I'm going to try to take a nap." Take a little stroll through my conscious subconsciousness.

Platinum lifts a brow at me as wind starts to blow slightly in my ears, "Like this!?" I give a nod and cut everything out, closing my eyes under the glasses.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Platinum Spark

My eyes are locked on the strange thin figure of Vadon, as I take a better look at his suddenly calm visage. He always looks so hectic when he walk or talks, or does anything really now that I think about it. His pale complextion suddenly looks so peaceful. I do a double take as my lieutenant pokes him of all things right in his chest. She even slipped her tongue out to the side and scrunched her muzzle for Luna's sake.

"...Leutenant, what are you doing?" I look at her, incredulous.

She gives me this innocent look as if it should be obvious, "I'm checking if he actually went to sleep, of course." She giggles a little and leans back into our seat, "It seems he is." Lietenant turns her head to me, staring right into my eyes with a pout, "And that's another time I have to remind you to call me Shade. We agreed, didn't we, captain?" I simply sigh with a roll of my eyes.

"...Yes, Shade. He does seem asleep." I give Vadon another glance and blink in confusion and worry as I narrowed my eyes a little to make sure that what I was seeing was what I was seeing.

It's not every day you get to see a being from another world cry in the middle of the sky. And yet there it is. A single tear slowly flowing down from behind one of the glasses. I reach a hand for my lieutenant and she notices what I had and by this point: another tear is falling. I get even more confused as I see Vadon's lips twitching up into the faintest of smiles.

I turn to my captain again as she opens her mouth silently and rears her head back and brings it forward with a nod. I tilt my head in confusion and he smiles at me, though her smile is different from her usual bright self. It holds her kindness, but there is a lack of the foolish playfulness.

"I believe. He might be dreaming." I look at her in confusion.

"But... that cannot be, unless what was told by him was a lie?" She turns to him thoughtfully, her amber eyes flickering up and down slowly before focusing on me as she lifts her ash blue finger to her lips, signifying I was a little too loud.

"Perhaps he is simply remembering. His world for example? Or the friends he left behind in Canterlot?" I glance back at him, wondering myself as more tears slowly flow, flying off at a point and drying his face in cold as we fly through the mostly clear skies.

"...So, lieu-Shade. What do we know about Ponyville again?" The pony I addressed gives me a bright grin and parts her lips, taking a short breath.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vadon

I move my cold lips around, scrunching my face slightly as I come out of memory lane and yawn, opening my eyes and looking at all three guard. The bat smiles cheerfully and asks if I slept well, in response to which I hum in a way that tells her it could have been better. I notice an odd look from Platinum Spark, but ignore it with a shrug, asking how they have been. Just talking about our destination and the living arrangements there, apparently. Which is Ponyville, unsurprisingly for some reason.

Seeing as we only made it about half way, I turn on some music in my head and enjoy a bit of everything, letting my thoughts drift to places such as: 'what the fuck now?'. We fly for about another half an hour, before finally descending to the ground.

Finally, going to get some much awaited sleep. Going to relax and lay back, enjoy my time here.

The ride lowers itself to hover above the green grass of a field right next to town. We smoothly land on a simple dirt path as I see the massive forest to our right - the dark foreboding Everfree, which doesn’t really look all that scary I tell you. Just a bunch of deformed weeping willows. I take a deep breath, the fresh air burning my nose. I’ve been on nature before, but this is nothing like it. No pollution at all. Kinda hurts actually. I open my eyes with a smile and look to our destination.

My hand clenches so hard, it nearly bends the side bars of our chariot. Fuck my life and everything in it. From over here I can see Ponyville.

With a red misty dome over it.

Author's Note

{This Chapter has been edited in a way that adds more scenes. Please enjoy the read}
Wohoo!

Apologies for any mistakes, been editing late at night. Apparenty: the functions [italics] and [bold] do not translate from google docs to fimfiction by simply marking them as such.

In any case: progress! If you have any questions and feel like there are plotholes, then I shall dash these thoughts away with my logic *undecipherable*.

I fixed a few of the earlier chapters, mainly the spacing problem. I know, I made them too big.

I don't have much to say honestly. G'night.

Order or Chaos, out.

Ch. 11: Red as Blood with Tricky Troubles

Chapter eleven: Red as Blood with Tricky Troubles.

My brow furrows.

It just furrows as we approach the transparent dome closer and closer. I can see buildings within the strange, misty construct, though they have a red tint to them and are, for a lack of a better word, foggy and mirage-esque. The primary tint of the dome is close to scarlet and appears to be magical in nature, since I can see it, but it ain’t no magic I’ve seen so far. I am unable to see any rune anywhere on it. It is like pure will, no knowledge of the science was required to create this… that.

I look over to the guards in the chariot’s seats, moving my lips to the side as I check for their reaction to the construct. Nothing.

We bounce a little as we run over some loose rocks in the dirt path. I keep staring at the dome and as I am about to warn the others about the abomination, nearly leaping out of the vehicle, redness washes over us and I sit back down.

This is the moment the fun began.

I sit with a calm expression on my face, staring towards our movement. We seem to take a turn or something if the sudden shift of the world around me indicates anything. The world moves around me and something moves with me, as I look around, looking but not really seeing much. Everything is so nice and close, all the colours, so much warm red.

A few washed out silhouettes dance here and there. Something happens, did we take a turn? The world keeps moving slightly left or right as I shift through it with my companions. Wait… do I have compatriots? I don’t look to check as we take another turn.

My mind flickers and buzzes as the silhouettes of buildings and moving figures become more pronounced, taking form. Aww… who-... mmm… Some clouds are colourful, some are slowly moving around, or simply standing still, almost watching. My mind buzzes.

My eyes narrow in annoyance… pain? My eyes narrow in pain, as I feel a headache coming on. The figure I am... looking at... twitches… orange approaches me and follows our group, as I stare at it happily with a smile, slightly tired. Why would I be tired? The silhouette turns into odd shapes as I stare at it, unblinking.

Another tur-

A solid smack reaches my ears, as my head lurches to the side and my torso bends in half as I hear something clatter against metal together with a heavy thud. I hold hands up to my eyes. Hands. I have hands. I look at the nerves in them, tinted lightly with red as every detail becomes less blurry. I pick up my sunglasses that lie next to the box with my belongings on the carriage floor, putting them on.

I blink up at the form of an orange mare who is dressed in jeans, a simple work shirt and straps, complete together with what was probably a cloth hat. She seems ready to shout at me, “Hey! Can ya hear me!?” She raises her hand again as I don’t respond immediately.

I slowly put a hand up to my stinging cheek, groaning, “What the hell is this? What the hell was that dome?…”

“You were able ta see it?” The mare asks me with an accent I rarely hear but recognize very well.

“Yeah.” I say, groaning once more and looking to my escorts, seeing them gazing blankly into a direction with tiny smiles on their faces. ...Oh...Oh hell no.

“How? Why’d you go in then?” I look back to her and wiggle my brows.

“I have special eyes.” She looks at me with an impressively raised eyebrow, seemingly disbelieving my claim, “And reasons.” Such as being a slow, overthinking idiot as per usual. “Now, what is going on?”

“Evil magic, is what’s goin’ on. I’m glad I was able ta snap ya out of it.” More ponies of various races but mostly of earth and pegasus division stand around the street, eyeing us in either fear, sadness, distrust or… hope? I can only guess that’s hope, “The dome, it’s a vile thing I tell ya. It has made it impossible to enter the town and leave without some… unpleasant consequences. Of course… it also saved many Pony lives but… well, doesn’t make it less evil, in mah opinion’.” Awh, don’t bully the little evil dome. It’s just an evil little dome.

“What does it do?” I attempt standing up, but the mare pushes me down with one hand.

“Stay put.” She hisses, “That witch has eyes almost everywhere… I’ll make it short. Before the storm, a Pony arrived. A simple mare, nothing too odd about her. She did a few shows, but they were nothing more than tricks-” I cut her off.

“Yadda-yadda, that’s not short, where are we headed?”

“I-” She looks down the fork in the road, one of them leads deeper into town, while the other directly into the forest, “Oh shoot! Listen, we don’t have much time. Your driver will try to get ya to our town hall. To Trixie.” ...Ah, fuck. “Quick, you have to do somethin’, or yer friends will not be in a good place.”

“If I can’t get out, what the hell do I do?”

“Well, yer the first one to break out of the spell and it looks like Trixie hasn’t noticed yet, you must have some pretty powerful magic in that case. Use it.” She encourages. I don’t feel very encouraged.

Powerful magic? What is she-Ohhh… I think as my hand lifts to my chest. The amulet came through. I narrow my eyes and notice a tint to everything. Barely. “Uh- yeah, hate to break it to ya, but I think we might need another plan, any ideas?” I look to her as we take a final turn and it’s just a straight line until we’re out of the borders and right into what might be a main road, considering the bigger width.

“We could throw them out of the cart? Tie them up?” She shakes her head.

“The curse will allow her ta find them even if they were a needle in a stack of hay. What about yer magic?”

“I don’t have any magic!” I practically growl at her, before looking back to the others and try to shake them, but the mare grabs my arm.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.” I give her a look. She elaborates, “‘Queen’-” She gets a sour expression as she says that, “-Trixie warned us after the dome appeared, that if we were to touch anything that was under the effects of th’ spell, then the curse would move to us as well.” I look at her.

“Let go.” She does so, taking a step back as we get nearly half-way to doom.

“We can’t help yer friends. I’m sorry.” I sigh, looking at my ‘friends’.

I decide to do a dumb, hoping it works. I rear my hand back, delivering a solid punch in the faces of the two mares, before jumping off the seat and delivering a downward strike to the side of the pegasuses head with a metal clang.

I land off to the side, stumbling and holding my hand in agony as the happy crew groans, holding their battle wounds. Which is probably just simple bruises. I turn around fully to them, shaking my hand and clutching it with the other, ignoring the look from the country mare, as some of my hopes and dreams come crashing down in less than an instant when I see smiles on their faces. Those annoying fucking smiles and the pain in my head just makes it worse.

“Well… that didn’t work.” ...I’m gonna hit you as well, let’s see what it brings us, ey?

I stare intently at each of the guards, following the carriage as I run ideas through my head, before setting on one, as I reach into the now moving again chariot and grab one of my daggers out of the box, “Whoa, whoa, what do ya think yer doin’, pardner?” I stab Platinum in the upper leg, not going all the way, grimacing lightly as I watch the silver colour drain from within her to the blade stuck in her legging. I don’t know how well it deals with bone and leg armour is easier to replace. This better work smoothly.

Her body becomes limp as I see red just evaporate into nothingness from her, as many around us gasp. I stab her again, eliciting more gasps as the shifting, shimmering light within my tool flows back into her, spreading from her leg to her brain and across the whole body. She gets up with a gasp, her horn sparking a bit as she looks around wildly, before setting her eyes on me and looking at me in a woken haze.

“V-Vadon? Wh-wha-what happened?” The captain grabs the railing.

“...Ho-What did you even jus’ do?” I ignore the pony behind me as I stab whatsherfacewithvampirethings twice in the thigh as well, while Platinum simply looks on, probably currently in shock after getting stabbed in the leg if her unchanging expression is anything to go by. I couldn’t simply cut their finger, the cart was too shaky.

“How are you feeling, Platinum? Talk to me. Keep talking, keep thinking.” I jump over the side to our Solar guard and slam my blade through his leg, stopping him in his tracks, the light-blue disappearing from his eyes, together with a red smokey taint.

“I- I… w-what? What happened? Vadon, what happened? ...Have you just stabbed me?” She finally demands with sternness standing up in the horrible taxi, wobbling a bit from side to side.

“What happened is that this place seems to be on lockdown by someone who doesn’t want any uninvited guests. If your head still hurts, I’ll elaborate: that’s us. As for me stabbing, I need to reach a nerve.” The batpony looks around, confused, before stepping around the Night captain and onto the street, her hooves clicking with metallic sounds against the smooth dirty stones.

“No, my head is fine now.” …You lucky fucker. The pegasus groans and flinches when he sees me standing in front of him, “What’s the situation?” I turn to her, before lazily motioning to the mare that slapped me.

“The situation is unneeded bullshit. First step: ask the locals.” I get a few frowns here and there, as I simply fold my arms.

The captain steps down onto the street, before approaching the farm mare, “What is your name?”

“Applejack, ma’am.” The orange mare answers, while I just look around, recognizing some ponies from the show. Lyra Heartstring, Carrot Top, Snips- Oh shit. I look slightly to the side, while keeping him in sight. The guy just stands there like everyone else, gaping, like we’re some sort of miracle. Or abomination of nature, that’s also a possibility.

“Miss Applejack, do you know what is going on here and what this dome over us is?” Platinum began her questioning, some of the crowd hid into their homes, leaving less ponies on the streets.

“Ah sure do, maam. A couple weeks back, a Pony - a showmare arrived to town. She wasn’t anythin’ magical at first.” I see Snips slowly crawling away from the scene. I give him the two fingers point of both our eyes. “She jus’ seemed to be here to make some bits. But when the darn storm came here, she suddenly got all confident and powerful.” I hear her mumble something under her breath, “So she did her magic, creating this dome to protect us. And boy, protect us it did. From both the weird lightin’ and the critters that crawled out of the’ forest. The first few days, everyone cheered for her, prasin’ her. Hay! Even I thanked her and offered something for savin’ my farm as well.” The buildings honestly look a bit ridiculous, almost like cardboard cutouts in some kind of fantasy book. The supports just don’t look right to me.

“Right, so how does that bring us to now?” Captain asked.

“I was gettin’ there, maam.” Applejack takes a deep breath, as do I but I do it because my head hurts, inhaling the scents of dry grass, flowers and wood, “So somewhere around the end of the week, she became a lil’... unhinged. Began demanding tributes and total servitude for bein’ our ‘Great and Powerful Saviour Queen’.” Applejack makes physical quotes in the air, “Started threatenin’ some of us and gone through with some of them. On the second week… I don’t know. I didn’t like her before, ma’am, but now I very much almost… hate her.” She whispers the last part and looks off to the side and something causes her eyes to widen, “Somepony, stop that colt!” She said point at the now pretty quickly moving Snips, “Anypony!?” She looks around in surprise as everyone just shuffles and looks away awkwardly.

I look at the guards that still seem to be groggy after dying, noticing that Platinum is barely on her hooves herself, “...Plan, now. I’m going to buy us some time.”

“Wha- Vadon, get back here!” Platinum calls out, but I am already on the move, sprinting.

I silently follow Snips, trying to catch up with him as the little bugger leads me through some filled with various things back streets. Thankfully, he’s fat and smaller than normal kids here, so I don’t need to overexert myself. Still: he can run alright. After turning multiple streets, I catch up to him at a giant tree as he tries to turn to what I recognize as the town hall. I grab him by the collar of his simple cloth shirt and get into the library that is within the tree, shutting the door behind myself as I fling him onto the solid wood floor.

I stand with folded arms and await his move. His move is to just crawl backwards, until he hits a round table from which a book falls on him, causing him to yelp. As he rubs his head, grimacing in pain and still staring at me in fear, a beige unicorn comes rushing down the stairs.

“What is goin-? Ah! Who are you?! ...Snips? What are you doing here?” He lowers his horn at me, taking a step forward and towards the colt.

“I am a new arrival to town. As for him… well, Snitch is more accurate of a name.”

“I-I-I’m sorry, Q-Queen T-Trixie would punish us for not t-telling her about y-you! She already stopped making us carrying her around in that… stupid throne of hers.” He covers his face, “Please don’t hurt me, I’m sorry!”

“...You were able to break Trixie’s spell?” The unicorn asks, slowly taking a step towards me.

Snips tries to reply, “Y-yeah, he has! Nopony knows ho-!” Which I am having none of.

“Shush, the grown-ups are talking.” The fat snitch falls quiet as I continue looking right through the glasses of the resident librarian, “I need help. Advice or information will do just fine.”

“Why should I help you?” The unicorn asks, narrowing his eyes.

“Because by helping me, you help yourselves.” He blinks, but says nothing, “The guard is here, a captain, a lieutenant and a pegasus. Don’t know who he is.” His eyes widen considerably as he seems to give my words some thought as he glances at Snips who nods repeatedly, not saying a word.

“I mean… What possible help could I be? I don’t have any useful information on Trixie’s magic or…”

“Any information is useful, seeing as we’re utterly in the dark here.” He seems to ponder that for a moment before sighing and looking somewhere up.

“...Trixie wasn’t always like she is now.” Oh no… “She was a very nice mare, even helped me out around the library. She had a good quip and smile ready, even if she seemed sad at times.” Please no deep emotional backstory… “Around a week ago… She came here, to the library, after she set the dome up. At the time, I didn’t know it was who did that, but anyway: she came looking for a book on spells. Basic spells, very commonly known… I thought it was a bit odd, but said nothing. I helped her find the book she was looking for and in return she offered to sort the library together with me. When we talked, she threw some… sarcastic quips around. Nothing really mean, but I have gotten a good laugh out of most of them... A few days later: her happy smiles got replaced by cruel smirks and… her sense of humour got twisted…” He looks off to the side, “Many got hurt because of her… I’m not even sure what kind of pony Trixie is anymore.” From the floor, Snips looks at him, sniffing a bit, almost shedding a tear. My face is death itself.

“Right… Well either she was always secretly a bitch, or something happened to her.”

“...I- But she’s not a dog?” Yay, I can cuss royally!

“It’s a metaphor.”

“Ookay?... I agree that something must have happened to her, but what could have caused her to act so cruel?” The librarian looks at me, one hand under his chin.

“...I don’t bloody know, possession?” I offer.

“Possession? But ghosts... aren’t real.” His head rears back, as he stares at me strangely, almost not seeing me. Ha...Ha...Ahem.

“I mean… it can be anything, not necessarily a vengeful spirit. An item, perhaps? Some kind of… cursed object? I heard she was nothing more than a showmare from one of the locals, why would she be a showmare if she had such power?” The two ponies look at each other.

“That is… a very good point. But what are the actual chances of that, hm? Why isn’t she a mage at canterlot? Is she travelling?”

“I dunno… if she was just travelling, I think she would have let this town go after the storm disappeared over you.” The stallion hums, before looking down at Snips.

“What do you think? You’ve known about her for longer than I have, has anything changed?”

“W-well, I- uh…” The squeaky one really strains his brain, “I- I think, yeah! She always has this weird amulet on that she didn’t have before the dome, but it’s nothing odd, right?” He looks at each of us, “Right?”

“...What do you think?” The smarter of the two asks me.

“...She has to keep up this shield twenty four seven, right? I can see that weightening down on her mental capacities… unless she somehow does it unconsciously. Though that doesn’t explain much of the why she has the warden complex…” I look around the library, at the many wall-shelves filled with books, “What book did she take?”

“Uh- I um. Hold on, I have it written down somewhere.” The librarian steps up to the central table and picks up a makeshift notebook, listing through it, “...Here, she took ‘Magic Control, the Guide to Not Making Explosive Boo Boos’.” … I walk up to him. It’s actually called that.

...So does this mean, that this Trixie knew of the effects of the amulet? Or at least was smart enough to realize it. If it even is the same amulet. “Hmm.”

“Yeah, everypony learns this in basic magic school, why would she need that though?” That’s kinda sad… both her and your comprehension skills.

“Well… there are multiple options, one of them being she never went through the same education as most other ponies.” I look around, “But she needs it for something now, I bet that amulet is some sort of ancient evil artifact, that causes the wearer to act like a d-” I look down for a moment, “-douche.” For funsies. Got to preserve the rest of my lingo. He gasps.

“Language! There is young colt in here!” I look at him, “...What? You can’t say that in front of children.” I give him the look over the glasses, “A-anyway: what makes you say that? Maybe it’s something else.”

“I bet a hundred bits that that is what it is.” His brow furrows

“Uh- I don’t really-”

“C’mon. For funsies.” I wink and after a bit: he sighs.

“...Deal.” Easiest hundred bits I ever made. “I still think you’re wrong however.” His face suddenly twists into a thoughtful one, “Wait, if you are here Snips, then where is Snails?”

“Uh-oh.” The small unicorn squeaks, “Uhh… he might have already told Trixie… Since we both were there and you chased only after me...” I tilt my head, wondering if he is being serious with me before rushing to a windows and peaking out with one eye.

The unicorn mare herself - Trixie, is walking towards the library, her cape almost static from the lack of wind. During the two seconds that I look at her, I notice that she is dressed in some kind of corset and a pantyhose underneath the light cape. Not that I pay that much mind. She is half-way down the street at this point and I can see a skinny unicorn kid obediently following her as they were nearing us.

“Oh hell no.” I rush through the library, looking around, before turning to the unicorn and hissing: “Is there a back entrance?”

“Uh-uh- I- yeah, in the kitchen over there.” He points to an archway which I dash through, before looking back out and raising my thumbs.

“Act natural.” I go back into the kitchen, navigating myself through the small mess that was here. I think he was trying to make toast.

I hear a door slam open, “Snips? What are yo-” A bassy young voice speaks up.

“Shut up. Snips, why are you here?” I hear a mare demand as I quietly open the back door, sighing internally at the typical lack of squeaky hinges.

“I, uh- greetings, Great and Powerful Queen Trixie. I-I w-was getting chased by a s-s-strange thing a-and I decided to hide from it here.” I hear a muffled disgusted sound.

“You’re a coward, Trixie would punish you, were Trixie not in such a- wait-” I close the door as silently as possible without a click and take of in a sprint.

I circle the library around to the front in case she checks where I exited and come out onto a wide street leading directly to the town hall, which I cringely try to sneak across to reach a familiar street, or at least head in the same direction as the chariot. Although it’s probably better to hide somewhere else, in case she has found it already. A red beam of light whizzes past my head and a sound of glass breaking reaches my ears as I make a few dodges without any more lights coming from behind before turning around.

Trixie steps out of the library, her blue form almost entirely replaced with misty red that seems to have different thickness in different spots, the brightness, most concentrated point of the light located on her chest-neck area. Indeed her cape has many details, engraving and designs from various other fabrics sewn onto it, although nowhere near as the palace. The clothes beneath the static fabric seems to also be heavily accented with detail. She raises an eyebrow, before beginning to approach me, her hooves hitting the ground with bony clicks.

I stand still, trying to not make any sudden movements, although my body instinctively leans backwards just a bit. The overpowered unicorn stops four meters in front of me, looking me up and down with her eyes, as she sniffs hauntingly, magic literally wisping from her as she breathes.

“What manner of creature are you?”

“The one that is not of afraid of you.” I reply, looking right back at her.

“Hah! You think you’re stronger than the Grreat and Powerful Trrixie!?” She strikes a pose and smoke swirls around her horn, before four spires of what looks like…red gas... Spires of what I guess is fire burst up from the ground behind her, making her cloak billow from the force.

“Neat flames.” I say, casually taking off my glasses.

She takes a step back, her face twisting in surprise and she nearly walks into the fire, but it disappears before she does so not even leaving embers. A brief silence falls over us as she looks me over in a seemingly new light, a few emotions flashing, before returning to her previous expression of ‘I am great, you all suck’, “Hmph. The Great and Powerful Trixie knew you were more than meets the eye. Whatever you are… Trixie is impressed with you being able to resist her magic. No weak being would have been able to do so. ”

“I mean… just some basic mind-control.” I notice that her eye twitches.

“Basic!?” She screeches, before snorting loudly, “It is in no way basic! It has Trixies greatness all over it!” Phrasing. “It has not failed once!” We all have our moments.

“Right. Well, it was basic for me.” She narrows her eyes, while mine lazily move to somewhere behind her shoulder and my brow furrows, “What the hell is that?” She turns around to look at the thing.

While she’s looking at a spot of air, I twist on my feet and resume my running, managing to turn a corner with only two lasers shooting by me, “Get back here! Trixie is not done with you!”

I look behind me as I hear a loud clap, and see her shakily standing on her hooves, before stabilizing herself and shooting another spell at me by headbanging. I leap towards the ground, the beam harmlessly passing over me and hitting a barrel up ahead. Which freezes over. And not in the cartoonish way. Fuck that. I continue shakily moving forward on all fours for a bit before managing to get back on my feet alone and zig-zagging from more spells. The latest one makes a pot combust.

As I take another turn I nearly crash into someone, grunting as I stumble back and raise my hands in front of me, nearly apologizing in reflex as I try to be already on my way, but one look at the one I crashed into makes me stop. It seems to be a guard judging by the armour, I’d say Solar, but it looks basic. There’s not much coverage, only the vitals, despite him being an earth pony. He reaches a hand with weak scarlet nerves towards me, staring at me with red eyes that have a tint of yellow in them.

“Halt, in the name of the Great and Powerful Queen Trixie.” I stand still with widened eyes as he gets closer to me for what seems like longer than it actually is, then I leap back out of the way of his fingers.

“Nah, bruv.” Taking off in a new run, going faster than before, I begin progressing through alleyways again, hearing Trixie shouting at me from somewhere on my heels.

I take a left turn, getting on another street, running by the front of the buildings and looking back, searching for her, when someone suddenly grabs my arm and pulls me inside one of the houses. They shut the door and look down at me, making a shushing motion with her finger as I try to breathe quietly.

I see Trixie run past the house, her silhouette appearing in one window, then the other. A few seconds tick by. The unicorn that pulled me in smiles and breathes out, “I think we’re safe. Hello, I’m Lyra.” She offers me a hand, which I shake still on the ground, though she seems to have been expecting to pick me up. I look around the hallway room, still catching my breath with raspy pants.

“Hey, Plat… Hey Shady... Hey dude.” The ladies wave, while the pegasus grouches.

“My name is Swift Wind.” ...I don’t caaaare.

“...So... what’s the plan?” They tell me the plan. It’s awful, “That’s an awful plan.” I grunt as I get up from the floor shakily, trying to breathe in before exhaling for a long period of time.

“Oh yeah? Why is that?” The Pegasus snarks, while I make an innocent thoughtful look, staring somewhere at the ceiling as I softly open my mouth, taking a breath.

“Well, considering that she has a magical amulet of probable ancient evil power that makes us seem like ants in comparison and lets her mind control a potential army and vaporize at sight, or turn us into some kind of decoration for the fireplace like a vase, I’d say that plan won’t work.” I look back at him and they exchange looks, before Platinum addresses me.

“...We accounted for the army, because we have seen… the local guards patrolling together with a manticore while we sought shelter. They were inspecting the cart, thankfully, we grabbed everything with us.” She points at all the baggage we had with us. Apparently we had a lot more than I noticed at first, which does make sense that they have their own things. This actually gives me a couple ideas. “...Are you sure that she has a-”

“I don’t know if it’s anciet, I do know it’s an amulet made in the image of an alicorn that makes her insides glow red as if she was a mini Celestia.” Bon Bon lifts a brow at me.

“You don’t refer to her majesty by her title?”

“Nope.” Folding my arms, I look at patiently at the trio of guards.

The Lunar Lieutenant is the first to speak, “We need a new plan.”

“...Yes, you do. How about we just go with the classic, someone leads her to a spot where there will be as less collateral damage as possible and then you all ambush her and capture her?”

“That’s a classic?” I blink at captain Platinum in utter confusion.

“Uh...Yeah? You’ll need something to deal with her magic though...” Everyone besides me shares a look.

Lieutenant Batters tilts her head at me, flicking her extra fluffy ears, “We have something for that, but… Aren’t you going to help?” My brow falls and I give her a look from under it.

“I’m not a guard, I don’t have experience, so I’ll be useless here.” I spread my arms, letting them flop to my sides.

“I highly doubt that. Perhaps not combat, but definitely in further planning, considering it’s your idea for a plan, a fantastic idea, mind you. We may need your help in forming the plan entirely and...perhaps you could give us a hand in accomplishing the plan successfully.”

“Psh, we don’t need his help, we don’t need the ambush, that Trixie character is not that powerful.” I look at the pegasus who said that.

“We have seen a couple of her troops, without considering what other possible pets she has from the nearby woods, how many guards were stationed here originally?” He visibly gulps, “Each one of them will attempt to capture you, if not outright terminate you on the spot, which means that isolating her from her army and disabling her magic as quickly as possible might be the best solution. In my opinion.” I tilt my head and give a sweet smile as the reality finally seems to dawn on him judging by the paleness of his face and lack of muscle movement. I don’t think he has ever been in a field operation yet.

I give a glance around the room, Lyra is wearing what appears to be a mildly puzzled expression, Bon Bon’s is unreadable but looks like something between shock, confusion and a bit of something else.

An awkward moment of silence passes and I look around at their muzzles, but Platinums calm one suddenly speaks up, “I see a single problem if one of us tries to distract Trixie.” I lift a curious brow, “We might fail.” The brow turns to confusion, “What I mean is: Trixie might simply send one of her guards after us and not do it herself as you seem to be in higher priority due to your…” My face falls and I stare at her in silence.

“Goddamnit.” I whisper flatly and take a long breath before opening my eyes, “Fine, I’ll do it.”

Platinum gives me a nod, “I agree with what you said and I am sor-” I wave a palm at her.

“Meh. Let’s just get to the details.” She gives me another nod, albeit a bit unsure.

“Very well, we have found a good spot on our way here. It is a big road going through town near the border-”

And so: we start planning. They give me the description of the place and I hold in laughter and a sigh as I realize they are still in medieval times despite some of the familiar technology of my time. They don’t seem to be familiar with Guerilla style warfare despite sending a small squad with me. Makes sense in a way though. The only reason I am familiar with it is because I was a strategic gamer from a very young age. Literally three years old is when I first picked up a shooter game and a real time strategy one. In any case: I think about how to approach two high-ranked soldiers of the Equestrian military and tell them their plans could be more effective. Although, the Lieutenant has much better ideas than Platinum. I ask a couple questions and we refine the plan into an ambush that should work in multiple scenarios. Of course, things can always go wrong, but we are short on time.

I stand somewhere in the middle of one of the main streets, breathing heavily. Trixie appears on the side closer to the town hall. Many meters behind me is the path to Sweet Apple Acres, a path that leads by the infamous Everfree.

“So, Trixie sees you have finally stopped trying to escape your fate.” I look at her, straightening up.

“My fate? Do tell, what is my fate?” Some ponies peek from the buildings, or look on from out of the windows.

“Why… it is to be by my side, of course.” ...Wat? My body changes to match my thought.

“Oh really?”

“Yes, you can be the Not So But Still Pretty Great and Powerful… um. Who are you?”

“I am Vadon.” She nods and opens her mouth, “And you?” She stops and blinks rapidly at me.

“I- I am the Great and Powerful Trixie?” An edge comes to her confused voice.

“Oh, sorry, you were speaking in third person, please continue.” She takes some time to recompose herself and takes up a confident pose.

“You can be work by my side-” I notice a horn poking from one of the alleyways, “-we could rule this place, together!” A cloud moves closer to us over the street, “With your and my powers combined, nopony would be able to stop us! We could rule over all who need our help!” ...Okay, I think I see where this is going.

“Our help, you say?”

“Indeed, the world is a dangerous place, but we can protect everypony! We can make everything matter!”

“That sounds very nice. Very nice indeed.” Trixie grins smugly, “However, I have a counter offer.”

“Oh?” She asks, everyone already in position.

“You’re a really powerful magician, right? So why don’t you just summon up a giant condom and a poisonous cactus on fire out of that and go fuck yourself since you are dressed for the occasion?” I say with the happiest grin I can muster, leaning forward as I place my palms over my knees.

“Wh-what…? How dare you!?” She is triggered. Grrreat succcess!

“Whaat?~ Safety first.” I offer with a smirking grin, glad no children are nearby due to the guards having evacuated everyone a couple streets back.

Red swirls up to her head, as she… charges me. And fast, her legs sparkle as she gallops over towards me with her horn lowered. I sidestep, honestly surprised at her choice of action, hitting the back of her head with the side of my hand, nearly knocking her over. She turns around and readies her horn for a big spell as it glows a dark red. A white snowglobe-like transparent dome appears over her entire form, before bright sparks appear within it, nearly blinding me, but it has a bigger effect on her as she writhes around inside and fires her spell, cutting through the cloud where a pegasus with surprisingly fast reflexes was, making some of the water vapour turn to stone as gravity takes hold of it.

He grabs the remaining two bits of the cloud and speeds towards the unicorn, doing something that causes lightning to shoot out of them, aiming right at Trixie. Unfortunately, she notices in time and puts up a quick one-directional barrier, protecting her from the lightning.

It doesn’t protect her from the lieutenant however, as the awesome mare delivers a buck to her back, causing some red sparks to fly out from the spot as Trixie cries out. Shade grabs her shoulders and tries to put a strange ring over her horn. She succeeds. Trixie growls, as a glowing red crack appears in the ring.

“Shade, get awa-!” I begin to warn, but there is bang as both the Night guard and the magician disappear.

Bits of the ring fall on the ground, as I see Shade get flung at a wall from a point in space, while Trixies appears on the opposite side of me. I rush to the bat, as another spell misses me, causing the ground to simply explode. I hear screaming within the homes, but the only one in pain is the lieutenant that I manage to reach evading stray magic.

I look her over and see a gash on her arm and her left ear missing a half, “Are you alright, are there any other wounds?” I look her over, without touching her. One of her wings is bent oddly, although there is no bone showing.

“I’m fine.” She grunts in pain, before hitting her back and head against the crumbling inward stone wall, her wings going slack.

“You don’t look fine.” I voice casually and she chuckles.

“I’ve had worse.” I nod.

“Tell me that after you aren’t in shock.” I grunt as I pick her mildly light form up, holding her arm in a way that won’t deal any further damage to the tissue, “Hey! Quick Whistle!” He turns around in mid-air, avoiding a beam of red.

“For the last time, my name is-!”

“Get her to the hospital! I’ll deal with the bitch!” He sees who I’m holding and nods, turning grim and flies towards us.

“But she’s not a dog.” Shade tells me in a weak, curious tone.

“Doesn’t really fucking matter.” She giggles briefly as Swift takes her off my arms and flies off with her somewhere into town.

I walk over to an open cafe to the side and grab a wooden chair. I walk over to Trixie, who continues having a magical duel with Platinum. The saturated red unicorn has her back turned to me, while she gets showered in sparks and blocks pure blast waves.

I raise the chair with both hands and quickly twist and untwist my body, placing one leg forward before the chair cracks upon contact with Trixies back. She doubles over and turns back to me with a more surprised than anything expression.

The grunting scowl on my face stays the same as I break the chair this time, making her fall on her back, as tiny sparks and bits of wood fly off her form at the place of contact. She glares at me in anger, scowling herself making a growl not unlike a wolf and pointing her scarlet horn at me, before her face gets covered in another white sphere, with more bright pops happening inside. I hear Trixie scream in anger and annoyance and maybe just a bit of pain.

“Platinum, preserve energy, I’m going to get a message to Canterlot!” I say as I begin sprinting down the street towards the edge of the red dome, passing by the confused captain and running over a bridge across the river separating Ponyville from the forest.

Seconds later: a loud shout of frustration and a blast of air hits me, “Oh no you don’t!” I increase my movements, getting closer and closer to the exit as I turn around to see Trixie catching up to me, her legs glowing bright red.

I leap through the magical barrier, my vision going blurry before I mostly snap out of it by falling on the ground with my elbows and face. I inhale the fresh smell of cold grass and damp dirt as I pick myself up and check where the mad mare is.

She just went through the barrier at breakneck speeds.

I turn around… then turn around again, delivering a punch to her gut, as her own speed makes it much more painful than my normal punch would have been and despite the bit of resistance to pain she seems to have, she loses her breath, looking up to me with fire in her eyes. I start running towards the forest, keeping close to its very curved edge, ignoring the sting in my whole arm.

She chases after me, continuously casting spells, modifying the terrain in various ways such as either freezing it, setting the grass and dirt on fire, causing the grass turn to stone or making the ground simply collapse in on itself or rise in walls and tall pillars. I reach the place I wanted to be at and spin around to see around ten of her walking towards me at a steady pace.

Most of them are almost entirely made of colour, while only one looks like the rest of population of the planet, but more glowy. I stare at one that is made entirely out of colour as they walk into two directions surrounding me. The real one walks over closer to the forest’s edge.

The cold wind is blowing around us, picking up leaves and shaking the trees. The farm should somewhere nearby, but not close to here. We’re no longer in sight of town, it is just me and her. I look up to take a deep breath and see a massive cloud high up in the sky moving closer to us.

“You… you are incredibly tenacious. But this is the end for you, I’m afraid. We could have been allies, nay, PARTNE-” I pull out my dagger the guards gave to me in Lyra’s home and raise it high in the air, looking upwards, feeling the stray droplets of rain hit my face, “What does that gesture mean? You’re surrendering?” They all speak at the same time, but I look to the one on my left.

“No, but I can tell you that this particular gesture has two meanings.” I lift a single middle digit towards her and look straight into the curious and patientless eyes of the unicorn, “I have won and fuck you.” The lightning of a multitude flashing colours strikes with the force of an anvil and the sound of thunder, hitting my dagger as my legs spasm and my whole body locks up, before my arms flop to my bending knees.

At the same moment, the second lighting goes for Trixie, hitting her exposed amulet and throwing her back at a tree as there is a sound not unlike glass breaking while a small cloud of red smoke suddenly appears in the air before spreading far. I shakilly approach the groaning mare and stand above her. After her eyes focus on me, she tries casting a spell, but grunts and screams in pain as only a few sparks come out of her horn and a single short beam that I manage to avoid by tilting my head. I squat, grab her by her cape collar and look straight into her eyes, raising my dagger with a multitude of colours spinning around in it over her chest, rainbow sparks dancing across the blade. However, slowly one by one the colours evaporate from the tool, leaving only a light-blue one inside. The blade is still sparking.

“I will give you only one chance, hand me the amulet.”

“Wh-what? Ho-how dare you demand that of Tri-” I thrust the dark dagger to her chest, making her yelp and resting my thumb on the top of the pommel between two curved spikes.

“Inside this dagger is a soul. That soul is the sole occupant of the vessel. If I were to stab you right now and drain your soul, it would simply fade into nothing and redistribute across the world as energy. You would properly die, being nothing more than a mass of energy. Heh, not even that.”

I’m pretty sure at the time my voice was as monotone as possible and expression unchanging, which made her really terrified if how mad her glowing pupils were behaving is anything to go by.

“So, how badly do you want to that amulet to be on you?”

Her hand twitches and slowly reaches towards the alicorn amulet with the red gem, that seems to begin glowing brighter the closer her hand gets to it, after having dimmed the moment the lighting hit. Her face twists into a grimace as I play with my fingers on the dagger, wrapping and unwrapping them around the handle. She seems to be taking a while so I raise the tool in preparation and she tears off the amulet almost immediately, looking at me with wide eyes as all of the red disappears from her together with my migraine. She begins gasping and breathing deeply and shakily, before dropping the Alicorn Amulet on the ground from her slack palm and covering her face, breaking into tears.

I pick up the dangerous trinket and look at it. Nothing really special, just an evil ancient artifac- oh no, there are the whispers. It is less of a voice and more of a sudden desire to put it on, I guess the effects from the previous owner haven’t worn off yet. Wether that, or Trixie must have had a will of steel. Speaking of the mare...

“I-I’m sorry. I’m so-so sorry…” Trixie rocks against the tree, hiccuping with her legs pressed tight, “Th-this isn-...” Sob, “This isn’t what I wa...wanted...hic.” I put the amulet inside my other inner pocket.

“Oh, I bet. Still… consequences are consequences and so is responsibility.” I grab her by the back collar of her cape and pick her up, before leading us away from the storm as quickly as possible. I look back up at it and see it retreating over the forest. I glance down into the bushes between trees and notice two small green lights staring at me as I stare back before they blink out into darkness and I blink as well, turning my head back to our path.

I put on my glasses as we approach the town now clear of any red. Ponies are cheering and looking at the colourless sky with joy, hugging each other and laughing. I notice Applejack and Platinum walking towards us, while the farm pony holds the unicorn up as she limps very lightly.

“Y-you did it. I cain’t believe it.” The orange earth pony says, tugging a bit on one of her straps, “How?”

I throw an arm around Trixie as I look at Applejack with a grin, “I was very convincing.” I turn my head and see Trixie looking in the opposite direction of me, down on the ground.

“Uh… huh.” Jackers says, fixing the hat atop her head as her ponytail gets flung around a bit. Now that I think about it… I look around at all the ponies on the street and notice all of them having a tail sticking out of their pants, “Then why does it look like she’s cryin’?” A mighty brow is raised.

“I dunno, probably because of a reason that she knows.” I shake the unicorn around a bit in my grip without glancing at her and turn to Platinum, “So what do we do now?”

“Her amulet… where is it?” The captain asks, standing proud and tall despite the clear pain in her leg and arm.

“It got hit by a lightning.” Both mares blink, before looking at Trixie. “I had to add a bit of improvisation to the end, but I think it went better than I expected.”

“...I… I didn’t mean to… it wasn… it wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” Another choked sob from Trixie, “I- I just wa-wanted to protect everypony… I wanted them to be safe.”

“By holding them prisoner?” Platinum asks, sticking a magic suppressor on her horn that looks like a very cool black ring with red runes and eight spikes, making Trixie whimper as she shakes her head, her slightly pristine-looking hair swinging from side to side while the captain ties her hands with rope that AJ provides.

“I- It was there to protect t-them from the storm and the things that came with it…” She keeps on crying, “I- I didn’t want to do those things, b-but… I had to keep the shield up. But… But it was meant to simply be a- a shield, nothing more, I swear!” So Trixie added all the effects on it later? That is… very advanced... Applejack butts in.

“Well, I’ll say: you have a bunch of explaining to do, witch. What do ya mean ya didn’t want to, but did them anyway?” More wimpers come from Trixie.

“I… Th-the amulet it is… a c-cursed item… it- it amplifies a unicorns m-magic, but a-at the cost of the-themselves. I… I really did not want to hurt them. All of it was the amulet, I swear!” Applejack and Platinum stare at her, both shocked.

“...Well. I’m not sure if I believe yah. But… You have suddenly stopped using that weird speech o’ yours.” The captain turns to me as I smirk and nod in confirmation of the silent question before she turns to the apple lady.

“Miss Applejack, please allow me to continue the interrogation. I appreciate your assistance to me, but I assure you that I am fine, you may let me go. There are most likely a lot of others that require help.” The orange mare gives a nod.

“Yer’ right. I’ll get right on that, but… are you sure?”

“Of course, miss Applejack, now hurry.” ...She sounds more like Luna than Luna herself…

“Aye, ma’am.” She gives her a nod, me a handshake and Trixie a look before turning to leave, “WHOAH!” She jumps back in surprise, nearly crashing into me as I lift a single hand to stop her from back pedalling too far, “Pinkie! What are yer doing here!? Didn’t we talk about you doin’ this sorta thing? Like...multiple times? I’m pretty sure we did.” I hear a high-pitched giggle from the other side of Applejack.

“Aw, cheer up a little, AJ! Look at how many smiles there are! Even on the no longer scary guards!” Platinum looks a bit taken aback by the sudden appearance of the single pony I was actually interested in the response to me. Who I still couldn’t see.

“Yeah, well- wait. You mean the guards that were controlled by Trixie?” The mare with the name flinches a little in my grip.

“Yuppers! All of them are currently re-grou-ping!” I see pink fluffy hair bounce over Applejacks head each time a syllable is pronounced by the voice. It takes me a moment but then I blink. Wait...the hair has colour? But that means… At this point, I am sort of just waiting for the inevitable, whatever it may be. “In the town centre!”

I hear Applejack whisper, “Then that means...Sweetie…” The mare steps aside and looks at each one of us, “I- I gotta go.” I give her a nod and she runs off deeper into town, leaving the four of us.

If I had three brows, all of them would be lifted because I was staring at an earth pony that was filled with magic. Literally. Her hair and tail were pink while the rest of her had bright blue veins with two bright blue eyes that were smiling at us and sparkling with pink. Her magic, unlike the other earth ponies shifted a bit more not unlike a pegasuses, but flowed like a unicorns. Earth ponies usually have less movement. But that is not the only weird part. Pinkies soul, which as far as I have seen all have similar structure, but hers was focused in two spots: her brain and her heart. But it gets more interesting, her heart had more colours than simply blue or pink. And I mean much more. They were like tiny spots shifting across, through and between each other with red lines moving quickly and erratically across the surface. Plus it had an irregular form, but it was definitely where her heart would be.

“Heya!” Pinkie waves with a grin and takes the innocent leaning forward stance, arms behind her bakers skirt, “Heya Trixie, heya Captain, hey-Ohh! Who are youuu?” And instantly in front of my face.

“Hi. I would be Vadon.” I outstretch an arm.

“You would be? You’re not now or were before?” Instead of going for the handshake, she tries to glomp me which I avoid by rotating together with Trixie. Pinkie frowns. I rotate again.

“I am. And you are?...”

“Oh, pshh, silly me. Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, nice to meet’cha!” She grins wide with a tilt as the magic inside her hair bounces. I wiggle my lips.

Pinkie Pie bounces around me, giving Trixie an odd look at times as Platinum starts questioning her while Pinkie starts questioning me. Pinkie is mostly interested in such things as what is my favourite colour, desert, frosting and the like. It is surprisingly easy for me to concentrate now, but I was able to answer both Pie’s rapid fire questions and follow the conversation between the no-longer sobbing but mostly dead-sounding Trixie and the Captain. Despite not really needing to since I can look at this later, I still might have to know at the moment.

Trixie says she was born is some sort of small herd of Ponies far away. She began travelling across Equestria quite recently since the beginning of the last winter as a showpony. A ‘magician’ to be precise. She does know a few spells, but she always just wanted to be famous and have her own thing. Before she ‘set off on her travels’ she was given the amulet by her herd and told that it contained great but corrupting power as help against the ‘dangerous outside world’. I can only simply massage my face with my free hand as we walk through the town.

“So let me get this straight. Your herd somehow came into possession of a powerful, evil, magical item and gave it to you because the ‘outside world’ is dangerous?” That’s what I was about to ask! Trixie gives a little nod, looking mostly down, “Do you know why?” She shakes her head and both I and the captain release a long sigh and share a look.

“So, what would be the punishment for this?” I ask Platinum and Trixie sort of locks up in my arm. I take a look around and there are a bunch of hateful glances being sent towards the broken unicorn.

“Usually it would be to the dungeons until the court commences.” I lift a brow as we near the town hall.

“Usually?” Platinum nods and I notice a bunch of weakly armoured day guards standing on their posts around the town hall or helping ponies around the streets. I count at least ten. I also see a pegasus mare leading what I assume is a manticore somewhere out of town. It looks very metal. I love it. Trixie flinches at the sight of it however and immediately looks elsewhere.

“In this case, the town of Ponyville is a bit… self-governing. It is an experiment proposed by Princess Luna. In short: the Ponies of this town will decide what will be done with Trixie Lulamoon without overstepping the overall Equestria laws. On top of community service.”

“Oh, that’s a little rough.” She turns to me as we step on top of a wooden platform in the front of the town hall spire.

“What do you mean by that?” An mare with fluffy hair and glasses turns to approach and Pinkie greets her as ‘Miss Mayor.’

“Well, it’s just if they decide to lynch her after the community service, that would be quite a sad tale.” She looks at me with shock while Pinkie, Mayor and Trixie look at me in confusion and the mayor shakes her head lightly and smiles politely at us.

“Good day, captain Platinum Spark, I assume?” She shakes hands with her as the captain nods, “Welcome to Ponyville.” The mayor chuckles and sighs before turning to me.

“This is Vadon, the one we are ordered to be protecting.” From.

Pinkie bounces up next to my side and continues the bounce by my side, smiling wide at me as I just stare flatly at the mayor while she inspects me. After she is done oogling me over her glasses, she fixes them while reaching to me with the other hand. I reach with my own to hers, but before contact, I clack my teeth visually and audibly, making her flinch and me: chuckle inwardly, “You fear me.”

She fixes her glasses and give a stretch of a polite smile, “You are something new and… unexpected.” My smile grows and she freezes when I shake her hand.

“I am Vadon. A pleasure.” I let go of her soft, cold hand and she gladly looks at Pinkie, greeting her as well.

Captain and the Mayor discuss the current situation, Platinum informing that she was not done questioning Trixie and whatever punishment the townsfolk will decide upon her will have to be done after.

“...That’s kind of dumb.” They turn to me as I butt in, “Think about it, what if the townsfolk without knowing everything will decide on… A lynching, for example?” I get confused looks from three ponies and the only one with a different expression that I can’t read is Platinum.

“Excuse me, Mr. Vadon, but… what is a lin-lincheyng?” Mare asks.

“Well… It’s when you make sure, the prisoner or criminal no longer commits any crimes ever. Or action. Besides… Rotting.” I state the obvious, making Trixie give me a horrified look, Pinkie bouncing innocently and the Mayor of Ponyville trying to work it out as the captain grabs me and pulls me across the big backstage, dragging on my heels, excusing herself.

When we are far enough away, she grabs my shoulders with her fluffy fingers as the trio start discussing something inaudibly to me, “How do you know about Lynching?”

“What do you mean, captain?” I lift a brow at her fierce glare.

“Do not play games with me, Vadon. How do you know what lynching is?”

“I mean, doesn’t everybody?”

“It’s not something that has been practiced for a long time, the word itself has been forgotten, so how. Do. You. Know it?” Her fingers clench on my shoulder and I keep the smirk hidden with a spiteful moan.

“Well, in the world I’m from, it is something that was practiced long ago in history as well. And such things as books exists. That’s how I know what is it. Can you let go of me?” She waits a couple seconds, narrowing her eyes before looking up at her horn that has some pale runes flowing around it and me before they fade and she lets me go, hiding heavy breaths with a snort while I simply walk back to the group before simply turning to her, “By the way… Thank you for telling me everything I needed to know.” I smile at her before resuming my walk, noticing her gobsmacked turning expression with the side of my eye. “Better question, captain, is: how do you know it?”

After some time, the captain joins us with a straight face, not even looking at me, but I notice movement as her fist unclenches. She joins the discussion and follows right behind Trixie who in turn follows Mayor to the stage. They do a little greeting, with a not as big of a crowd as I was expecting, but it fills the space quite nicely. All those shifting colours gradually grate on my nerves, but I bear with it.

The crows listens to Mare’s every word, some looking dubious, some: very dubious as even Applejack puts a word in from the crowd, talking about some filly who is apparentelly okay.

Eventually, the Captain takes stage, still keeping her eye on the prisoner, speaking what had transpired and what she has found out so far and that there was a… “There was another that helped us. Without him, this might not have been possible.” The crowd murmus, having accepted her word so far while I simply walk past the open part of the stage curtain, waving a hand.

“Yo.” There is a silence and I hear hoofsteps on wood first before the confused captain.

“Vadon, where are you going?!” I reach the backstage stairs on the other side.

“Why!?” I take the steps.

“I want to check up on the lieutenant. Plus I’ve been struck by multi-coloured lightning, I think that deserves a trip to the hospital.” I walk down the plaza, the crowd able to see me again as I stride calmly to where I saw the hospital in my running. There is a bounce.

I turn to look at Pinkie that has followed me silently. Or maybe she bounced that far, fuck if I know. I turn back to the road. “I’m not going to a party, Pinkie.” She just bounces silently with me on my trek.

“...What happened to you?” I look in her eyes, staring intently into mine as I take off my glasses.

“A lot.” She sighs, not even shocked while simply shaking her head for some reason.

“...It’s gonna take a lot to cheer ya up, isn’t it?” She says in an almost different tone.

“It’s gonna take something that does not exist.” The glasses are set back on me as we pay a visit to the thestral.

A week or so passes and I find myself again at Illuminant Scroll’s place - the Golden Oaks library, watching him carrying books around as I help him a bit, sadly: for free. ...But not quite.

“Hey, Lumin, why aren’t you just using magic to sort these?” I jiggle the stack of books in my arms before setting it on the round table with lots of space atop it.

“Because some of these are absolute relics that can crumble any minute, Vadon.” He over exaggerates with a grunt while shelving one of said relics up high before climbing down. “And I am not that good with magic. That would be my brother.” He chuckles, wiping his brow from the heat in the library even though the windows are open, leading to the previously scorching and still busy streets outside.

“Okay, fair enough, but what about using it on certain books while carrying others?” He finally gets payback via giving me the look. It’s not quite the look though.

He lifts two fingers, “Two reasons primarily, that would take up too much of my concentration, constantly switching my magic on and off like a candle and like I said before: I am not that good with magic. At least, not this kind. I am very good at healing magic however!” He smiles before it sort of fades and he turns back to the shelves as I sort through the various tomes myself, looking for something to myself.

We continue for a bit before Illuminant strikes another conversation on a more unpleasant topic, “So… I heard you rejected another of Pinkie’s parties? I remember being told she tried throwing you one on that same day and you kind of just… left?” He turns to me as I groan in the direction of the center of the table, slamming a book on it. “Hey!”

“Sorry, not sorry, the book will be fine. I, on the other hand, feel like death after all the encounters with her.”

“Haha, why is that?” Lumin asks, having gotten used to my manner of speech and humour surprisingly quickly. Faster than Sunset or the guards anyway.

“Too fucking cheerful, man. Too fucking bouncy. Basically? Too. Fucking. Much.”

He nods and shakes his head with another chuckle, “I rather enjoy her company when I get out of the library. Maybe you should try being friends with her?” I slowly turn my head to him and widen my eyes, opening my mouth at the same speed.

“Unacceptable!” I glare as he blinks.

“Why is that?”

“I does not simply become friends. Or at all.” I look through a small book about plants quickly, stealing all the knowledge for later before placing it back down.

“Aren’t we friends?~”

“Neighbours.”

“...That’s a start, riiight?”

“You haven’t even attempted the first step and I will never give you the sugar.” The door opens and through comes Trixie dressed in a casual outfit of a shirt and shorts.

"I'm pretty sure that you will have to ask me for sugar." Illuminant smirks.

"I ain't horse. I drink my tea brutally raw."

“Oh, uhm, hello.” The light-pink unicorn waves timidly, hiding one hand behind her waist.

“Hey, Trixie! Come on in, how’s the weather?” Lumin says as Trixie glances to me, making me lift a brow, causing her to turn away.

“It is still hot but there is a breeze once more.”

“Well that’s good. Want to help out?” She sighs.

“I would gladly, but, I’m not as good with magic now as before… You know it.” Scroll sighs and rolls his eyes as I notice a book of interest, picking up the ‘Metals and Their Alloys’. I open the book to look at the contents. Simple title, plus accurate. I like it. Is this actually public knowledge tho?

I turn around to Lumin finally finishing telling Trixie that she is amazing either way or some garbage like that, “Besides! You can practice your natural magic like this, it’s been a while, you have to flex your horn every once in a while, it’s good for you..”

“I-I am not sure…” I walk up to Trixie after signing off in the notebook, placing a hand atop her shoulder, making her jump and look at me.

“Trixie. Do some magic. Just don’t blow anything up or summon something like me.” I pat her arm and go out the door, waving with the book, “Catch you later, Lumin.” I hear him say ‘bye’ as I walk through the sunny outside, feeling the sun on my skin together with the wind, rather than seeing it. So glad I didn’t put on the jacket. I glance up at the sun and narrow my eyes, less out of instinct and more of thoughtfulness.

The sun itself is nothing of interest, as bland as other surroundings. I sometimes can’t even tell where it is, but that just means the sun ain’t magic in any way. I have been checking during sunrises and sunsets as well and yet… I look around the street at all the ponies going somewhere with smiles, chatting or buying something for themselves. I sigh as I walk into the Sugarcube Corner - a local pastry shop and bakery. It’s a pretty good pastry shop. One problem though.

“Heya, Vadi!” I sigh, still not used to the nickname from Pinkie Pie as it sounds really similar… to something from the past. “Came for the order?”

“Yes, Pinkie. How have you been?” I walk up to the counter as another pony takes his order and leaves the building that looks like something you might take a bite out of in the night, while drunk and peckish.

“I’ve been pretty good! What about you?” She bends under the counter on her side, as I go to answer but stop for a moment.

“...I would have to say the same, actually.” Pinkie lifts back up a curious brow and a carton box of freshly made brownies, the recipe of which I gave to her, barely remembering it. She improvised in places of course.

“Oh? Why'd you say it so…” She rolls her free hand, giving me the package as I leave payment on the counter.

“Reminiscently?” She bounce and nods, devouring the coinage with her poofy hair which glows for a bit.

“Yeah!”

“Because I am reminiscing.” I return both hands to my sides.

“Oh.” I nod and turn around, beginning to walk out.

“See you around, miss Pie, have a good one.”

“Byeeee!”

I return to my home, getting inside the cold and leaving the box of treats on a round wooden tea table in the main area that works as living room and a replacement of the corridor. The ceiling is not big, but just the right size for me and the tiny mutant ponies. Instead of going upstairs, I turn right into the basement, opening the door with the signature of my soul as I turn on the light in the much smaller, but cozy basement. I got myself a bunch of shelves for books and stuff that I find out in the wild. I walk over to my low bed and reach under it, pulling out a small hexagonal box that widens near to the top with a bunch of designs all over it. I lift it to my ear and shake it, hearing something rattling inside together with evil whispers before hiding it back under the bed and standing up.

I look through the slightly messy room, part of the stuff I brought with me lying on the corner table, some greenery plant pots and vines hanging off walls, a bunch of schematics strewn around before my gaze falls onto an construct on the floor and an apple, hair-pin and a flopping fish, all resting atop a shirt within the circle.

Capital~

Author's Note

Hello all. It's been a while.

First of all, yes, I am back from a 'small' hiatus.
If you would like some elaboration, you can take a look at my recent blog because I do that now as well apparently.

Can you expect the next chapter soon? ...Maybe. Hopefully. I myself am excited to write it.

SO.
I hope you had a fun read....
NOTE: I went back and edited the previous chapters a little to a more suitable version of the story.
...Have a good one I don't have much to say, I got to get up early, fuck everything, see you all later, bye bye!~

Oh yeah, if you noticed any grammatical mistakes... Sorry about that. Please do point them out, will ya?

Ch. 12: Troubles and Changes. That's Life for ya.

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Ch. 13: A long Day Is only One among many.

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Ch. 14: The Time before it all went Wrong.

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Ch. 15: At times Life goes Berserk

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Ch. 16: Dissonance Resonance

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Ch. 17: Things are Heating Up

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Ch. 18: Melting Point

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Ch. 1: How am I still alive?

Chapter One: How am I still alive?

I remember it all vividly: the Con, the stall, the Void, the world. Can't forget it. And I'm grateful for that. To who? No clue, but that doesn't mean that I wish to forget some things. The pain, the death, the...incident. I was never afraid of any of those though, I always just took it all as fact.

This thing is taking a while.

I have to distract myself, or I'll be like a certain sleep deprived Gungan on coke... I just not only made a reference to something a have not thought of in a very long time, I also made it make zero sense... I'm already going mental.
I suppose... yeah why not. Might as well remember it all once more, since I have the time. Heh time... used to think it existed once. (Insert deep sigh here) Here I go again. I might as well write it down...

I'll need a lot more paper.

"Hey! You gonna just stand and stare, or finally enter?"

I stop "staring", as my roommate put it, at the massive banner above the entrance to the building, that was currently holding a convention to which we decided to go to.

"I like the art" I reply.

She just raises her scarlet eyebrow at me, complete with a 10/10 deadpan. "Besides we aren't in a rush, so hold your horses." She just sighs and shakes her head disappointingly. She raised her head up to the sky and mouthed something. "Because you're a very kind and patient person" I say without even needing to hear her. She smiles from the compliment. "However some would just consider you insane for even wanting to put up with me" Huh. Didn't know face muscles could move faster than light.

11/10 deadpan.

I decide to stop messing with the Triss lookalike and actually enter the LOUDEST PLACE I'VE BEEN TO! HOLY SHIT! While the witch cackles in evil delight at the expression on my face (She might have just simply giggled at the grimace I made, but I couldn't tell the difference, because pain) I take a moment to admire the decorations. But that's all I have.

A moment.

Miss 'Merigold' grabs my gauntlet covered hand and proceeds to drag me towards a crowd that looks like it might not fit on the Shibuya crossing. If there is one thing I don't like, it's being in big crowds. My roommate perfectly knows this. If she was dragging me near a crowd, I'd be fine with that, but she was trying to pull me into that constantly moving mass of sweat and noise. Nope.

I managed to tear my gauntlet out of her bear trap vice, just before we entered the thing. She turned to look at me questionably, to which I just replied using all of my lung capacity

"I WANT TO GO LOOK AROUND ON MY OWN, MAYBE I'LL FIND SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T LOOK AND SOUND LIKE A SHOGGOTH!" reek too.

For some reason, what I said made her look kind of sad, I guess she wanted to spend time and hang out together. After what obviously looked like a painful decision moment for her, she finally looks at me.

"OKAY, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT!"

"ALRIGHT, YOU TOO!" I shout, once again trying to imitate the Dragonborn. She smiles at me and I smile at her, however she can't see mine, so it's not like it matters.

The admittedly hot 'sorceress' gives me a not at all unpleasant view whilst disappearing into the crowd with the Bermuda Triangle like properties. I proceed to get as far away from that place as possible, but not before taking a look at what could possibly be such a magnet for so many people with costumes. Oh. It's a 'League of Legends' stand with who I think are the developers and some of the voice actors giving out autographs. Oh you poor sods. I leave the area, thinking of what sort of riches they were promised to come here and do that all evening. If they weren't sane before, they sure as hell won't be after tonight. Maybe I'm overdramatizing.

Nah.

I decide to go into a different area. Soon, I start to see a bunch of stalls, each of them selling something unique. I walk up to one to see what little trinkets they have, cus' I can't see very well from afar and have to always get up close to be able read anything, or see the details.

Shame I have to wait 'till I am twenty five to do an eye surgery. My eyesight isn't always a problem, since I simply can't see the details from a certain distance and I usually carry glasses with me. Right now however: I don't have my glasses, but I am not really worried about not having them on me. As I walk up to one of the stalls I notice a body sized mirror and decide to take a good look at my costume again.

I was dressed in mostly onyx black armor with a small cyan tint to it in places. Since my body shape was quite thin, although not starving levels of thin, my leggings and gauntlets had this sleek look to them, which I achieved by making most of my "armour" plated. There were a few rune designs, scattered here and there, that could light up via LED, or cyan glow in the dark paint. Each of my shoulder pads had a single curved spike, but I made sure they weren't too big.

There were two long and wide, curved daggers in sheaths on each of my hips. The handles and the blades were also onyx colored. The sheaths, that were simply pure black, were sewn on a black belt with, once again: cyan colored designs.

But it is the helmet I am most proud of. While I took the basic shape of the 'Deathsingers Gaze' from the first Destinys' 'Crotas End' raid, it had a couple changes: the most obvious being the big, pure black, slightly curved horns, resting where the forehead would usually be. The second change was not the shape of the helms "face", but rather what it was made of.

I was very enthusiastic when making it. Probably a little too enthusiastic, since it cost me quite a bit. Basically: I've embedded one glass that was tinted just a tiny amount and one almost pitch black, the darker one was at the back, whilst the lighter one on the front with some space between them which was filled with black smoke. In the middle of the space, I put in black glass walls in a shape of a reptile pupil, that also had black smoke within it.

However it doesn't end there.

I made four projectors from LEDs, that when activated, made it look like a cyan eye of Sauron, with smoke on the sides giving it a flame-like appearance. Just for good measure, I decided to give myself a cape made of black smoke, by making little inbuilt smoke emitters at the back of my shoulder plates and neck area, which I could activate whenever I want. They didn't have much smoke in them, so I'll have to use them sparingly. All in all: I looked pretty badass.

"Cool costume, made it yourself?" says a voice, unknowingly agreeing with my thoughts.

"Naturally. Have you ever seen anything like it before?" I ask the young looking stall owner.

"No, never. Good job dude." She says looking at the horns.

"Want to see something even more cool?" I ask whilst grinning and turn on the LEDs by flicking a little switch behind one of my sheaths.

Her eyes widen and her mouth opens a little. "That's so sick bruh!"

"Thanks"

"Oh, by the way are you going to buy anything?"

I take a moment to actually look at what she's selling: key rings, bracelets, some cool bowties, and a few plushies. "Hmm. No actually, but thanks. I don't really need, nor want any of these." I answer, after giving it some thought.

"Alright then dude. No problem, hope you find something you want." I say my goodbyes and walk away whilst giving a little wave, she waves back with a grin.

Nice lady. Wish more were like her. Kinda reminds me of my roommate. Wonder how she's doing. As I continue mingling between stalls, looking for something that might catch my eye, I see it. A single stall, set up away from others and a shady looking vendor, selling what looks like a bunch of well made replicas of different weapon, armor pieces and all sort of other stuff.

This just gave me a pause. The reason I came this convention, was just to provide some amusement, by trying to find the infamous 'merchant' despite knowing that there is more than a 99.9 percent chance that the displacer is just a character, made up by the fandom of a kids show. Which I am not a part of, despite having read over fifty stories written by that very same fandom...

I didn't tell my roommate the primary reason I went to this convention. I told her: that when I was younger, I had a shitty experience at another gaming convention, but didn't want that to ruin my view on such events. Which is true, but once again, not the main reason. Of course she didn't believe me, because we know each other enough for her to understand that: I don't simply try something again, because of a ruined experience. Thankfully, she dropped the subject after a bit of an interrogation, by which I mean she asked me to tell her the real reason and I refused.

She was excited to go to this Con. I suppose, that she thought it was a date of sorts. If this guy actually turns out to be a displacer and sends me to another world...Well, I could've left on better terms, if he isn't one though, then I should tell her that I don't have any kind of interest in her. Again. That conversation will be awkward even if she doesn't hold that type of affection towards me anymore.

Here goes.

I walk up to the vendor in a strange armored cloak and upon closer inspection, I realize that he's wearing Miraaks armor complete with his very detailed squid mask. His attire isn't glowing though, which I am slightly disappointed in, but I suppose he needs to be as inconspicuous as possible if he actually is the merchant.

"Hello Miraak."

He looks at me with that slightly creepy mask and speaks in a reverberating voice , "Who are you?" I assume he's talking about my costume so I tell him. "A necromancer assassin? That's certainly new."

He has a bunch of different replicas, or are they the originals? I can see an axe that is probably either from 'Warcraft', or 'Warhammer'. There are bunch of guns from different games, but only one really catches my eye. It's a onyx 'Thorn' with a CYAN hue.

...

If he isn't a displacer, then I am dressed in the worst looking costume ever. I am not though, right?

"You a merchant?" I just had to ask.

He just chuckles, but his echoing voice added ten points to the creepy factor. "Of course I am, I would not be selling
anything if I wasn't a merchant, would I?"

"You tell me."

Humming he looks at me, like he's measuring me up and down. "I believe you already have chosen something to buy?"

"Yes actually, I'd like that bane of every 'Destinys' PvP player", I say and point at the revolver.

"Ah good choice. It will fit you nicely. Anything else?" He asks while placing the absolute beauty that is 'Thorn' on the counter.

"I don't know. Any suggestions?"

"One moment." He ducks behind the counter and lifts a book as long as half my arm and also places it on the counter. It has dark blue and green engravings on it and in the middle, there is a cyan, flaming, reptiles' eye. I just look up at him.

"What is this?" I croak.

"This is a book about necromancy, it's basics and what you need to do to not live." I can feel his shit-eating grin.

"Thanks. I'll take it." I say. No need to be rude to the dude helping me. IF he is helping me. "What's the price?"

He freezes for a moment at my wording, then instantly relaxes. "Nothing. It's a gift. You'll have to pay for the gun though." He tells me the price and I pull out my right dagger out of the sheath and take the money that I hid in there earlier.

After handing him the money I put the dagger back in place and pick up the wares. The book had a chain, so I tried hanging it by my belt and just simply held 'Thorn'. As soon as I finished connecting the chain, I felt a slow pulling sensation from below.

"Wow, not even going to say goodbye are we?" The merchants head snaps towards me as soon as I said that.

"What?" He sounds confused and...worried?

"You are throwing me into another world and not even bothering to wish me luck?"

"But I haven't even started to open the portal yet." We keep looking at each other for a couple of seconds, as the pulling increases in force.

"Uh..."

"...Oh."

He reaches his hand towards me and I start feeling a pulling from him, however whatever was trying to drag me from below increased it's efforts tenfold. I start to feel like I am being compressed and thrown across the entire room at the same time.

"This was not supposed to happen!" I hear his voice scream, but it sounds distant.

"No shit?"

Suddenly everything stops being. There is no light, there is no sound, there no gravity, there is NOTHING. I think I nearly blacked out from what I felt, however I have never fallen unconscious in my life, so I guess I've got a sort of resistance to it, which can be unfortunate at times. Oh there is also no air here, so I'm slowly suffocating. Makes sense I suppose. Guess I'll just have to hold my breath.

I suddenly found out why the displaced get knocked out before being sent. I once got a really bad rash, because I ate shrimps. The doctor had to inject me with a thing. I don't know what was in there, but I suddenly got a feeling in my balls like fire ants were having the time of their life down there.

This?

This was worse, for I felt it everywhere. My mouth, my nose, my intestines, all over my skin and of course - in my balls. I opened my mouth to scream while my whole body was having a spasm, but no sound came out. My mind wasn't even able to think. When I tried to regain any kind of thought process, I felt another yank.

Without warning I was hurled across the Void. I once again experienced the sensation of being compressed, but the more the pulling continued, the more I thought I was going to tear in two. After a while of what was probably the most nauseating experience in my life, I came to an abrupt stop. My bones felt like they were thrown against a brick wall at the speed of light. I began feeling things.

Heavy. Cold. Wet.

I've arrived.

My oxygen deprived brain forced my mouth open and made my lungs suck in air. I got a coughing fit and couldn't keep my legs standing, so I fell on my knees down on what felt like stone ground, the sound of water splashing rang out in my ears. Apparently my muscles decided to stop being muscles and the rest of my body proceeded to fall to the ground.
My muscles were sore and my bones felt like hot lead. My head, which wasn't faring much better, was on it's side looking forward. Through, what I realized was rain, I saw a blur. I think it was orange? Then the blur divided into two.
I assumed it was someone, but I couldn't know for sure, because my head felt like a split watermelon.

"Help." I shouted with all my remaining strength. I couldn't keep myself awake anymore and decided to get some rest on the cold, wet ground.

That was the first word I said in Equestria.

Author's Note

I hope you've enjoyed the chapter, if not, oh well. I am planning on releasing more chapters next week, probably near the weekends. I might do it sooner though. Give me some of your thoughts on this one, I'd appreciate it. If you have any questions, I am willing to answer them, just post them in the comments.
If you are a nice person: have a great time!
If you're not a nice person: welll...still have a great time, just not by your definition of a great time.
I'll see you all in the comment section, or next chapter.
Four Dimensional Intergalactic cube of Chaos and Order out.

Ch. 8: Sit back and Enjoy the Show.

Chapter Eight: Relax and listen to some Music.

Cleaning my plate, I think about my projects a bit more, trying to find a way to improve any aspect of them while I still can. A few minutes of silence pass as I fall into a sort of mediatory state, my hands are moving by themselves in a repeated motion, the water sounds and feels distant. Realizing, that I have been washing a sparkling white plate, I put it on a drying board and squeeze my eyes, blinking a few times. I take a moment to realize, that this concert is actually the first time I go somewhere to genuinely relax. Yeah... the Con doesn't technically count, since I went there to make a deal. I will try to ease back and enjoy my day, which I have never actually done. I tried massages, but they only increased my back pains. I tried visiting the sea, but... I guess I never truly relaxed and I wasn't sure if I wanted to. It was out of curiosity, that I decided to get a ticket for the performance, so I would figure out what it's like at one. But if I concentrate on the feeling - I won't be able to actually relieve the tension: both physical and mental. I guess I will never relax. I sigh and continue on with my day. Well... I was planning to anyway.

Sonata appeared all of a sudden, though didn't give me much of a shock, because I became immune to such things. At least in this house. Sonata was dressed in punk-esque clothing today and just generally seems to wear a new wardrobe every day. Not that I particularly care, just something I noted. Looking at her hair, I realize, that she has just woken up, and her demeanor of a walking corpse supports that theory. She releases a gaping yawn and locks on to me.

"Hey. Were you up late again?" She asks as she goes past me and I hear the coffee machine start up.

"No. Sunset tired me out last evening, so I thought I'd get some rest and wake up earlier instead. Get a bit more done that way." The familiar buzz and smell of caffeine fills the air, as the liquid pours into an all too familiar pink mug.

"You should take a break." I stare at the back of her head. "Or at least: I think so." She turns to me and takes a sip. "...Sunset didn't tell us why exactly you cut your hand, but she said, that you did it for her."

"You could say that."

"You're a workaholic aren't you?"

"Couldn't be further from the truth. It's just that magic is new and exciting to me. And I like learning new things." Maybe I've spilled too much.

"...I might have took a little peek, while you were working." F-

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I saw a bunch of pictures taped to one the walls, but I couldn’t understand any of the drawings." Well that's not so bad. "So what are you hiding behind them?" If I had been drinking at the moment I would begin drowning, but instead I am suffocating from the two-way air movement in my throat... I breathed in through my mouth and exhaled at the same time, alright!?

"What gave it away?" I say with complete calm.

"Well: it's not that hard to figure out, considering, that you specialize in runic magic and while the placement of the papers may seem random at first, I noticed, that most of them were used to cove as much ground as possible. Also: you just told me." She said with calm, taking another sip.

"...You're a lot more attentive, than your sisters give you credit... Have you told the others?"

"No I haven't."

"Good. I would like to keep it this way. I will tell them myself later. You are correct in that it's runes, and I suppose it is a sort of gift."

"Ohh! I can't wait."

"Yeah, well- I should be done soon enough."

"So back to the topic of you relaxing." Dammit! "Have ever heard of such a thing as a vacation?" I nod.

"I have."

"Ever been to one?" I nod.

"I have."

"...Did you...unwind?" My eyes wander off into space.

"No,not really. But I am always tense, so it's no big deal." I give a light shrug.

"It's not just that you are tense - it's that you wearing yourself out. Hard. Adagio and Aria think, that you're either simply slacking off and pretending to be researching and experimenting, or that you aren't that encumbered with that book." Encumbered? Who uses that word anymore? "But I can tell, that you are, in fact: working yourself to death." ... I lean back and my eyes run up and down her form, occasionally uncontrollably squinting.

"...I wouldn't call it hard work, since I am enjoying myself, but it's difficult at times, yes." I stare into the magenta of her eyes. "But it's fine, because I just don't relax. Ever. I might take a break to recuperate, but I never truly relax. That will happen only when I die." I smirk a bit, making it look like I made a grim joke, but Sonata is being creepy by staring at me, unblinking. Note to self: caffeine deprived Sonata is creepy... Although the same could be said, if she has a few cups.

"Do you have any hobbies?" Changing the subjects faster than... can't think of a joke at the moment.

"I don't. Never bothered with one and frankly: never saw any point in them."

"I heard: you like music."

"Yeah, I do."

"Isn't that a hobby?"

"No. A hobby would be: if I was making music, enjoying it and wasn't getting paid for it." She drinks a bit more.

"So what kind of music do you like?"

"Any, so long as I like it. I'm quite diverse in my preferences, so it doesn't have to be any specific genre, for me to want to listen to it over and over again."

"Ever tried to play an instrument?" Sonata finishes the rest of the drink, with a final swig.

"A few times, but I just couldn't learn how to play at least one."

"What was it?" She wonders, cleaning her cup.

"Would you believe me if I told you it was a triangle?" Sonata blinks and stops, when what I said finally registers: she giggles. She turns off the water and skips past me.

"I want to show you something. C'mon." I hesitantly go after her.

While we are walking up the stairs, I take a moment to think about something. More precisely: what I've been saying lately. What the fuck? These conversations seem very familiar... oh yeah: I was a bit of a wanker, when I was younger. I used to speak like that, didn't I?.. Yeah. Fucking nihilist, pessimist and materialist to the max. I was mostly after chocolate. Question is: what is causing me to act like that again?.. Could be my memories. My behaviors from the past must have gotten mixed up with my current one... Well that's not good. I lean the upper half of my body slightly forward and set my legs on autopilot, then close my eyes.

My perception of the passage of time changes, as I start sorting through my mind. Throw that away, don't need that... May-be... yeah I'll keep that. Switch that and that... think: I'm good. Opening my eyes I notice, that I only took three steps up the stairs, while I was rummaging through my brain. I nearly tripped over at the last step, but quickly corrected my balance, by taking in the reins. I didn't finish the process properly, so I would have to worry about it later in the day, but for now: it'll do. Repressing memories, to change my way of living? I deserve a pat on the back. Since recently: I am able to access my memories, but I can't change or forget them permanently, however: who said I can't put them at the back of my mind? Being an ass will not help me in my current situation... A hundred bits says, that I will have to be a complete dick, to save someone's life.

...I can afford it.

Sonata led me to the same door, I saw her and the other two sisters exit two days ago. She silently opens it and I realize, that the walls seem a bit wider in the doorway. Sonata walks forward and flicks on the light, which illuminates the room and gives it a yellowish hue. I look to the side and bob my head a little in comprehension, because there are multiple things I have realized just now. Mainly: where the Siren's money went. To my right is a bright wooden wall with a glass window, with a professional-looking recording room behind it, that has three wired microphone stands with filters and a set of drums. On our side of the wall is a pretty simple-looking mixing board and a device, that might be a vinyl recorder, although I am not a hundred percent certain. The leaps in technology here, are so bizarre at times. I think to myself and look over to Sonata, who is standing near a vertical rack with musical instruments in it, that are mostly guitars.

There are a three posters on the wall above. One of them is identical to the 'Battle' one I saw earlier, except without the specific location and time, while the other two have the three musicians captured in various other poses and wear. One is called 'Flame' and the Sirens on it are dressed in some sort of mix between Mayan and Aztec clothing. By which I mean: they are wearing ponchos and feathered helmets. But what sick ponchos they are. Their colours match the fur of their wearer and all have a flame-like design on them. There are many more details to the clothes, such as rhombus and zig-zag patterns of gold, while the girls themselves are wearing bracelets and earrings, also made of gold. The background has Mayan pyramids made of dark yellow bricks. They look like they're having fun... Although I think Adagio might secretly be an arsonist, judging by that grin. Is that a taco in Sonata's hand?

The last poster has a blue-ish underwater theme to it and is simply called: 'Ocean'. Sonata, admittedly, is the cutest one there, with her seashell, mermaid, clam... thing... costume. It's adorable, okay? There're various little plants and fishes in the background, including: a shark. There are also two glowing yellow eyes, looking out of the corals behind Adagio. I didn't know Equestria had such amazing photo-shop... The details on the posters progressively get better from 'Blue' to 'Purple', but all of them are equally well-made.

"Those are all the albums we've made so far." Sonata tells me, when she notices me examining the posters.

I hum in response and say 'thought so', possibly forgetting to add any volume. Sonata is now holding a magenta and black synthesizer in her hands.

"Actually I used to play a guitar before and it kinda stuck as a part of my image, as you can see-” She motion to the posters. ”But honestly? I prefer this over a string instrument any time. It's a synthesizer - a magical and musical marvel, because it's an instrument, that can play notes and sounds from other instruments. As far as I know: there are only two synthesizers in the whole world. Sunset and another friend of mine took a joke I made a bit too seriously and the result was this beauty." Her hand runs down the white keys, but no sound comes out. I notice an unplugged cord sticking out of the side of it.

"So how does it work?"

"Oh, I don't know. But Sunset told me that it uses metal instead of gems for storing and using the magic, which I think is a little silly. Aren't gems the best things for storing magic?" A pair if magenta orbs curiously moves to me.

"Not every type of magic. Magic is, in a sense - energy. But since there are various... signatures to it, that means: some magic reacts better with certain materials." And doesn’t react with others at all, but for some reason I have not yet found anything written about magic-cancelling materials. Wonder why.

"Ohh! That's pretty cool... and sorta makes sense if consider some stuff..." Interest appears on her face. "Didn't you say, that you didn' know any magic? Did ya really manage to learn so much in such a short amount of time?" Sonata's pigtail moves separately from her, as she tilts her head.

"I just read on a lot of magic related subjects, plus there is some familiar stuff in this field... So you make your music in there?" I turn my torso and use two fingers to point at the room beyond the glass.

"Yup, I dunno what this used to be, but we got rid of the windows, added this wall here and insulated everythin' with enchanted wood in there." What wood? "Ooh! Wanna hear me play?" I only had time to open my mouth, before she went past me to a frameless door.

“Ye-ah, sure…”

Walking into the studio I could sense a shift in the air as sound began to instantly behave differently. I released a buzz from my throat and what came out was a bit like a controlled echo, but it was clean. There were still vibrations in the noise, but it was smoother, as if… as if my voice was put through a filter. I stared in awe at the panelled flooring, none of my or Sunset’s books ever mentioned anything like this. I crouch down and run my fingers across the floors smooth, pale surface. Enchanted wood you say?..

“How does does this work?” I ask, my voice getting a high quality clarity.

“Hm? Ah! None of us actually knows how this enchanting thing works, not even the most studied scholars of Canterlot themselves. You see: this wood was and is being made by Deers and they are... like a super reclusive race. Yet some are open for trade and we were lucky enough, that a couple of them enjoyed our singing and knew how to enchant.” Sonata bends down and plugs her instrument in another triangular socket. “They were willing to get us some special wood and magic it up for a small price of a few bits and a personal performance for their families.” She looks back up at me. “Their parents convinced them to lower the price.” Wow.

“Is this stuff not super rare?”

“It’s not that it’s rare, it’s just the Deers are apparently the only ones that can know how to enchant stuff. Doesn’t help that they don’t like sharing their secrets on how to anything and live mostly in the depths of some woods. Yeah, I know. Like I said: a very reclusive race.” …Where are the Hobbits?

Sonata pulls out a stool from behind the giant drums, sitting down on it in a comfortable position, she crosses her legs and starts to play. The… music is calming. Not insta-calm, but it was close. I could tell Sonata was using her magic to make the music… well… magical. And I could tell she was doing it on purpose, which got me a little mad at her, but only a little. Might have been because of the music.

The melody… well I am not a very artistic person, but I suppose: it sort of, could remind someone of a clear day at the sea. I hate both the sun and the sea. So I guess: her noble intentions were foiled by my resentment of everything bright and unpleasant. Or no, do I actually dislike the sea?.. I don’t think I do.

She keeps playing for a while longer and somewhere in the middle of her performance: I sat down on the floor, criss-crossing my legs. Her song rings in my ears as she plays the final note before coming to stop with a little jingle. I start furiously clapping my hands, with a blank face.

“That was lovely, but one question.”

“Yeah?”

“Was that supposed to do anything special.”

“Uh…” Shifty eyes, my favourite.

“Sonata, it’s nice of you to use some of your magic to make me feel relaxed, but had I not known that you mean me no harm: I would not have hesitated to do something- drastic.”

“I- I just wanted to help.” She looks shocked.

“Sonata… you want me to not drain myself so much, is that it?” She bites her lip. “I’m fine, I’m not tired.”

“You have bags under your eyes.”

“Doesn’t everybody?”

“Of course not, why would you think that?.. Vadon, please. I know this may seem selfish, but I’ve seen one of my friends doin’ the same thing you are. And I know what happened to them afterwards.”

“They weren’t me though, were they? I will tell you the same thing as I told Sunset: I know my limits. And I don’t need, nor want anybody worrying about me - it would make things so much easier if you didn’t.”

“I know, that you don’t like us tellin’ you how or when to do something you clearly enjoy. Just take a break, it’s not as if you’re on a time limit.” I look to the side.

“...Well, uh... I kinda am.” I say to her, twisting my face.

“...What do you mean?” That I need to finish my projects before something like your situation happens?

“Don’t worry about it, point is: I know what I am doing, and I get what you are saying. I was planning to go your performance today anyway, that counts as something.” I look at her expectantly.

“I-I guess it does. But could you at least take it easy?” I release a heavy sigh.

“I promise to not overwork myself and to chill this evening.”

“Alright, thank you.”

“Thanks for the performance.” The pale-blue Siren gives me a smile. “Are you not worried, that I’d tell the others about how you are not actually an innocent little thing, but a manipulative evil from the depths?” Her smile turns into a dark smirk.

“No one would believe you.” I shrug.

“Eh. Maybe I’ll find a way.” We keep looking at each other in silence and she giggles. Evilly. “Welp. I uh- I’m gonna go work some more. If you wanna talk, knock three times in rapid succession.”

I give her a nod as I make my exit, which for some reason makes her confused and amused. I spend the rest of the day cooped up in my basement, meticulously inscribing a part of the runic array on the second wall. I had no idea of whether this would work or not, but supposedly if the guide to necromancy and Clover’s book on runes work together, then all I had to do was create the intended construct.

Wait: do I have to do the ceiling as well? I rush through the notes of my calculations. No I don’t. I think grinning to myself and pick up some copper dust, because apparently aluminium is more expensive than other metals here.

A few hours passed uneventfully and I came out for dinner. Sunset came back early today, apparently she helps the Sirens behind the scenes, working the fog machines, lighting, that sort of thing. I wasn’t really surprised, sine Sunset had a lot more in her room to do with science, rather than magic.

She also had a proper chemistry kit with a burner, that was using wood chips and straw as fuel. I don’t think alchemy is very advanced here, because when I asked her why she isn’t using alcohol - her response was: “What’s alcohol?” So I told her about the flammable substance, as much as I could remember from my school days and gave her a neat little trick with the rope, so she wouldn’t simply try to set the liquid on fire. She wanted to know where she could obtain ‘this alcohol’, so I asked her whether they have such things as wine, or cider. She said ‘yeah’, so I replied with: ‘And does it have an effect, that makes people uncoordinated and start slurring?’, she said ‘yeah’ again and I finished with a nod: ‘Then it probably have alcohol in it’.

Three occupants of the room paled at my words, Sonata and I being the only exception. I guess they were shocked to find out: they have been drinking a highly flammable substance, but Adagio grinned in the end, probably feeling awesome at the fact that she has done so. Sorry to disappoint ya hun, but you are not the only one that drinks. There are plenty of others.

We finish our meals, when the sky starts to get all kinds of red. I can’t see the sun behind the distant clouds however, so the view is great. It’s nearly six so everyone starts to get ready. The sisters go up to get the instruments with some other things, while Adagio stays to ask me: if I want to come with them early.

I decline, saying that I have some stuff to take care of and will arrive on time. I wonder how they are going to carry all of their equipment, to which she says that most of the things are already there, that she already went and paid a heavy lifters today and that I needed to get out more. I flipped her off. She got confused.

“What is that supposed to mean?”

I blink, as a billion thoughts run through my head (I would know, I counted) and a cheshire grin slowly slithers it’s way up my face.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s a human gesture.” I say with an evil expression beaming off into space.

“A what gesture?” I freeze, thinking how to go about this.

“Yes, my species is call homo-sapiens. A human for short and easy saying.”

“So you are not alone?”

“I am.” She furrows her brows.

“What makes you say that?”

“Have you ever heard or seen of anything like me? Ever?”

“Good point.” She blinks as if she has come to a sudden revelation. “Wait: doesn’t that mean that you are, well… alone?” I look at her like she’s gone mad, when I get what she is saying. I think.

“Yup.” Her eyes become deeper and more detailed and her mouth gently falls open.

She stays in that position, while we stare at each other uncomfortably. Sonata and Aria get down the stairs, carrying with ease magenta and black sport bags respectively. Adagio breaks out of her stupor, when Sonata puts a hand on her shoulder. Handing me a key, she tells me to lock the house behind myself and explains that they have spares, but that’s not why I was looking at her questionably.

They grab Sunset and leave me all by myself. In their house. Alone. Well: I have roughly an hour before heading out, so I guess: I should get ready. All I had to do was put on my jacket, fix my hair with my hands by sliding a chunk of it neatly across my forehead and hide one of the daggers. Probably not a good idea taking a magical weapon of a necromancer to a musical entertainment event, but better be safe than sorry. Yeah… that’s a solid argument. Since I had nothing to do for over forty minutes I decided to catch up on modern day culture by reading the first book of ‘Parry Otter’.

It was surprisingly good.

Having read a hefty chunk of the story and reaching a terrible cliffhanger, I get myself a drink of water and take off the bandages, the cuts have healed, although the marks are still there. After throwing out the used bandage and washing my hand, I head out. Closing the door I notice that the colours of the sky are now a night blue even though it’s early in the evening. The storm must have spread really far and high if this is what it’s like in the summer I muse as I shove my hands into the jeans.

It’s quite chilly outside, but there is no wind blowing. However: that changes as soon as I get to the Rarity Intersection. Oh no, there’s a slight breeze. I wet my thumb and hold it out. Yup, it’s coming from the storm. I think to myself and see that the second tower has been finished already and is working its’ magic.

Judging by the general rain movement, the storm seems to have wind only near the towers, whereas everywhere is completely still. ...Oh shit, is that a tornado? Is that water? In the far distance, almost near the horizon of the forest, there is a huge blue tinted whirlwind spinning in one spot. I just keep staring at it with one thought in mind: Well that’s not good.

…

I start walking again, albeit slightly faster. Up the street is a couple of Unicorns in gold armour, trying to light up the street lamps, but they keep letting out frustrated grunts every few attempts. I walk past them and one of them blinks at me in shock. I hear him nudge the other one and I feel their stares on my back.

“If you’re struggling with lighting up the lamps: I suggest doing it manually. Or using something, that doesn’t require magic. Surprised you didn’t know about this already.”

“Excuse sir, but who are you?” I spin around, but keep walking backwards.

“A law-abiding citizen that gave you two a helpful advice.” Although: not of your land. “Now: I am in a bit of a rush since I have a musical event to get to, so if you wouldn’t mind, I bid you two adieu.” I give them a two-fingered salute and turn my body in the direction of my movement.

I feel my body shaking slightly from the small dose of adrenaline I just recieved. Must be privates, or something similar. I couldn’t just stay silent, because who knows what they might have reported back, plus: since Luna already knows about me, I might as well make a… non-hostile impression on the guard.

Navigating my way through the alleyways, I come across the same large grey building as before. I was always really good with directions. I come around the front of the massive building and find out that it is even bigger from the front. I finally look up and see that it’s at least four or five stories high. It also doesn’t have a roof, because I can see multiple lights shining up into the sky as if on a stadium. Probably could have found my way by that.

Roughly in the middle, there are two doorways into the building with buff white stallions by each of them, but only one has a line. I walk up to the ‘free’ bouncer, who keeps his composure and simply raises an eyebrow.

“Hello, I am Vadon. I should be on the VIP list?” He says nothing, as he looks down at his clipboard.

“Hmm. The name is on the list, but you don’t seem like a small, rude, egocentric, furless, bipedal creature to me.” ...

“If I am on the list, then let me in so I can say ‘ello to the fuckin’ sea-weed eating, narcissistic, battleaxe, twat.” Both of his eyebrows slide up in amusement. “Better?”

“All good.” He hands me a white badge that says: ‘VIP’ with golden letters in a red rectangle, then steps aside, letting me walk through. “What’s a twat?”

“An organ.” I reply saltily, pushing the door open and stepping inside.

Putting on my badge, I take a look around the spacious… well: space, that is filled with a mass of various people standing and mingling with each other. Some probably have their hair dyed, but I wouldn’t be able to tell, because their natural hair palate is already wild. At the right end of the hall, there is a metal stairway, leading up to metal platforms with safety railings, that have a few Ponies leaning on. I take note of multicolored projectors at the top of each of the walls, shining at different angles into the sky, or the air below.

To my left is an elevated semi-circle stage, which isn’t as wide as the entire hall. There is a roof over the stage, or at least I think there is one, because there are large stone-brick walls with an open set of curtains with another closed pair a few meters behind and there is bright light coming from between the two, illuminating the whole space in dim lighting. On the stage itself is a set of drums and three mic stands, with wires leading to loudspeakers on the sides. Uh… where is the VIP spot exactly?

Sunset suddenly pops out of the crowd and rushes up to me.

“You came!”

“Why wouldn’t I? I paid for this, didn’t I?”

“Well yeah, I just thought that… nevermind. I guess a part of me was expecting you to not be here, since you love your basement so much.” It’s not the basement, it’s the projects! Although the basement is pretty nice too: means I don’t have to deal with you surface dwellers.

“Could you tell me where the VIP spots are?”

“It’s the balconies.” She says with a nod.

“The balcony is a VIP spot?” I look at her incredulously.

“Yeah, the view and sound there is the best in this whole place. I don’t know all of the magic behind it, but I have a few theories.” I turn to the stairs and see another bouncer at their bottom, who was merging with the others standing nearby an I recognized by seeing a badge on his shirt.

“Alright, thanks.” I look into the crowd and see a few… oddities in it. “Hey Sunset, what are those?” I use two fingers and a thumb to point at a thing, which I was genuinely curious about the name of.

“Oh! Those are Thestrals. Some call them Bat-Ponies though, since they’re nocturnal and have bat wings with fangs. Some Ponies are scared of them, but if I am honest? They can be pretty cute, when flustered.” She tells me, using her hand to stop the words from reaching the crowd. “Sorry, I would love to stay and chat but I should probably go. Oh! If you’re going to head to the top balcony, I suggest having a chat with that mare over there.” Sunset points up at a light-grey Unicorn with an indigo mane in a black dress. “She’s a constant VIP of theirs’, I know her personally and I feel like you two might get along. See you after the show!” I didn’t have time to say anything to her, because when I turned around: she was already running through a door leading backstage.” Did Sunset just try to… hook me up?What?

Shaking my head, I approach the stallion at the stairs, making sure he sees the ticket. He lets me through without a problem and I stride up the stairs, each step making a resounding clang. Getting up to the third and final ‘balcony’, if it can be called that, I take a moment to stabilize my breathing pattern, before looking at who is up here with me. The light from the stage is illuminating the four occupants.

There is the same grey mare leaning on the railing, in a non-detailed, shoulderless black dress that covers down to her thighs. A blue Unicorn mare with black hair and, in a backless black dress with a few white patterns adorning it, is chatting away with Sunset’s ‘friend’.

A white, blonde Earth stallion in a suit is standing at the far end of the balcony, looking all dark and mysterious, while an almost completely one-eighty pink-ish mare with pure white hair, in a white hoodie and navy-blue pants, is wearing an excited grin and is fidgeting in place, while having these weird twitches.

I start casually approaching the two closer mares, when the blue one’s teal eyes widen after noticing me and she whispers something to the other one. The other Unicorn turns around and her amber eyes focus on me. Both mares look a little frightened when I briefly raise my open palm.

“Hi.” They both blink, looking surprised and confused as if they were expecting me to cast fireball at them.

“Hello.” “Good evening.”

“So uh… I’m Vadon, nice to meet you. Sunset told me nothing about you.” I say, extending a hand, which the grey one shakes.

“Oh, nice to meet you. I am Platinum, and this is my friend Serenade.” …Hm.

“Let me guess: Moonlit Serenade?”

“Yes, how did you know?” The mare in question asked, shaking my hand.

“Well. Your dress has a crescent moon design on it and what I assume a-are stars? I guessed.” She smiles with slight amusement. I don’t see what’s so funny.

“Very impressive. Yes, I am Moonlit Serenade, although you may simply call me Serenade.”

“You said you know Sunset?” Platinum asks.

“I do know her, I have helped her with a few things in the past.”

“Oh? Well it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise… If you don’t mind me asking: why dresses? Seems like an odd choice for a Rock concert.”

“Well, mister Vadon, I can say the same thing about you. You are wearing a jacket and shoes.”

“Please, no mr and yeah, but I am also wearing jeans, so that doesn’t really count.” I say grinning.

“Well, we thought we might as well, maybe a charming young stallion dares to approach us and will leave two ladies satisfied with the night.” Platinum strikes a supposedly seductive pose.

“Well I hope, for your sake, that such a stallion appears.” She blinks, a grin appears on her face and she starts laughing.

“I like you, Vadon.” She says after she’s done. The blue one is looking at me with a pair of curious teal eyes, her head tilted.

“Not many people do, so I guess you’re in the exception.”

“I’m fine with that.” This... is... so... strange.

The lights dim and the crowd cheers, because Ponies don’t roar... At least I never heard one do it. A riff plays and I see green smoke beginning to emit from the stage. The crowd cheers once again and I hear an excited squeal followed by a short laugh from somewhere, making me spin my head around in confusion, checking if anybody needed any medical attention.

The Dazzlings exit out onto the stage, causing more cheers and applause. Each of them is wearing a black necklace with a red gem at the center and similar clothes to those in the ‘Battle’ poster although there are a few, but minor, differences. The green smoke now covers the entire area below.

“Go-od night Canterlot!” Adagio greets.

Me: Woo.

The crowd below and the rosish mare: “WORHOOO!”

“If you’d excuse me.” I mumble, as I circle around to hooded one. “Hi.”

“Woah! Uh- hello.” She’s pretty short.

“Are you ready to be rocked?” Adagio’s mic enhanced voice calls out.

“Sorry, I just noted that you seem like you really want to be down there, closer to the stage.”

“Well… yeah, kind of…”

“So why are you hesitating?”

“Um-...” The crowd cheers.

“I did not hear you!” The crowd screeches louder.

“Sorry, what was that?” She looks back at the gloomy stallion and then turns to me.

“Because someone is worried about me doing this sort of thing anyway and got me a VIP ticket.” Sadness appears in her steel eyes and her face turns into a mask of frustration.

“Worried about you enjoying yourself?”

“No. It’s… complicated.”

“Sure it is. But hey: at least you get to enjoy the Dazzlings perform from afar and stay with an overflow of excitement for the rest of the evening.” She stares at me, gears turning. “If you are satisfied with it, good for you. But if you aren’t? Well… there is always something you could do. Ask for example, ever tried it?” A female chorus begins followed by quiet strumming.

She chews on her lip for a moment before walking up to her bodyguard and saying something to him. A few moments pass and the guard speaks a couple of words, making her squeal and hug him tightly. She thanks me on her way to the stairs and the guard, following her, looks at me strangely.

I walk back to my original spot and lean on the railing with folded arms. The Sirens begin to sing something that I have heard before: lyrics of a song from a movie about them in my world, although it was now accompanied by a guitar solo ,drums and other funky sounds. The music was upbeat and generally pretty amazing, but there was one thing bugging me: …Isn’t this Metal?.

I wasn’t complaining though and was actually tapping my feet the beat of the synthesizer. When the overall tempo increased: the crowd below started singing along at bits and jumping. I saw the short white hair of the mare having the time of her life at the front rows.

When the crown became active, I noticed that the smoke started sparkling in places. And the sparkles with parts of the green fog were working their way up to the stage, which already had some green on it.

I don’t know how long this has been going on for, but they have played at least seven songs. Adagio picks up the microphone and says, that everyone should take a small break, while they get some of their things sorted for the rest of the album.

The Ponies and a few Gryphons below make some space for each other to discuss the performance with their friends. I personally really liked their songs: some of them I recognized, while others were completely new. They definitely had talent. Or magic. Maybe both.

“It’s not polite to listen in, you know.” I say still looking down below with a smile.

“...”

“...”

“We apologise for it, but… we were terribly curious as to where you went and I must say: you have handled that quite well. Are you or any of your family - nobles?” Serenade replies.

“They could be considered noble people, yes.”

“So they are of high standing within your land?”

“I mean… you say that like you assume: I have a land.”

“You do not?”

“As far as I know, I am the only one of my kind in this world.”

“...Where do you come from?” Platinum quizzes.

“I wouldn’t be able to tell you the exact coordinates. But I am not of Equestria at least. I arrived to Equestria recently, via somebody teleporting me.” She looks sceptic.

“You were… teleported to Equestria from a different land? For what purpose?”

“No clue. I think I know who did it, but I doubt it was them.”

“So then what about your parents?”

“Oh no, they were human.”

“Hue-mahn? I am afr- Oh. Oh, I’m… I am so sorry for-...” Hm? Oh yeah.

“Don’t worry about it... Let’s change the subject to something brighter: was that Pony hit by rainbow lightning?” I point at a mare in the crowd.

“What-? Oh. Oh-” At first they both look appalled at my casual tone, but when they see who I’m pointing at they chuckle for a bit at my dark humour.

“No, I believe that is… officer Rainbow Dash and her mane is completely natural. Or so she says.” Platinum answers.

“You know people in the army?” Serenade looks at me oddly as if almost with sadness, but says nothing.

“Well, I know a few popular ones. She just so happens to be a promising Wonderbolt and possibly even a candidate for a captain of the Solar Guard. And now that you have said it, the officer does actually act like she has been charged by lightning.”

“Wonderbolt?” She already one?

“Yes. You don’t know what a Wonderbolt is?”

“I literally said twenty seconds ago, that I have been teleported to Equestria, from lands unknown to you. So let’s just assume, that I have been living under a rock for the past couple million years and I know nothing of the modern news.” She smirks and shakes her head in disappointment. Oi.

“The Wonderbolts are the aerial grace of Equestria. Of it’s might and freedom in the skies. They also do shows every once in a while, presenting new recruits who they think will eventually become greatest wonderbolts.”

“Right, so I guess that means: there are no Unicorns with them. What about Thestrals?” Platinum opens her mouth and turns to Moonlit, while she herself has her eyes wide open and pupils shrunk. Did… did I say something?

“Sorry, I guess we just realized, that never in Equestrian history have actually Thestrals been recruited into Wonderbolts.” Seems racist.

“Seems a bit racist, but I guess this aerial grace only flies during the day. Although: a Thestral could technically adapt to a different sleeping schedule, right?”

“Yes, and I suppose: I am a little confused as to why that is. Anyway: you are close to the Dazzlings, correct?”

“I am a little, why do you ask?” Platinum fidgets on her bare hooves.

“Well it’s just that not everyone is able to get a VIP ticket to a show, unless they are a noble, or a close friend.”

“I don’t even know how I got one. I mean I do, I just don’t get the why.”

“Well that’s-”

“A-nd we’re back!” “WORHOO!”

“Is that a mating call or somethin’?” Serenade bends over in an instant and begins coughing, while Platinum grabs the railing with one hand and covers her grin with the other, making weird noises.

“It d-does sounds li-ike o-one.” “Oh dear me, you are so crude. I don’t believe I have ever heard anyone say something so- so-...”

“Blunt?” Serenade nods.

“Yes.”

We laugh a little together and enjoy the rest of the evening, occasionally chatting and making fun of certain types of people. Apparently: Moonlit isn’t a noble, but she is high ranking and works at the palace and even invited me for tea at her place. I didn’t say no, but I also wasn’t exactly rushing to it either so I told her: ‘If I am ever in the area’. When the last song ends and we stop head-banging, I decide to ask Platinum something.

“So how do you and Sunset know each other exactly?” She smiles toothily, moving her hair, or mane if you prefer, to the side.

“We work together at the castle and she told me a few things about you, but you’re nothing like I expected.”

“In a good or bad way?”

“In a good way.” Platinum’s smile turns kind.

“So I guess: you two are working for princess Luna.” She gives a nod. “I heard she wanted to meet and talk with me, does she still want to?” Her smile grows a little.

“I am sure she does.”

“I might be able to visit tomorrow after I take care of some of my business. When are the visiting hours?”

“I suggest arriving at four in the day, will you be able to make it?”

“Yeah I am. Just give her majesty a heads-up for me please, would you?”

“Of course.” She looks to my right. “Oh, hi Sunset.”

“Hi Platinum.” I jump around, land slightly crouched and point a finger at the orange-ish Unicorn.

“HA! You can’t creep up on me no more Sunset Shimmer.” Now that I think about it, her colour is the most human I’ve seen so far. She raises an eyebrow, smirking.

“That was a double negative.” I look downward, processing her statement.

“Fek.”

“So how were your evenings?” I rise back up.

“It was alright.” “Amazing.” “It was a pleasant change of pace.”

“Oh uh- hello. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced yet?” Sunset asks extending her hand.

“I am Serenade and you must be Sunset. Your friends were talking about you quite a bit.” Sunset smirks for some reason.

“I don’t think Vadon counts himself as my friend.” I walk over to her side lean in.

“And do you agree?”

“I am… unsure. But I would like for you to be my friend.” She looks up at me.

“Sunset… I would just like for you to know: you are incredibly tenacious.”

“That is why I am the princesses’ student after all.” Can’t argue with that. Well I can, but won’t.

“Where are the girls right now?”

“Girls?” Platinum asks in confusion.

“He means the Dazzlings. They are backstage, packing up, but you can go tell your thoughts to them right now if you want.”

“I think I’ll do just that, good night ladies.” I start walking away.

“Vadon, I am going to head to the palace after this, there are things I have to check up on, so I might not be able to come back home tonight at all.”

“Al-right? Thanks for telling me I guess, see ya!”

“Bye!” I take quick step down the stairs. “So what do you thi-” Sunset fades away, replaced by a cacophony of voices.

Ponies are leaving through the main doors and I see a certain mare within them exclaim: ‘Best- time- of my life!’, she notices me and waves happily. I smile back and simply raise my right hand, pulling down two fingers. The crowd seem incredibly tired, but all they look happy. A few take notice of me, but give nothing but lax surprise and carry on their way. Making my way to the stage I climb onto it with a leap, grabbing the edge for support. The light wood gives a few dull thuds as I stride across it.

Going behind the curtains, I see a door slightly ajar with light and voices coming through.

“-e was really excited to meet us, wasn’t she?” I recognize Adagio

“Yeah, but isn’t she like… in the guard or somethin’? Aren’t they all grumps?”

“She’s a Wonderbolt, I believe. Maybe-” I make an action I have not done in over a decade: I knock politely. “Yes, who is it?” I push open the door.

The space behind is a typical backstage room with a few big mirrors above a long wall mounted table. A few high metal stools are placed around here and there, one of them has Sonata with her legs spread and her arms placed between them, holding the edge of the soft seat. The other two are standing near their sportbags.

“Hi Sonata, hi Aria, hi Twat.” A smile rests on my face.

“Sup?” “Ohi!” “...What’s a twat?” Adagio asks with that false niceness, tinted with amusement.

“Ask your bouncer. That was a pretty amazing show.” Or at least I think it was, I mean: the crowd liked it and I liked it, but I was always bad at this sort of thing.

“Thanks.” Adagio narrows her eyes.

“But that sounded more like Metal, than Rock.”

“It’s technically Hard Rock, but yes: we decided to make this album a little heavier than our other ones.”

“So I noticed. I met these two mares and we had a bit of fun together.”

“Oh?” The orange musician inquires, putting away her electric guitar into a black bag.

“Yeah. Platinum and Serenade, you know them?”

“...I know Platinum, but wait... is Serenade a dark blue Unicorn?” I nod and hum. “Then yes: I know her. Briefly. So what did you think of them?”

“There is definitely more to them, than meets the eye. Bu-ut… I might just be paranoid.” She zips up the bag and puts it on and looks at me with a sort of smugness.

“So why did you call me a twat?”

“You lied about my description.”

“...What part?”

“Figure it out.”

“Well it’s definitely not rude and short. The only one that I can think of is… egocentric? But you are. You do know what egocentric means, right?” Dagi asks in a condescending tone.

“Egocentric - thinking only of oneself, without any regard for the feelings and desires of others. I am not egocentric.” She opens her mouth and her brows furrow. “Anyway, are you lot heading back home? We might as well go together then.”

“Yeah sure, we’re packed up. Just have to close behind us, the rest is up to those who maintain this place.” Aria speaks up, grabbing the other sport bag and shooting a smirk at her still processing sister, whose eyelids become rapidly closer. “I told you he would find out.”

“Eh, maybe she was counting on it, either way I only care about the lie, the others are all true as far as I’m concerned.” Yup, old behaviour at it’s finest. Need to fix this tonight, otherwise - problems.

Adagio looks at me rather disconcertingly, although I am too tired from today’s activities for it to really unsettle me. I hear a click behind me as one of them closes the door. I walk out onto the stage and see a mare with a mop in bucket. When she sees me she let’s out a little squeak and drops the bucket, managing to not spill any water.

I reel back and scrunch up my face “Am I that terrifying?”

“Yeah.” Adagio walks past me.

“Don’t worry! You’re just… something they haven’t seen before. Plus you’re not a that well known species, so-o…” If an Alien appeared on my doorstep: I’d first offer some tea, then scream, but only if it opened its’ mouths.

“Right. Well it’s not that it offends me, I just want to know why this exact reaction.” I motion to the mare who looks a bit ashamed and is trying to fade into inexistence by mopping the stage.

“Ponies are just like that. That’s my explanation.” Aria comments, following Sonata down a ladder that has been moved up to the stage’s edge.

I glance at the mare, who doesn’t look like she wants to fall through the ground anymore, but still seems a bit ashamed. I tsk and hop off the stage and land with a clack on the stone floor.

The starry air outside is a bit chilly, but not too noticeable. The mostly empty street is dark: it seems that some lamps were skipped after a certain point, but there is enough light to illuminate the place. I see the Sirens wishing the waving bouncers a good night, as the two ‘MEN’ lumber away. I couldn’t see the third one anywhere and it honestly was the least of my concerns as Adagio turns around and gives me a look. That look. The look that desires its’ victim to beg and plead for mercy and forgiveness and then maybe… just maybe it will let you explain why you have done what you did. Underneath that look was a smile.

“Twat is a bit overboard, don’t you think?” Not really - you were pretty unpleasant at times.

“Yeah, I’m… I’m sorry. I am. And good news: technically I should stop acting, like- this,” I motion to myself. All of me. “-by tomorrow. Something has just been messin’ with my head lately.” They look at me as if I’ve split in two

“...What are you doing down there?” I don’t have a secret meth lab! Do you!?.

“Stuff. Mostly.” Adagio lowers her brow.

“Mostly?” Two quick nods escape me. “I am not completely certain, but I think: you might be one of the most complicated creatures I’ve ever met.” She says, nearing me.

“Tha-nk yo-u, Po-ny.” I say, adding a vibration to my words.

“Ah- about that. I actually wanted to tell you… well… we three aren’t actually Ponies.”

“I know.”

“Ye- wait what? You know? Since when!?”

“Yeah Dagi, Donny knew for a while. You didn’t know he knew?” Sonata chimes in.

“Since I first saw your hair.” Adagio gets a confused look and shuffles the orange mass on her head.

“What’s wrong with our manes?”

“Nothing. They are not intimidating and physics defying at all. You must have a really strong neck.” She looks at me as if I’m spouting nonsense and releases defeated sigh.

“You’re awful, you know that?” I pout and look down with a sad expression. It was probably ugly.

They walk into a dark alleyway, with me close behind. I can’t see very well, but I guess they know the way, so I’m sticking close behind Aria and Sonata.

“Donny?” I whisper to the blue Siren.

“Sonata!”

I see her head start to turn and she suddenly lurches left. No. Aria pushes her shoulder into Sonata, making her sister nearly fall. An… odd sound and a cry of of pain ring out in the alleyway, making my eyes start adapting to the darkness. I hear the same sound, although this time it sounds in… reverse?

“Aria!” Adagio shouts.

Since the space in front of the girls is no longer obstructed, I can see a dark figure slowly pulling something out of an area right below Aria’s chest. No, wait. He wasn’t moving slowly, I was reacting fast.

I see the vague shape of the attackers hand twist to better help them hit… Adagio, who is trying to get to Aria. And at the trajectory it’s moving, the blade of thei- his weapon will hit Adagio’s throat.

Now, my thought process was as so in the moment:

1: Someone is trying to kill my hosts and clearly doesn’t want any money or anything else, so his primary objective: is to kill the musicians.

2: Since I don’t want to have to find a new home to live in or spend any time in jail if their deaths are blamed on me, means that keeping Sonata/Aria/Adagio safe and alive is my top priority at the moment.

3: He wants to hurt someone who is nice to me and I feel like finding someone who is genuinely nice is not an easy task.

3.5: Process result: Objective - incapacitate the fucker.

Note to process later: I thought of all this in less than half a second. Well damn.

My body was already moving on note two, so you could say I made a decision prematurely. Which I am grateful for, because whoever the attacker was - they were fast. I was faster though. Shooting my right palm forward, I connect with his arm making him miss his target by a few centimeters. While my brain is still in slow mode, I keep pushing and move my left arm to grab the clothing on their chest. Getting a hold of a hefty chunk, I twist and bend my legs pushing them away, further into the alleway.

After I finish my shove, time goes back to normal and colour seeps into the world. My irises must having been expanding and constricting, because the dirty-orange stallion kept becoming dark and bright within the span of a few seconds. He looks at me, surprise evident in his green eyes, which quickly turns into anger. I hear shuffling behind me.

“Is she alright?”

“No, the wound seems pretty deep.” I glance to the wide kitchen knife with blood dripping off. A loud hiss sounds out behind me.

“Grab her and get to the nearest hospital.”

“Vadon, what about you?”

“I’ll be fine.”

“But-”

“I will be fine, now go!”

“...We’ll find some help, just don’t do anything stupid. Sunset would never forgive me.”

“Then I’ll try not to kill him too badly.” The stallion’s eyes widen and he comes charging.

I smoothly bend my upper half backwards and balance myself on a single leg, while kicking out with the other, aiming for his abdomen. The hit connects and he seems to lose his breath, but not focus as he goes to grab my leg and stab it. I reach forward and give mean jab right in his muzzle, the knife nearly cuts me and I heard a few cracks as my fist connected. My whole arm shattered from the impact. Or at least, that’s what it’s lower half felt like. I make some space between me and him. His face isn’t bleeding, or at least I can’t see any blood, but I guess it was quite painful. I hear the sound of boots against stone behind me get distant.

“You always protect them, I saw you defend them at the market the other day and you’re doing it now. Why? They are monsters!” I stare at him for a bit.

“I have my reasons.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”

“I do want to hurt you, and I will if I want to.”

His eyes narrow and I almost thought he’d say something like: ‘So be it’. My eyes have fully adapted to the dark and I am now fully in control of how much adrenaline I wish to use. I trained myself to use it in doses whenever I need, but I can do it only if the flow is already there.

The guy is wearing a simple brown short-sleeved jacket and jeans. Since he is an Earth type and pretty well toned, his punches will have a lot more force behind them, or at least: that’s what I got from our discussions with Sunset. Basically, it means: I can’t let him hit me or he might literally break me in half.

Since Ponies telegraph their movement so much, it made it a little easier to predict his next action. He went for a wide diagonal swing from right to left, so I sidestepped to my left. I guess he was expecting me to do exactly that, because as soon as I got out of the way: he faced his whole torso to me and went for a stab. Since he was a bit taller than me: his stab was a going at a slight angle downward. I decided to use this to my advantage.

I take a step back back, but keep my other foot in the same position. When the knife’s tip gets close to my right shoulder: I twist my body so that the blade would move roughly in front of me. At the same time: I raise my right hand to smoothly push his arm away near his elbow, making him miss spectacularly, but that wasn’t the only thing I was doing. Since I knew that he is going to keep moving forward, I made some space between his appendage and my chest, so that my already moving left fist can fit through. And fit through it did. There wasn’t even enough time for him to blink before my other fist broke against his mug. Well, not really, but it felt like it had. Even more than the other one.

Since my hands were hurting, I resorted to a strategy I came up with a while ago: ‘If you can’t punch them, grab your enemy and throw them around’. And I did just that, man, aren’t I smart?

Getting a sloppy grip one the front of his jacket, which I realised: is actual leather, I twist my entire body and throw him against the closest wall. His weight did not help, but I at least had some muscles. And I used almost all of them to make sure his senses get messed up at least for a moment. At the impact against the stone wall, he lets out an audible grunt and falls to the bottom of the surface, dropping the bloody knife, which clatters down a short distance away from him. I start approaching him and dodge, when he tries to buck me while still sitting on the ground. I give a kick of my own, but hit the wall instead of the head that moves, so I quickly half-jump, half-kick with my other leg, the wide heel connecting with his nose. A crack and I hear half-shout, half-grunt as I right my balance on top of him.

I reach for the dagger behind my back, pulling it out in a reverse grip. I give a stomp on his stomach, making him start coughing and ready my dagger. I bend my knees and back, when he finally looks up at me and his eyes dilate. I stab. He sings.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Adagio Dazzle

For the last, what felt like hour, but was probably only a couple of minutes I keep hearing my sisters ragged breathing as Sonata and I carry her through the lit street. Just hang in there Blazy. Hang in there for a little longer, we’re nearly there. Suddenly: I think I faintly hear a scream in the distance and look at Sonata for confirmation. I see her looking at me for an explanation as well with worry and fear clear on her muzzle, so I can safely assume: I have not imagined it. It might seem immoral and selfish to some, but at the moment: I didn’t really care about Vadon. Maybe there was a little voice in my head telling me to find some guards as quickly as possible, maybe there wasn’t. Either way: I ignored both it and the scream. Sonata might have had a different opinion though, judging by the swinging of her head and narrowed eyes.

After some time: Aria managed to slow down her bleeding, coming from the hole under her breast. After all these years, I’m still not used to these things. How the Ponies deal with them their whole lives, I have no idea.

Where is the blasted hospital? Just as I think that, a tall building with a red cross painted on it and lights inside the windows appears around the end of the corner. I breath in relief and with a newfound vigor, trudge toward the hospital. Now that I have my intended target in sight, I pay a little more attention to the now not-so-quiet voice in my head. Where are the guards? Did Celestia send all of them out of the city or what? Of course I doubt she did, since the number of only Solar guard rounds about to something close to seven thousand troops, the Lunar following behind with three… that’s what it was all those years ago anyway.

I push open the half-glass double door for us and enter a typical hospital with bright bluish-white walls and a dark-green, almost jade, floor. We start quickly approaching the mare behind the white counter.

“Hello and welcome to- Oh my goodness! What happened to her!?” The nurse rushes over to us.

“Aria got stabbed by someone in an alleyway. The wound looks deep, she needs medical attention, now.” She nods and tells us to wait here, while she finds a doctor.

A few seconds pass and she comes back with a yellow-green Pegasus in a white lab-coat. She introduces him as Serene Excision, the doctor takes a look at Aria’s wound and narrows his eyes at the sight of it. He tells us to bring her into one of the free surgery rooms.

In the operatory, there is a Unicorn mare getting a set of gloves ready. Doctor Excision asks us to gently lay Aria on the table, while he puts on a pair of white gloves. The sky-blue mare pulls up a cart with tray of surgical tools and the young-looking doctor puts on glasses, which confuses me a little since I’ve never seen a Pegasus wear some. It’s an odd sight.

“What happened?” The assistant mare asks us.

“We got attacked in an alley,-” I say placing my bag on a nearby chair. Aria dropped hers’ in the backstreet “-Aria is the only one that got hurt as you can see. How bad is it?” I ask the Pegasus, who manages to gently look at the damage done, without causing any visible pain or discomfort to my sister.

“Hmm. The laceration will definitely have to be sterilised and stitched, but I couldn’t see any damage done, so I guess that is the good news.” The assistants horn lights up a jade hue as she holds a snow-white towel to the cut, making Aria release a hiss and tense for a bit, forming a grimace.

“What was she attacked with?” Serene pulls out a needle and string from tubes filled with liquid.

“It was very dark, so I couldn’t see all that well, but I think it was a knife. A big one.”

“Hmm. A dagger?” Sonata shakes her head.

“No, I was closer at the time and it looked like a kitchen knife to me. Maybe a chef’s knife.”

“Hmm. Well, in any case-” There is a knock and the door opens to reveal the desk mare.

“Um- excuse me. The guards are here, asking for the questioning of any of the victims about the incident.” Mine and Sonata’s eyes meet and I give her a nod.

Sonata walks up to the door and I hear the mare asking to follow her. I look at Aria who smiles, calming me a little on the inside. The doctors’ voice breaks me out of my silent gaze.

“-aid, i will have to ask you to leave, miss. Procedure demands, that during any medical operation, nopony besides the medical staff and the patient must be in the room.”

“Oh uh- Sure. I understand.” I give one last glance at Aria, before exiting out, into the hallway.

Choosing to find my attesting sister, I go back to the main hall and see the one I’m looking for with two Lunar guards.

“I’m sorry miss Dazzle, but could you repeat that?” The desk mare comes up to me, asking me to fill in the patient form.

“I said: Vadon. V-A-D-O-N. We left him in the backstreet near the concert hall with the assailant. Please, he told us: he will hold them off, and we promised to get some help, but he isn’t very strong. Please find him quickly!”

“Of course miss, please calm yourself. What does he look like?”

“Well, he isn’t a Pony, he’s wearing a blue suit jacket and-!” A loud slam comes from the front door.

“ADAGIO!”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Me

I sigh in despair, frustration and every other negative emotion, but also satisfaction as finish carving out the last rune around the wound of the tied up stallion on my work table. I had carried both him and the bag, that Aria dropped when she was attacked, back home. I had dropped the limp body on the table, tied it up and began working my magic on the corpse.

The dagger, as I had guessed, drained the soul of the guy into itself. His soul wasn’t sucked in instantly though, and was probably a really painful process, if his screams were anything to go by. It didn’t, thankfully for him, last longer than five seconds.

Apparently: flesh is not an easy material to write out runes on. Especially if the muscles are all relaxed. So in order to not render the body useless, I had spent the last ten or so minutes inscribing, with surgical precision, the matrix I required to be spread out along certain parts of his body, occasionally checking with the book an notes.

I was surprised at how easy it was to carry a corpse through the admittedly empty city. I was approached by a night guard who asked where I was carrying the citizen. I was almost tempted to give him into the guard, before I realized that he wasn’t alive at the moment and I’d have to explain the concept of necromancy to the gua-rd… yeah. So instead I replied with: ‘To my friends house. We were at a party and he didn’t last long as you can see’, there was a brief moment of silence as he studied my face, before he said: ‘Carry on. Have a good night’.

I pick up pure black dagger, as the runes on it now have a dancing eerie cyan light. I feel nothing but calm however, as I look at the container. I could stick him into my armour through the sheath, but I am unsure if I would be able to get him back out. I also trust him more trapped in his own body, rather than anything of mine. I didn’t make him immortal in any way, if it were that easy: I would have done so on myself a while ago. But: I am reviving him and… adding a few mechanisms in place beforehand.

I insert the dagger back into the wound, and as soon as the edges of the wound touch the hilt: the light flows into the body and I faintly see it spreading out in webbing patterns under the skin to his head. I pull out the blade and a hiss permeates through the air as the guy comes to life with a sharp gasp, before starting to cough violently. He starts blinking and squinting at the bright light. Earlier: I made sure, that the rope doesn’t restrict his air flow and closed his eyes, so they wouldn’t dry.

The runic array on him flashes my trademark colour, before becoming a design of wide lines and turning completely black, as if the fur has been charred and I notice the flesh on his chest fused, as if from heat. I’m mentally exhausted, but I would not back down. Not now.

“Wh-what? Where-?” The brownish ‘no longer corpse’ rasps.

“Hello there.”

“What? Who-?” He breaks into another fit of coughs.

“You died.” I state, matter of factly.

“What?” He asks in incomprehensible confusion.

“You have been brought here to be judged.”

“Oh Celestia. So the afterlife exists huh?.. I am not afraid.” ...What.

“Are you sure about that?”

“Of course. I have done nothing wrong in my… past life.” He thinks he’s in purgatory?... lol.

“The laws would state otherwise.” The thoughtful look on his face twist into one of either fear or confusion.

“What, but… what laws?”

“You have attempted to kill another being.” And I’m pretty sure, that murder is illegal.

“But… they deserved it!”

“Why?”

“Don’t you know? Who are you even!?” He can simply turn his head… I guess the muscles in his neck are numb.

“Humour me. Why do you think they deserved death?”

“They… they killed my family!” …Well that’s unexpected. “How is that not deserving!?”

“Quiet mortal. Lower your voice, or I will put you back into limbo.” He gets confused.

“Li-” His eyes widen in fear and he falls silent. I see the muscles in his neck twitch, as he painfully slowly moves his head to me. “I am not dead.”

“No. You are very much alive. I brought you back.” He stares at me with a sort of horrified expression and mouth agape “As far as I am concerned. There is no afterlife. So you would have just faded into nothing as everyone forgot that you even existed. But I brought you back for a reason. Talk.”

“I- I remember you. You- you kil-”

“Yes. I killed you and I brought you back. I can do so again. Now: about that reason.” He visibly gulps, but grimasses a bit. “Water?”

“Yes please.”

“I would like for you to know: you will not be able to get far if you try to escape.” I inform him, getting up from my chair. I quickly go to grab half a glass of water and bring it back equally as fast.

“What- what do you want to know?” He asks after quenching his dried throat.

“...”

“...? …! Ah. Yes, those monsters killed and… and…”

“An-d?”

“Ate my wife and children.” I stare at him. Just stare. What… the fuck.

“Ohhkay… And when did this happen exactly?”

“Bluey - my wife and Minty - our daughter, really liked... their performances. And- one day: they told me that they are going to go get an album signed by them at a place. I was working at the restaurant that day, I am a chef you see. That’s why I wasn’t able to go with them even though I’m more of a classic enthusiast.” A deep breath. “So they went to this place, where those- those- fucking-”

“...”

“I’m…” His lip quivers for a moment before he takes a shuddering breath. “This was the same day the storm happened. I already got home, but they weren’t there yet. I was a wondering what took them so long and then the Queen announced, that everypony is to stay in their houses and I got a bit worried, since I’ve read the newspapers about the infamous fucking thing... Sorry for the language, but… I should have been there.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know all the details. I was sitting home and when the clouds fell over the city, I was worried the whole week, but I was saved by the fact that the royal guard was evacuating some ponies from the streets, who couldn’t get to their homes in time, so I was hoping that they were safe after all.” His face twists into an expression I don’t recognize. “The storm ended and two days passed. I was getting really concerned, almost panicked. Today: I decided to go around town, ask a few ponies if they have seen anypony with their descriptions. I was about to go to the palace and ask some of my friends from my time in the guard, when I was a- approached by three Ponies. They were fairly young, maybe the age of a graduate school student. They asked who I was looking for and I told them and begged to tell me if they had seen them. They looked at each other apprehensively and said: they knew where they were, a- and... gave me t- this photograph.” He stares into empty air with fury and I think he even wants to cry, but can’t. “It had my… my dear Bluey and…” He shuts his eyes tight. “Minty.”

“...Do you have the picture with you?” He stays silent for a bit before replying with dead voice.

“In the inner pocket of my jacket.” I silent walk over to the garment. Nope. No. ...Aha! There it is, now:-

“...”

The... picture… had quite the shot captured on it, which had quite the effect on me. While I am not that easily disturbed by most things gory and twisted, I think that: corpses of two people with chunks eaten off and bloodshot eyes frozen wide would leave most a little bit speechless. I had the faintest urge to vomit as I stared in disgust and a sort of… horror at the ridiculous scene before me.

The light-blue… Pegasus mare, with an eaten out stomach area and half of her wings missing, was laying on her side on cobblestone ground. Behind her, with a reaching arm, that had missing flesh in places surrounded by teeth marks, was a mint-coloured filly, half the size of her apparent mother. Both of them had most of their clothes ripped or in tatters, their mouths open in screams of agony.

The most fucked-up detail about all of this? The blood splotches were only near the missing parts or on clothes, as if the one eating was biting with surgical precision. I guess: so that the victim wouldn’t bleed out during the feast.

My conscious thoughts turned into subconscious ones as questions began to form in the back of my mind, to be solved by using the knowledge I already have. Such as: how did they die? They obviously didn’t die from blood loss, if the mothers expression is anything to go by. I see through a part of the revealed ribcage of the mare, where there is a missing heart. Ah...That would do it.

“...What… What happened then?”

“I had a much worse reaction than yours and at first: I refused to believe it. I demanded to know where they took the picture and they said it is near one of the private storage areas, which is near to the place, where Blue and Minty went a week a go to get signatures from those fucking Sirens.” He knows they are Sirens? I am surprised, but manage to not show any outward emotion. “So I go to the place and I s- see a group of guards closing off the perimeter around the same barn the students told me they took the picture at. I felt fear, unlike any other. I also felt denial until I literally bust through the perimeter and… and saw it… them. I was devastated, the guard tried to pull me out, but I kept trying to get to them... I told the guards who the bodies were.”

I finally realized this happened today.

“I- I watched them burn today. The guards started questioning me on what I know about this and all I said is that I found out from that photo. They said that they will find those who did this and punish them within the law. I would not have any of that. I went back home, got my knife and waited in the alleyway after their concert was done.”

“When was this photo taken?”

“Today.”

“Where the bodies in the same state as in this picture?” He gives a nod. The bones were visible. “...And where was your wife during the storm?”

“I don’t know, but I think those monsters held her at their house, before bringing her to that storage.”

“The Dazzlings?”

“Who else?”

“Well you see: that’s incorrect. I have been living with them while the storm was here and I think I’d see a mare with a child somewhere in here.”

“In here?”

“You are in their house.” His green eyes widen.

“What! Where are they!? I knew you were with them!” He shouts in rage.

“Calm down. They did not eat anybody, especially not your family.” As far as I know...

“...Do you swear?”

“I swear. Look. If they have eaten them: why would they leave the bodies in some storage facility and why would I kill you and then revive you? If I had been with them, wouldn’t it make sense for me to dispose of you?” He begins thinking rationally at last.

“...So- So they are not Sirens?”

“No, they are Sirens, but as far as I know: they don’t eat Ponies or any other sapient life-form. Which brings me to my next question: how do you know what they are?”

“The teenagers told me that they have been watching them do this sort of thing for a while… or… at least I think they did. Did they?”

“You don’t know?”

“I- I don’t… remember?” My brows raise in curiosity. Did I accidentally damage his memories?

“And you didn’t find it strange, that they haven’t reported this to any authorities?”

“I- I didn’t? I- I- I can’t. It hurts. Why does it hurt?” I narrow my eyes.

“Do you remember your name?”

“Of course. My name is Rusty Cover.” …Not a very good name for a guard.

“You were in the royal guard?”

“Yeah, as a private. Two years. I got kicked out because I was ‘too violent’ and rash.” Hm-hm.

“You were too violent…. In the military?”

“My methods were.” Right.

“Right. I mean… I know your first decision was to murder us, I would probably too, if someone showed me a similar picture of someone I care about. But I just don’t believe you.” His gaze is set on me for a little longer before he sighs.

“Well, that is the official reason at lest. You see: Bluey actually used to work at the restaurant I am working at now. But… there was an unforeseen event about seven months back. We found out that we are going to get a new addition to the family.”

-the monsters killed and ate my wife and children. -ren.

…So first of all: he doesn’t know that they have been eaten alive. And two: whoever did this, had a snack on an unborn child. You see: when I feel the need to hide something I don’t want someone else to know, my lips contort into a natural tiny, practically unnoticeable smile. Which is, sort of, my usual conversation face. I guess it wasn’t exactly the appropriate moment to do that, so I suppressed the urge as quickly as I could.

“While the pay at the guard is not something to scoff at, it wouldn’t be able to sustain four ponies. And so: my wife suggested me to work at her place. The payment was good if the clients were there and by the words of others: I was a pretty decent cook. But the thing is: what many don’t know - is that you can’t simply leave the guard, at least not until you’ve completed you are at least an officer. And our captain, Celestia bless her, was kind enough and understanding, so she… she might have made it so I was discharged from the guard for making rash decisions and disobeying orders. Of course those decisions payed of in our platoons favour, but I couldn’t sustain my family with just the army so I had to abandon my dream... for another.” He chuckles at something. “I know: it is kinda funny. But I felt more responsible for the situation in my little herd, because my father was a Pegasus and I guess some of his mentality rubbed off on me.” Rusty smiles. “Bluey understood though, since she was a Pegasus herself.” He gets a pained look and mutters: ‘Was’.

It seems like his memory is intact, unless he is lying: in which case - all this was pointless.

I have so many theories, but no facts to actually back them up. I need Adagio and the rest... Wait: what if this was all a distraction while an accomplice goes after them along their way to the hospital? Fuck.

“...I need some professional opinions. Do you know where the nearest hospital is?” He nods.

“Yeah: it’s near the central square-”

“Which is a big circle, right?”

“...Yes. Uh… it’s around there. Why do you need a hospital?”

“To talk with someone who you put in there.” I notice him flinch and a shadow of guilt appear on his face. “I’m going to leave you tied up here, I’ll try to be quick-” For multiple reasons. “-so don’t bother trying to escape. If I come back and you’re not here, I will activate the runes from a distance and you will violently explode.” I say, picking up the little makeshift remote control/compass I made from scrap and blue crystals.

“Wait what?”

“Yeah, I know. Not the best thing to say, to seem on the good side of the moral scale, but it’s safety measures you know?” Rusty looks at me mouth agape.

“What kind of safety measures are those!?” I throw on my jacket.

“Safe ones. Now hush and be a good boy, and maybe you won’t die.”

“Maybe!?”

“I’m not sure if this magic is stable or not.”

“WHAT!?”

I shut the door behind me, leaving the light on. Closing the door behind me, I sprint through the night, fully awake. Arriving at the giant city-centre I see a couple of Ponies walking from what looks like a night-club. I run up to them, asking if they know where the nearest to the concert hall hospital is and as per usual: they act surprised, but this time the reaction is more akin to: So cool du-de. They helpfully point at a one of the branching off streets and give me some directions. I thank them and get on my merry way. Well… maybe not so much as merry as much as breakneck speeds, but semantics.

I finally see a three story high building with a red cross drawn on the front wall. Wonder what’s in there. I see two Thestrals in blue and black armour standing in the main hallway with who seems to be Sonata. I charge the glass doors and slap one of them open.

“ADAGIO!”

Everyone reacts differently. The Thestrals spin around and pull out their swords and freeze gaping at me, Sonata blinks and I think I see tears form in her eyes. I thought I saw a mare standing beside Adagio, over at the desk, but I am not too sure. And of course: the mare whose name has been spoken, just blinks at me with surprised eyes.

“Adagio, I need you to tell me something.” I start heavily striding over to her.

“Excuse me… sir. But who are you?” One of the bat-ponies asks. I’ve noticed, that the night guards’ armour has more curves to the designs on it, while the day guards’ looks kinda… blocky?

“I am Vadon, nice to meet you. That is all you need to know.” Especially, that I am no longer a law-abiding citizen. “Now: Adagio-” I hear the guards behind me mutter something like: ‘Quickest solved case ever’. “-no wait: first of all - how is Aria?”

“The wound is deep and she might have lost a bit of blood, but thankfully: nothing too serious. She is in surgery now, getting stitches. What about you?”

“Hm. About that.” I see someone peek from behind the front desk. “Could you come over here with me for a moment?”

“Uh sure?” We walk deep into one of the hallways.

“Right. So:-” I take a deep breath “-have you or have you not ever killed or helped kill a Pony?”

“...Vadon, what did you do?”

“I killed a Pony, but that doesn’t matter. Have you ever killed a Pony or no?”

“What do you mean it doesn’t matter!?” She throws her arms out.

“He’s alive again, so it’s fine. Just answer the question and stop please shouting.”

“What? No I have never killed anyone ever. Why would even ask that?”

“Right, so: have your sisters ever done so?”

“Vadon, what’s with these questions!?”

“Look: I’m freaking out here, okay!? I don’t know what to do!” She inhales deeply and counts in her head.

“Is everything alright over there?” I turn around and give a thumbs up to the Thestral peeking down the hall.

“Just peachy!” He stares for a few moments before nodding and sliding back from view. I look at Adagio.

“Alright, start from the beginning.”

I tell her almost everything that happened and what Rusty told me, skipping out on a few grizzly details and by the end: she still looks a bit green.

“...I-Uh-I… I don’t know what to say about the whole situation, except: this is really fucked up.”

“If he didn’t lie.”

“Even if he didn’t lie.” She looks behind me. “Which I doubt he did.”

“Why is that?”

“Ponies, while capable of violence, don’t usually come up with such horror stories, especially with evidence.”

“So what do we do?”

“What can we do? We can give him in to the guards.”

“Or we could talk to him. I’ve got him tied up.”

“I think that’s a bad idea.”

“Why? Look how well it turned out with me.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t try to kill us with a knife.”

“No, I believe it was the other way around.” She looks at me for a moment.

“Is that why I’m a twat?” I nod. She puts a hand over her face and moans. “I thought you forgot about that already.”

“Nope. How do you forget such a sight?” She glares at me with one eye.

“...I never killed anyone, but I think I might as well commit genocide.” I look at her, she looks at me and slowly becomes uneasy. “I-”

“Very funny. Now: about that thing in the basement.”

“Do you trust him?”

“...I think I actually do. I mean - why would he come up with such a descriptive story and then say that he remembers nothing about how he got the picture?”

“Good point. So you carved out runes on him? Was he awake at the time?”

“You could say: he wasn’t awake.”

“...Or?”

“Or you could say: he was dead.” She stares at me. Then opens her mouth. “But I brought him back.” She continues staring. “Necromancy…- the art of interacting with a soul through magical means.”

“...” ... “Why do I get the feeling, that: that would fall under illegal magic?”

“I dunno’, but everything that is not forbidden is allowed, right?”

“I was right about you. You are dangerous.”

“And so is the Queen, yet you live in her land under her wing.”

“You did something illegal.”

“I brought him back, so that cancels itself out, doesn’t it?

“That’s not what I was talking about. You were using magic on a creature, without their consent.” I look at her incredulously.

“How was he supposed to give his consent!?”

“...I need some time to think.”

“Look: you morally questioning myself and your decisions will not help the current situation and will only waste time. There is somebody out there who wants to kill you and your sisters, and it definitely ain’t me.”

“Well what are your suggestions?”

“Suggestions about what?” Sonata inquires from behind me.

“Hey, are the guards done here? Do you mind checking on Aria for me?” Adagio says, looking over my shoulder.

“Sure thing, Dagi.”

“Thanks.” As soon as I hear Sonata close the door, I look back up at Adagio.

“After we are done here, we go home and you can ask him some questions. I’ll let you judge him and what you want do with him after this - is your own decision.”

“We might be breaking several laws.”

“No. I am breaking several laws and trying to keep you alive.”

“Why?”

“Call it gratitude.” Even though I am not sure myself why… Probably the thrill of the moment.

“I’ll try.” ..he-ey.

“Look. We are both tired… me so more than you, because apparently you literally just ate adrenaline.”

“Adrenaline?”

“A hormone in the body that makes you more excited. At least I think: that is what you eat, but I can’t be certain. Maybe you don’t have a gland that produces it?”

“How do you know about all of these things? First alcohol, now this...”

“I might tell you later, look: we’re losing focus again, let’s-”

“Hey guys!? The doctors are done!” Sonata waves to us and enters back into the room.

“I suggest: you don’t tell them what I told you, until you three are done talking with him.” I say to Adagio, before heading to the operation room.

As I reach the door, it suddenly opens to reveal Aria standing on the other side, fixing the bottom of her ripped and bloodied shirt. She looks up at me in surprise, while Sonata walks up behind her, saying thanks to someone in the room.

“Hi. You alright?” Her hands moves to the wound.

“I’ll live. What’s Adagio doing?” I turn around and see Adagio writing something over at the desk. I shrug.

“No clue.” A toxic yellow Pegasus appears in the doorway.

“Remember, miss Aria: return to us in a week from now. If the wound has healed: I will remove the suture. If, for some reason, it has not - you will need special treatment, which Sterile Zo-” He freezes when he sees me and fixes his glasses “...Which Sterile Zone will provide. And don’t forget: you have to relax and not exert yourself physically. You have already lost quite a bit of blood and I am surprised you are even walking at the moment. Any other Pony would have already passed out.”

“Yeah, well: I am tougher than I look.” He nods.

“Of that I have no doubt.” The doctor turns his eyes to me “I apologize, I am doctor Serene Incision-” What a lovely name. “-may I have yours?”

“I’m Vadon, thank you for saving Aria.”

“Ah! So it was you, who miss Aria was so worried about.” His eyes flicker to his left and he visibly wilts “Ahem. Yes, in any case: I would like to know what you are, I’m afraid: I have never seen anything like you.”

“You wouldn’t be the first one. I am the only one as far as I know.”

“Oh… I am sorry for that. But I believe that one’s family is not restricted to their own race, no?”

“Not really. Unless it’s a hybrid of some kind.”

“Hm. Well in any case: it is nice to meet you. Could you spare a moment for a few questions?”

“I am afraid: I’m short on time. Male, bipedal, mammalian, omnivore - that’s all I’ll tell you for now.”

“Hmm. Thank you and as for your natural magic?”

“No natural magic.”

“I’m...sorry: what? But that’s not possible, every race has some kind of natural connection to the magic field of Terra. How is it possible, that you do not?”

“I didn’t evolve that way I guess.” His brow furrows at the word ‘evolve’.

“Strange. Quite strange. But exciting nonetheless. I thank you for your time, I won’t hold you for any longer. Goodbye mister Vadon.” We nod at each other.

“Goodbye doctor.”

“Miss Aria, are you sure: you don’t wish to stay the night at the hospital? It would greatly help your recovery.”

“I am. Thanks for the concern though, doc.”

Adagio has finished discussing something with the nurse and we finally leave the building. I ask if they want me to carry the other bag, but Adagio chooses to do so herself. I note a quite a few blood splotches leading from a hospital down another street and grimace at the amount. The girls talk about various things and finally come to the topic of who is in their house. Adagio follows my advice and doesn’t tell them what I have found out, but before Aria or Sonata start getting panicked or angry: she eases them by saying, that Rusty is tied up.

They are still a bit pissed though. Understandably.

We come back home and I tell them to wait in the living room, while I go down to get the prisoner. Surprisingly and thankfully - Rusty is still lying on the table and when the rusty stallion hears me come in, he breathes out a sigh of relief.

“So… it seems you didn’t explode.”

“You were serious about that?” I shrug and a look of disbelief appears on his face.

“I will untie your legs, but your arms will remain confined. I’m not going to give you a warning, I’ll just stab you again, got it?” He guls and nods.

“Crystal.” I look at him oddly.

“I said ‘got it’, not ‘is that clear’.”

“Uh- oh yeah. Heh… I understand.” I raise an unseen eyebrow. “I’m just used to my officer always asking ‘is that clear’ and my response to a similar question would still be crystal.” I resist the urge to purse my lips, by gently clenching my teeth.

I untie his legs and get him on his hooves. He’s not wearing a shirt at the moment, so all of the black lines on him are visible, whereas the runes underneath them are not. The scar from where the flesh fused together over the ribcage can be seen as well. He clearly hasn’t been working out lately, if the tiny amount of fat around the fading press cubes is to go by. Oh yeah, also - no nipples. Just fur. He’s at least wearing some pants.

I walk in front of him up the stairs, simply because: I don’t trust him enough, to be behind him. I get my dagger at the ready and push open the door. I’m still surprised it managed to cut through bone. And no: I don’t mean it simply made a hole through it - there was a clean cut, made practically without any resistance. Wonder what it’s made of. I put the thought at the back of my mind as I push open the door.

The girls’ eyes widen at the sight of the tattooed ‘man’, as he sheepishly rubs the back of his head. Adagio sees the fresh scar and looks at me, as if she finally believes me. I might have imagined it, but she had a flash of fear on her muzzle for a moment, replaced by something else. I’m still not very good at recognizing all of their expressions, despite the fact, that they have almost as many muscles as on a human face, positioned in nearly the same manner… For all I know: the looks of fear might have been looks of excitement and lust… While the first one is annoying at times, the second one is truly terrifying.

“So what are you doing here? Are you just going to stand there?” Aria asks harshly in monotone. The guy flinches before looking at her.

“I- I…” His eyes narrow “...What did she taste like?” Rusty ask with almost complete hostility, to which Aria and Sonata understandably get confused.

“What? What kind of question is that!? First you try to kill Sonata and now you’re implying that I like females!?” Rusty, understandably gets confused. Doesn’t stop him though.

“How did my wife and daughter taste like, monster!?” Sonata shrinks back in shock.

“Dude! I did not fuck with your wife nor your daughter! How old even is she!? You look fairly young, so are you assuming I slept with a little filly!?” Ooh boy, this is getting out of control.

“No. He literally is asking you how they tasted like.” Aria looks at me confused. I walk over to her and pull out the picture, then hand it to her. “Meet Bluey and Minty - wife and daughter of Rusty Cover. The photo was taken today.” She stares at it with wide eyes, mouth agape. Sonata gasps and puts a hand up to her mouth, as tears begin to form.

They both look at him him in pity, all the anger gone. I allow myself a look, since the mind-game check and mate is complete. As I expected: Rusty looks a bit confused at their reaction, until realization dawns on him and he gets a guilty look.

“I’m sorry for attacking you, but… well I acted irrationally and it can’t really be forgiven.” As Adagio takes a look at the picture for the first time, her eyes widen and then narrow in anger.

“Why did you think it was us?” She asks, still looking at picture.

“Three... students came up to me and told me that they have been on your tail for a while. They are the ones that gave me that cursed picture.” The leader Siren moves her gaze to him.

“And why did you believe them?”

“I- I don’t know. They were just… honest looking I guess.”

“And how did they look?”

“Well: there were two mares and one stallion. One of the mares was green, while the other two… were also green? Or no, wait… were they?”

“What were they?”

“I-ah, the stallion was a- a unicorn, while the two mares were… I think Earth Ponies?”

“You think?”

“It’s- it’s painful to remember.” The brownish stallion says, gripping the side of his head.

“What kind of green was she?” The guy shuts his eyes “Rusty. What kind of green was she?” A groan escapes his lips.

“A- A sort of… t- teal green. But… Why can’t I remember what she looked like? I know she was a graduate student, but…” Adagio locks on to him like a hawk.

“What makes you say that? Did they tell you?”

“No.. we talked, but… th- they didn’t-”

“What did you talk about?”

“I-” He releases another groan and bends over. “We- I was going to get the guard, but then she asked me what I wanted to do. I- I told her I am not sure, so she… she suggested to exacting justice myself. I thought it was a good idea and agreed that the guard can solve this, but… she suggested? She suggested I should do it myself?” He shouts out in pain and falls to the floor. “Why did I think it was a good idea!?” …

Adagio lets out a shuddering breath and looks down, her eyes start frantically moving around, however she doesn’t seem to be looking at anything in the room. The tall Siren walks past me to the other end of the room and leans on the extinguished fireplace.

“Adagio? You know who did this to him?” She looks at me and sees that I have realized it as well.

“Yeah.” She nods, her voice barely a whisper. “At least I think I do. How did they get here though? Were they always here? No. Then how-?” She looks up wide eyed, before slowly looking out of a window. “No... That is…” She breathes out “It can’t have been… no.” I walk up to Adagio.

“What is it?”

“I think I know who it is and they came with the storm.”

“...” I look over my shoulder “Hey, Rusty!” I exclaim grabbing his attention as he looks at me with pain “Were there any shelters from the storm near the area where the bodies have been found?”

“I- I think there was one, why?” I look back at Adagio and she looks back at me.

“Mass confusion, panic. Guards are trying to save the civilians and accidentally let in whatever has done that to Rusty.” I motion towards him with my head. “Seems a bit plausible to me, the only questions remaining: what the fuck was it and why does it want you three dead?”

“We have to bring this to the attention of the guard or even the queen and princess themselves. If it is what I think it is, then the whole city is in danger.” Yeah… that’s a motivation and a half. “How bold they have grown.”

“Who?” I ask her, a bit annoyed at the cliched suspension. She twists to me.

“...You should not be getting into this. There are monsters out there in the world that cause things such as these.” She hold the photo up to my face. I frown at her.

“Honey. I am capable of being the most evil motherfucker on the planet whos acts eclipse this. So don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t be getting into, because at this point… it’s kinda too late, don’cha think?” I say referring to my murder and dabble in the dark arts. Oh yeah, also turning a guy into a bomb. Which I am kinda am starting to feel bad about, but what can anyone do at this point?

“I did not say evil… I said monster. There is a very small line between those two, but it’s there.” She breathes in deeply and starts walking over to the rising stallion with the help of Sonata. “Rusty, I believe you have had an encounter with a mermaid.” The guy looks up to her in confusion, while Sonata nearly drops him in shock and looks at Adagio, eyes wide.

“What’s a mermaid?”

“What? Adagio, are you sure? How did one get so far on land?”

“Me thinks: twas the storm.” The little Siren snaps to me “Am I right?” I ask Adagio.

“Yes, one couldn’t get so far on land without many pockets of water around. And Rustys’ description matches most of their agents quite accurately.”

“I’m sorry if I’m unknowledgeable or something. But don’t mermaids have a fish tail instead of any appendage that allows them to walk on land? Also: wouldn’t they simply have to get a liquid container to travel in somewhere far inland?”

“Maybe. But if so: that means, that they could have been here for a while. Then why act now?”

“Wait… are they sapient or not?”

“They are.”

“...Then I think: something bigger is going on. Why would they target you personally?”

“Mermaids and Sirens always had… incredibly aggressive relations with each other. To the point of... well... extinction.”

“Right, then why didn’t it come for you personally?” She opens her mouth and then closes it.

“...I don’t know, okay!? Maybe it wanted the thrill of making someone else do it and then killing them itself after telling that she was the one that did it, or maybe it’s not used to being on land! I don’t know.” I sigh and rub my face.

“Then why travel so far from sea and up a mountain, just to kill two specific Ponies of an ex-guard to simply make him kill you?”

“I don’t kno-”

“Yes, yes I know: you don’t know, and neither do I or any of us. Wait… why did you say 'she'?”

“A slip of the tongue. They are more an ‘it’, than ‘she’. Mermaids are all female, but they cannot be considered… mares.”

“...Then how do they reproduce?” She looks at me.

“Guess.” I think for a few moments.

“Oh… oh that’s fucking disgusting. Do they…?” Adagio simply nods. I want a flamethrower. No wait scratch that, I want a tank or a helicopter with a rocket launcher.

“...Get the guard. Get the army. Get an orbital laser.”

“An orbital laser?”

“A powerful thing, that. So powerful, that I am unsure if it even exists.”

“Right. Any real options?”

“Like I said: get the guard. I will not have any sleep tonight. Never drank coffee before, but I guess a first time for everything, right?”

“...Are you going to make some kind of weapon?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.” Rusty makes a comment which everyone ignores.

“Not a weapon… a tool. Rusty, I might be able to get rid of your mental block, but I am unsure if I trust you completely yet.” It also might not work.

“I understand.” A rumbling sound comes from him and he looks ashamed. “Heh, you don’t suppose: I would be able to get something to eat?”

“Are you going to be able to pay for it?” Adagio scrutinizes him.

“Uh- not at the mome- wait I actually have my pouch in my jacket. I can get it if you want… And if he let’s me.” I look at him.

“I suggest you don’t eat anything before I write the rune. The process of activation will be brief, but it might be painful and I doubt you’d want to lose your dinner.” The Pony visibly blanches.

“Are you sure… there is no way to make it painless?”

“Well I will have to literally carve it out on your head and when activated you theoretically should feel a spike of pain and everything will become clearer. Adagio, just one question: do the Mermaids physically alter the mind, or do they use some kind of magic?”

“Yeah, they use their natural magic. They seduce the prey with their looks and then well… you know.” Rusty’s head spins to her.

“But... But she didn’t seduce me! I don’t even remember what she looked like!”

“Was she beautiful?”

“Very, but what doe-” He stops and stares at her. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Best art of seducing. The magic makes it so that you see the most attractive female of your species, by your standards.” ...A high-school student huh?

“Soo… not that I’m an expert… but I’m pretty sure your wife is not ugly.”

“What? Oh, you can’t tell apart... Vadon, his wife actually looks incredibly beautiful for her to already have one child and it would be a bit weird to see his wife giving him the picture of her own corpse.”

‘One and a half’. I mouth to her and she immediately gets the message, her shock quickly turns to anger.

“Right.” She says through clenched teeth and palms. “As to your question, yes it’s their natural magic.”

“Perfect. Come with me Rusty, we’re fixing your head.”

He hesitates a moment before following me into the basement. I ask him to lie on the floor, while I grind up half of a blue crystal, which I cut off using my dagger. I pick up Rustys’ knife, which I have sterilized in boiling water.

You see: the way my aetheric compass works - is that it uses a drop of his blood and it tries to find the anticodon rune on him. Since I couldn’t connect his soul to the GPS, I had to resort to a different method of tracking down a marked target. Which was to use a sample of his DNA and a codon rune, just like in a cell. That’s not what it’s actually called, but for simplicity's sake: I will rename many things.

So I take a moment to form the rune in my head. It’s not a passive rune, which means if his mind gets altered again, another one will have to be made.

“This will sting a bit.” I walk around to his side and begin making the rune.

A bit of blood comes out, since everything is now pumping properly, but it doesn’t distract me. Rusty hisses, but doesn’t flinch, allowing me to work in peace. It’s a bit difficult this time, since the rune is smaller and I can’t see it all the time, but I eventually manage to do it, even though his stomach kept rumbling at times.

Now… the pain. I pick up the gem dust in a mortar and pour some of it on a parchment. I warn him to not move and begin pouring it on the place, where the rune is. He lets out a shout and clenches his teeth breathing heavily through his nostrils.

“So what now?”

“Give it a moment.”

He stays unmoving and opens his mouth before his eyes flash wide and he begins having a sort of seizure, screaming all the while. A few seconds pass and Adagio runs into the room and starts panicking and asking what have I done. I silence her with a hand and narrow my eyes, observing the rolling Stallion. He suddenly stops and I tell Adagio to not breathe.

A wispy mixing scarlet, green and purple smoke exits his mouth before turning blue and dissipating. Rusty lies on the floor, unmoving and breathing heavily.

“Well?”

“First of all: fuck you. Second of all: she was so fucking ugly.”

“Language.”

“Oh really, you are going to tell him about language?”

“Yes? Who says I can’t?” I tell the Siren before turning to the now almost one-eighty stallion. No, he didn’t turn into a mare. “So how ugly are we talking?”

“Fish fins and scales ugly.” I slowly turn my head to Adagio.

“Oh no, he’s right. The mermaids can be pretty ugly. The Sirens at least are half Pony.” Right.

“I’m hungry, you hungry?”

“Famished.” Rusty replies, still lying sprawled out on the cold floor.

“Who says famished this day and age?”

“I do.”

“Fair ‘nuff.”

We get to the top and sit at the table. I have to explain what happened down in the basement, to the other two. Of course: Rusty kept making snide remarks and bits of his own experience, but in the end - he was grateful.

I was surprised that he was so calm about us eating fish and asked if all Ponies were this nonchalant about others eating meat. He said that unfortunately - no, but in some towns or cities with a diverse population, it is not looked down upon as much. He got used to it, while working at his restaurant, since some of his colleagues there were Gryphons. They were the ones that gave him the jacket as half-prank, half-present. Of course: Rusty did not find it amusing at all at first. But it kinda grew on him.

He asked if I would be able to get rid of the spell that might make him explode, to which all of the Sirens glared at me with a force so fierce - it could rival the Death Star. All that Rusty had to say to this reaction was:

“Whoops.”

I will not describe what went down at the table, because at first there was accusatory pointing and shouting, then sadness because they felt betrayed and finally expectation of what I have to say about all of that.

“In my defense… I was unsure if he was some kind of deranged lunatic or a mercenary.”

Adagio facepalmed, Aria looked at me incredulously and Sonata seemed torn between looking at me as if I had kicked a puppy and set it on fire and considering my point. In the end I had this to say:

“Look: I know I am not the paragon of good morality. But I am not your enemy or someone that wishes you three harm. Besides: I did not want to stay for a reason. The reason was this. The judgement.”

“Tell us everything. What you are, who you are. Everything.”

I spend an hour or so, working autonomously on the arcane array and manage to finish the second and third wall and work a bit on my other project, before collapsing on the bed. Rusty came by, because he forgot his co-workers present and of course: he saw all the runic work and seemed really impressed, but didn’t ask. Probably because he was scared I’d blow him up or something silly.

We exchanged pleasantries and he even offered to turn off the light behind him. I waved him off and wished him good night. As he left through the door, he called out:

“The mares offered me to stay in the living room. I accepted, good night.”

“Just know this: I can make you explode from the grave.” I heard him chuckle heartedly and I grinned, before finally relaxing.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I can feel it.

Author's Note

Hello Everyone.

So yes. This chapter is big.
If you find any typos:
1: I will be pissed, because I have been editing this for over a day.
2: Post them in the comment section below, so that I can fix them. TY.

Facts:
This story has been inspired by many thing, including this music. If it's in the middle of the video, rewind. You have fingers... Toes? Well then: what the fuck?

News:
This story is now rated mature with a gore tag. This story will only go downhill from here, however gore is not the main focus of the story. The sex tag remains for reasons unknown.

This is the chapter, when this story got featured.

You lot:
You lot are so silly. Why do you fave the story and not like it? This story has gotten at least twice, if not more, favourites, than likes.

If you enjoyed, or hated the chapter, post your thoughts in the comments and I will try to answer most of them.

What do you think Vadons' theme would be if this was a movie? I already have some songs in mind, but if you are unsure, I suggest waiting for the next chapter.

Order or Chaos out.