Destitute: A nightmare of the Nothing

Chapters

The dreaming
One town gone, another is next
Finding the idi-chosen ones
Da helpful Sapian
Seduction is destruction
Thinking of a plan
A tiny tunnel
One action gives a gift

The dreaming

Little Luna was in her room, sleeping the night off. She had cried herself to sleep after she saw what had happened to Psycho. She loved him alot. He was like a father to her. He taught her how to behave, how to talk, and most importantly, how to prank. Celestia tried to help her cope with the situation, but she was in no better condition herself. So, to help, Woona slept the day off.

The dream consisted of her having a great day with Psycho whilst walking about in a flowery garden full of waterfalls and magnificent trees as high as the eyes could see. They were hopping around and playing. Luna was having lots of fun. Sometimes, they'd find a group of ponies or minotaurs or even other creatures and prank them. The duo would redirect a river that would sweep them up, and make the clouds fall on the passer-bys. Both began to laugh as they sat on a cloud of comfort that floated above the giant bubbles created by the rivers that flowed through the air.

"Haha! This is fun." Luna giggle.

"Yes it is, Woona. Shall we prank more?"

"I'd rather pass some time with you."

"Sure. Wanna play a board game?"

"I dunno. I just wanted to ask...if I could call you dad?" Luna looked upwards with big watery eyes at an awkward Psycho.

"I...sure."

Luna hugged him with a huge smile on her face and closed eyes, but...something became different. She opened her eyes to see that he became the Psychotic stallion that was always smiling widely and was looking down at her.

"Problem?"

"Wh-wh-"

"It's okay, Woona." he said as he twisted his head."I became like this to protect you and Tia-Tia, so nothing will ever happen to you while I'm here."

"The Nothing disagrees."roared a frightening voice of the lowest caliber possible.

The world Luna was in was starting to break into pieces, and a giant black hole appeared in the background. Everything was being sucked into it. Psycho stepped in front of Luna to protect her, but there was something strange about this thing. It was very strong. Almost too strong. The hole began to devour everything around it. Luna hid behind Psycho and watched the monstrosity grow bigger as it devoured even the sky.

"It seems you'll have to wake up now." Psycho laughed.

"But...I wanna stay with you."

"I'm still in the real world, so you can visit me as often as you want. I'm going to wake you up now."

"Wait...what is that?"

The stallion turned around to see something in the black hole. The multiple colors flashing past it allowed for a proper view of the two shapes. They looked like two slices of black and white. The bottom half was black, while the upper half was white, and while it had appeared, there was a massive pressure pushing down on everything around it, and the sound of a constant gong rang through the air. The atmosphere was unbearable, and poor little Luna couldn't stand it.

"Up you go!" Psycho laughed as he flicked Luna on the nose.

"HEY!" Luna yelled as she sat up in her bed, only to realize that there was nopony...except for a tall, slender figure that jolted and spiked in every direction like nothing she had ever seen before.

It lift its arm and stretched it towards the little alicorn as it pointed at her. Its eyes were closed, and it was bipedal. Its appearance cried against the laws of physics and existence. It wasn't meant to be there, nor was it meant to be at all. Luna started to slide underneath her blanket as she stared at the thing with wide eyes. The entire room had gone dark, despite the sun still being up.

"The Nothing will erase you, inferior deity." it hissed in a very low voice.

Suddenly, the door slammed open, showing Tia-Tia at the entrance. The creature was behind the wooden plank and was crushed against the wall, immediately liberating the light.

"C'mon, Luna! The Council wants to see us."

"O...okay. Hold on."

Celestia ran back outside and into the castle once more. Taking this opportunity, Luna's curiousity compelled her to look behind the door. As she shook and nervously and moved it, she discovered that the creature was no longer there, nor was there anything to prove that it had been there. All that was left was a symbol against the wall. It looked a twisted "P" with two diagonal lines becoming jagged as they passed it. This would disturb Luna for a very long time...almost making her paranoid and angry at everything...

As the days went by, Luna couldn't help but thinking about her old foalsitter who was now set free into the world. While she didn't worry about the lives of those he would cross, as Canterlot witnessed yet again, he had a tendency to go overboard with the pranks. She had forgotten all about her dreams after having been "purified" by the elements of harmony, and she intended to stay as she was, especially seeing how much everypony appreciated her work. Right now, however, it seemed that the day was coming up, and she had grown tired. She announced to the council her end of the day, and that she was returning to her chambers for some well needed rest.

Within her room fashioned to look exactly like the night, Luna lied down once more on her bed and snuggled herself comfortably under the blankets with some wiggling, and stared at the ceiling. It was night blue, and the stars glowed brightly by the use of crystals. There were some new bookcases here and there that Celestia had collected during Luna's banishment. There were suits of armor and many other artifacts that the tomcoltish alicorn had gathered later on in her life, and many more after her return! However, her eyes finally began to grow weary, and she slowly fell back asleep, always happy to have a bed this time.

This time, even in her sleep, Luna slept, her snoring literally rocking the dreamworld. However, in this empty white space, a voice, filled with calm and seriousness, could be heard:

"Awaken, my child. There are many important things that we must tell you."

Luna continued to sleep.

"Now is not the time for sub-concious dreaming. Let it become aware and send you this much needed knowledge during your awakening."

The alicorn princess still snored, and the voice sighed in exhasperation. However, this is where another, more rowdy and evil voice came into play:

"Huh. I warned you about that Canterlot thing. Just slap the bitch upside the head. That should wake her up good!"

"No. I will not do such a thing. It is demeaning and a very cruel thing to do."

"Your point being?"

"*sigh* Sometimes, I grow tired of you, brother. We may have been born from the same energies, but we are much different from one another."

"That's why you love me so much. Come on. Say it. You love me."

"What is going on?" a groggy mare struggled to say as she woke up.

"Ah. Finally. 'Bout time you woke up."

"Who said that? Show yourselves!"

"Huh. It seems you've grown accustomed to the speaking of the 'modern' ages. As for your question, I am the Destroyer. You have done much evil, and I'll be sending your soul to the Abyss. Ahaaaahahahaha!"

That soul chattering laughter caused Luna's face to grow as white as her sister's, disregarding the separation of skin and fur. However, a loud punching noise was heard, and the other voice came into play.

"Imbecile! Do not scare her like that."

"What? My name is 'Destroyer'. Perhaps 'destroying' minds is also on my agenda?"

"Don't forget that it was one of your demons of avarice and rage that made her into that beast."

"Oops. I didn't do it on purpose." Destroyer spoke with a condescending tone.

"Yes. Well. We have something very important to tell you, princess of the moon."

Luna was just sitting on the floor, trying to find the source of these voices.

"Oh. Our apologies."

"More like your apologies."

"Taking some forms more adept for lesser immortals should be easier for you."

And in-front of the mare, two swirling balls began to form. One of black, and one of white. The white ball formed into a gigantic white alicorn stallion with golden threads all over his body. His "mane" and "tail" were actually huge waves of light flowing downwards like shock waves. He looked very powerful and gave a good aura about him. He was mouthless, but still had eyes, and said eyes were actually silver colored, as opposed to the expected golden color.

Destroyer, on the other hoof, turned into a rather...exposing alicorn mare. While both entities were genderless, both would usually take on the opposite gender of the others for confusion and because they just hated eachother alot. The alicorn mare in question sported a fluffed up black coat and, despite what some would thing, actually used a blue the same shade as Luna's coat to serve as a wavy mane and tail. There were also lines on her body of te same blue, and here and there, the lines would converge into a blue rose. Her eyes were of an other wordly beauty, and even managed to make Luna blush as she stared into those seas of fluttering blue. Destroyer actually had a mouth, with several pointed teeth. As Luna stared at this beauty that was actually making her feel attraction, Destroyer wrapped around the moon princess and whispered in her ear before gnawing on it:

"I look attractive, don't I? Mmmmm-GACK!" she said before being tossed away by the other being.

"I apologize for my...brother. He tends to do that sort of thing. However, I have not yet presented myself. I am Creator, and I have a mission of utmost importance for you."

"Creator and Destroyer?" Luna looked pensive for a moment, but suddenly, her pupils grew as big as saucers."You are-"

"Yes. But now isn't the time for that. Ow. You really throw like a bitch, you know that?" the skimpy mare walked back towards the two alicorns she was tossed from.

"And you just love spouting the word 'bitch' over and over."

"Problem, bitch?"

"What were you going to say?"

"Hm? Oh yes! We have things that even WE cannot deal with."

"What can be so powerful that the first beings of the universe cannot stop together?!"

"The Nothing." Creator said with the look of worry and fear in his face.

"Yes. Essentially, it's our parent. It considers existence as a tumor, and destroys it outright. It just deletes things. It's like they were never there to begin with."

"It's something that neither mortal nor immortal can fathom."

"No colors."

"No shapes."

"No sounds."

"No sight."

"Nothing." they finished in unison.

"But what's so special about it? If you were born from it, shouldn't you know how to stop it?"

"No." Destroyer added.

"What? Why?!"

"We cannot tell you that right now. However, we must show you where to go. Do NOT bring your sister. Let the council take over. Despite the events from the past with your pal, they can be trusted." Creator followed. "We'll show you where to go, and who to find so you can succeed in your quest."

The Destroyer butted in and tore her horn off with her wings that turned into gigantic, black, leathery arms ending in scorpion claws. She then tore a rift in the fabric of the dream and showed a humongous, extremely industrialized city. Itt was simply beautiful to look at...from outside, where a massive, flowery park surrounded the city, but the place itself wasn't too quaint for the eyes. It was actually too painful to look at directly.

"This is Duchess. What you are looking for is in there, and your two companions are here, on the outskirts." Destroyer poked at the tear, and let it zoom onto what looked like a scruffy unicorn who possesed a purple coat and a ruffed up blue mane and tail, both which had two white streaks sliding through them. His cutie mark was some strange symbol Luna had never seen before. He was back against what looked like a wall of tanned asphalt. Every time a mare would pass by, he would say something, but the words couldn't be heard. It was obvious to the moon princess that this stallion was trying to "seduce" every mare into his disgusting clutches.

"Mmmm. Such a pervert. I can't wait for him to come home to me." Destroyer licked her lips and drooled while showing a nasty expression on her face. Both Creator and Luna threw their forelegs up to cover their faces as they saw this horror.

"Myes. Well, zoom out a bit." the alicorn stallion asked as he prevented himself from throwing up. Not having a mouth would prove consequential.

"Do...do my eyes deceive me?" Luna stuttered as she stared at the scene, her mouth wide open.

Next to the stallion was a diamond dog rummaging through the trash. It had a brown fur coat, and seemed quite fond of chewing on the foods left in the garbage. After all, ponies weren't the only things living in this world. After another failed attempt at grabbing a mare's attention, it seemed blatantly obvious that he got fedup and started to yell at his friend, who emerged with three bones in...her mouth? Despite just wearing a torn, blue and gray shirt like most diamond dogs, this one also seemed to be a female. Destroyer burst out in laughter.

"Do not let anyone know of your leaving. Take another form, preferably one centered around your form when you were a foal. I'll even give you a spell that will allow you to change the appearance of your cutie mark. Do not worry, it is only asthetic in appearance."

Creator's horn glew brightly and shun over Luna a light of purity.

"There. Now hurry." Luna's dream began to fade, and as it did, so did the voices. "One of its agents is already going towards t-"

"Towards the city?"

"NO! Tow..."

Luna reawoke in a cold sweat. That was a peculiar dream, but it was no lie. She knew it. She already began planning her moves as she tried to recuperate in her bed.

Meanwhile, a strange stallion was standing outside of a quaint little logging village near the Nyubet ice-desert. It was probably the only place near that death-zone that had any form of greenery. This stallion was black, but as his fur neared his hooves, they became white. Both his mane and tail, both "floating" as if affected by static electricity, were also white. He spoke nothing. He did not breathe. It is already a questionable if this thing was alive to begin with. However, it soon showed life as it walked towards the city, somehow knowing where it was despite its eyes being closed. It did not seem to ever open them. As the stallion approached the city, an ominous feeling swept through the inhabitants, who had no idea what was going to happen.

One town gone, another is next

Throughout the small town erupted an extremely cold breeze that swept through the quaint little place, and even through the buildings. All the passing inhabitants felt a maw of ice gnawing at their bones, but each quickly tossed the feeling away as a simple cold breeze that usually occurs around their town. Then they saw it. The black and white stallion slowly walked towards their town, his eyes constantly closed, and his breathing irregular. This pony just calmly walked towards the center of the town, attracting everypony's attention. The center of this town was, in-fact, a wooden statue depicting the minotaur who founded the place. It was beautifully carved and very large, and the details literally made you think that, if one would use a microscope, they could see the skin cells of the statue. Clearly, those that lived in this village had unparalleled craftsmanship.

However, just the sight of this bizarre entity suddenly freezing next to the statue and not making any life-like movements frightened everypony. After a few minutes of constant creepiness and immobility, one of the stallions decided to speak to it. He was an average kakis stallion with a brown mane and tail that were very curly. His cutie mark was a "praline", a special chocolate pastry. He looked worringly at the stallion, and observed him, studied him, and listened for anything as he walked around the target a few times. Finally, with a finely tuned, but cracking voice, spoke to this newcomer:

"Welcome, sir, to our town of Lodgis. We are the best lumberjacks, sculpters, and all around anything if it concerns wood. Have you come here looking for one of our wares, or do you want to become part of our little commuity yourself?" he finished with a nervous smile while everypony else creeped around the corners to look at the stranger.
"Eheh. Ahhh...sir?"

The stallion did not respond, and kept its eyes closed.

"Um...are you okay? You haven't said a thing, and you aren't opening your eyes. Can't you see?"

Still silence.

"Okaaaay. I'll just be leaving then." he said as his slow backing away turned into a quick rush.

For the entirety of the day, the stallion stayed there, in the middle, next to the statue, doing absolutely nothing. However, whenever the folks at Lodgis thought of that word, "nothing", they felt their minds blank for a few moments. This stallion was doing something, but what? Seconds turned to minutes, and minutes turned to hours. Soon, as a plan was being formulated, a few fillies and colts playing with a ball accidentally kicked it too far and let it roll towards the immobile stallion. They had just gotten out of school, so they hadn't heard of this mysterious character of which bizarre rumors had been spreading around. A red colt with a pink mane and tail, both of which looked broccoli, galopped quickly towards the ball that had actually been stopped by a moved foreleg. Everypony in the town looked at the stallio who suddenly started to move as the child drew near. They didn't know what was going on, but something was happening.
The little foal grabbed his ball and spoke to the stallion:

"Thanks, mister."

"..."

"Um. You want to play with us?" he asked, moving the ball forward with his muzzle.

The stallion lift his left foreleg and rubbed the colt's head, making him giggle. The wary ponies and donkeys around gave a sigh of relief, thinking that he simply only liked talking or reacting to children, that is, until the colt gave out a scream, followed by his companions. The mysterious character's hoof had literally gone through the colt's head, but with no damage at all. It was like a ghost was reaching into the poor pony's head. After a moment of fumbling, a white orb was pulled out of the colt's head. Said colt then flopped onto the ground.

The stranger lift the orb high into the air to observe it in the light. There seemed to be some sort of thick, cloudy fog within it, and it gave out a calming hum.

"HEY! What did you do to my son?!" a gray mare yelled as she stomped towards the stallion who was still looking at his prize. "I'm talking to you!"

"..."

"Alright, that's it!" she turned around and bucked the stranger powerfully into the side of his head.

Everybody in the town gasped in synchronisation. What should have broke a neck showed the being with its head bent to the side. It was quite frightening, especially when it just pushed its head back into place and start at the mare who started to back away, but was lightly tapped on the head by the orb, which then became some sort of living black ball of mobile sludge and gunk that gave off the unnerving sound of a heartbeat.

The spectators watched in horror as the child stood up, but looked quite evil, while the mare opened her eyes, and gave off a smile which, apparently, she had never done before. She walked towards the colt with a wide smile and spoke in a colorful tone:

"Come now. Let's go home. I want to spend some time with you."

"Lemme go!" he yelled as he punched her in the face. "You aren't my boss, and I don't have to listen to you."

"Wait!" she yelled as both ponies began to gallop off.

In a humerous fashion, the pectators looked at the two disappear, then went back to stare at the stranger who was staring at its new orb, still without emotion. Quiet gossipping began.

"What did he do?"

"What is that thing he's holding?"

"Did he just reverse their personalities?!"

Suddenly, he opened his mouth wider than any normal pony should, and revealed that there was some type of black hole with strands of white swirling in his mouth. He tossed the orb into the pit and began to walk towards those who were hiding as he slowly closed his mouth. Everything started to become stressful as the stranger moved nearer to the ponies. Unfortunately, two more fell victim to it, except this time, they ran towards him, and the orb started out as black and turned white.

While this pony went on his rampage, a few make-shift security guards ran into the chaos and tried to block him.

"You aren't going any further. I don't know what you are, but you won't be leaving this place." said a unicorn wearing pots and pans.

The stallion said nothing, and continued to move forward, until it was locked in place by several javelins thrown into its legs.

"Good shot!" the pan pony shouted to a friend flying above them."Now grab him! We can't let that thing escape our town."

The small group surrounded the stallion, who showed no emotion, and remained motionless, until he was approached by shackles. At that moment, some form of pressure erupted through the town, causing the inhabitants to stop moving and begin to stress. The pony began to stand up, while the javelins seemed to fade out of existence. Suddenly, its eyes began to open. The more they opened, the more pressure seemed to push down on everything. Finally, they were wide open. Black on the bottom and white on the top. Both were in perfect balance. The victims of this pony's eyes heard the sounds of a constant gong while the whole world seemed to crush them between its powerful hands.

Everypony began to faint, but the pan stallion asked, with the last of his strength:

"Who are you?"

The stallion said nothing, but let out some black smog from his mouth. The ear piercing scream the smog emitted as it slithered across the floor broke nearby windows and started to crack through the walls. The pan pony struggled to stay concsious as the screaming destroyed his ears. Once the smog finally dissipated, it revealed a word on the floor. It spelled
Destitute. As the last inhabitant passed out, Destitute opened his mouth wide, and let out and even worse scream. Orbs flung from each and every pony, donkey, or whatever was there, and fused them all together into a melting pot of whatever it was. He threw it on the ground, making it splatter its remains all over the place. As the substance pulsated, the sky began to tear itself open, revealing a black hole that grew in size in an ever wider fashion.

The insignificant pony, compared to this anomaly, had already, somehow, found himself on the borders of this town and was walking along the trees. Finally, once the hole was big enough, a massive shockwave blew itself all across the plain of existence, throwing the trees back as if they had been struck by an extremely powerful gust of wind. This was slowly followed by a massive black horror stretching through the hole. It looked like an arm made up of giant, squirming worms, with bits of solid black material appearing underneath them every now and then. The arm stretched into the town, yet, nothing visible happened, until the arm retracted and returned into the closing hole. There was nothing left but an abstract, extremely deep hole in the ground. Nothing was left. NOTHING.
Destitute continued his path towards another small town. While, on the far horizon, there seemed to be a massive city with extremely tall and beautiful buildings of a beige color.

Meanwhile, in Canterlot, a small dark blue mare with a turquoise mane and tail was walking towards the train station with baggage in tow. Her mane and tail were beautifully combed, and her mane itself was combed in a fashion that it curved near the edges, making it curve delicately towards her face. Her cutie mark was that of a bright star. Namely, Eridanus. As such, it showed a powerful glow represented by a bright circle of light that was holed in some places, similating dissipation and dispersion of the light. She looked very innocent, and more than often a stallion would turn their head to look at her faintly smiling face.

As she walked up to the stand to buy a ticket, the mare behind the counter put down her newspaper and showed that she was one of those "tough ones". She liked to chew her tobacco, and her gray and sunset orange mane were all ruffled up. She stared at the mare in front of her with a mocking chuckle.

"Whadda ya want? I ain't got all day." she said before spitting out some tobacco juice.

"Oh. I would like to buy a ticket for Duchess, please."

"Dychess, huh? Hold on. You got the money?"

"How much is it?"

"Eleven bits." she spoke with a slight nasally voice.

"Hold on."

The mare started to fumble through her bags, and found her pouches of money. She opened it, then took out eleven golden coins and placed them on the counter. The mare stared at them for a few moments, then placed the ticket in front of the customer.

"What's yer name?"

"Uhhh...Mond. My name is Mond."

"Well then, 'Mond', here's yer ticket. Now get out of the way, yer blockin' the lines."

"Thank you. Goodbye."

"Yeah. Whatever."

Suddenly, a grffon waiting next to the counter got up and started to rage at the mare behind it. She seemed to bes taring off into the distance.

"How DARE you?! I'm a highly placed diplomat from the Griffin kingdom! How dare you let some lowly lickspittle get her ticket before me!"

The mare spat in his face then grabbed the top of the counter's blinds and said:"We're closed." and slammed it on his face.

Besides this little incident, Mond walked calmly towards the train for Duchess, and smiled as she saw the enormous size of the station, and the amount of stores and characters around it giving a wide variety of things to sell or trips to promote to the passer-bys. She reached her train and gave her ticket to the puncher, which did just that to the piece of fabric, then let the mare in. It was her first time in a train, and she was quite excited. She shouldn't be.

Finding the idi-chosen ones

Mond was admiring her simple room in the train car. A pony came by earlier to check the tickets of everypony, which Mond gladly gave. That was pretty much the only form of sentient contact that the mare had in the train. The lands outside looked like they were moving to the mare's every whim, while she remained in place. Such a marvelous thing, technology. What more could it create? As time went by, the blue mare started to fall asleep again on the red "couches". The unicorn began thinking to herself:

"Those two were right. I do indeed find that this trip is much worth it. Perhaps what my sister didn't let me see yet will be shown to me at this city?"

Meanwhile, in the city, the two chosen ones we're just strolling about in the streets...the basic living area. Like all cities, there was a ghetto, and these two lived in it. Although, quite often, they would stroll around in the main city just to have a clean gust of freshness. The streets were paved with white tiles, several blocks were created to hold the street gardens and to decorate the entrances to apartments and business buildings. There were black lamps every few meters or so to illuminate the town during Luna's night. Duchess was a very busy city, so there was no time to waste admiring the stars. Surprisingly enough, nobody in the city seemed to care about the slum livers. They were actually fairly well known in the cuty. The only actual female diamond dog known to pony kind, who always had an idiotic and bored expression on her face, no less, and the flank chaser always accompanying her. He had his own morbid reputation in the city. Despite everybody wanting them gone, they never had the money to go live anywhere else, and nobody would provide them the necessary anyways.

"Yeesh. The place is becoming more 'high and mighty' each day."

"Maybe it because we have been becoming more dirty everyday." The diamond dog said as she continued to chew on another bone.

"Errr...that too." The stallion scratched the back of his head in shame.

"Hey! You two!" yelled an anonymous voice.

"Yes, Oberstleutnant?"

It was a tiny gray stallion wearin a blue vest, cap, and with a golden badge covering his cutie mark. His tail was also gray and so were his eyes. This game him the nickname of "No colors Conrey".

"Stop calling me that. I don't even know what that means!"

"Whatever."

"Furrows, why are you even following him? I thought you were better than this...even IF you're a diamond dog." the stallion averted his eyes slightly, but Furrows' own eyes widened, and the bone in her mouth started to crack as she showed her teeth.

"Woah! Calm down, Furrows. No need for aggressivity. Look, Leutnant, no need to go annoying other habitants by discerning them just because of their race. You're just a pegasus."

"JUST?! I can fly and walk on clouds. What can YOU do?! No. Stop. Calm down Conrey. Don't let him trick you." the police officer rubbed his forehead and flexed his wings as he tried to calm down.
"Your kind isn't allowed up here with the civilized folk. I suggest that you leave immediately and return to the slums."

"Or what? You'z going to attack us for only walking above ground? That not warrant proper arrestment." Furrows added in a bored fashion, with the stallion looking at her with a smug smile.

"How...Never mind. Your prescence here is disturbing everypony."

"Mhmm. Sure it is. Our reputation precedes us."

"Look, Pencil Box, I don't have time to deal with you two causing civil unrest."

"Sure. Whatever. Let's go, Furrows." Pencil Box gestured to the Diamond Dog who turned around and followed him promptly, throwing out a loud growlat the police pony who bounced back a few feet.

The more highly placed beings in the city literally ignored the couple, as, even if they had an ill reputation, the majority of the local population knew that they would never cause harm to anyone, even under the worst circumstances. The population DID have a problem with Conrey. He had some race issues that weren't much too appreciated by the populace, be they pony or other.

Meanwhile, the couple returned to the slums. It was a flthy place, almost the sewers in exactitude, what with brown muck, green slunk, and whatever color the junk over in that corner was. Several homes made from "recycled" homes, once abandoned by the old inhabitants with the modernization of the city, they now inhabit several creatures at once. Very bad characters lived here, but many were just trying to live with whatever they could. When life becomes harsh fr a creature, it tends to adapt to its new environnment and survive. "Adaptation for survival" was the motto of the unfortunate in this hellish place.

While Furrows let her long arms slank forward in front of her body, Pencil Box was looking at the floor in anger. He wished that just once, just ONE good thing would happen to him and his friend so that they could leave this dump. They've been growing in it since they were small, fending for themselves and trying to survive on whatever scrap was given or obtained throug whatever means possible. Box's instinct also made him fear that prize of a better life, as he feared it would corrupt both of them. He didn't know what happened, but everytime someone got out of the slums and into the city's council, they would become "evil" and all such horrors. It was quite terrifying for somepony who feared that he would be devoured by such an evil and become nothing. For some reason, everybody would feel a shiver down their spines whenever they would pronounce or think that word as of late, and he and Furrows were no exception.

Pencil Box decided to lean against a half termite-eaten house and started to think while the diamond dog grabbed a bone thrown by a minotaur and began to chew on it nonchalantly. She had less trouble moving about this part of the city, despite its darkness due to it being underneath ground level, as she was still a canine. Therefore, she could see trouble coming from far away, and had a habitof grabbing her friend whenever danger veered its head. It wasn't always ugly, mind you.
Pencil Box gave out a loud and long exhale.

"I'm tired of this. I want us to have a better life. We both grew up together."

"And we'll die together. As great friends do."

"I'm still glad you remember that."

Furrows gave a faint smile as she continued to chew on her bone. "I do not forget a friend. We may have grown up together, but that not mean we lived together."

"Yes. I know. You still grew up with the diamond dogs. I still don't know why you didn't leave with the pack afterwards."

"That my secret."

"Heh. I just wish that ONE thing. Just ONE thing happens to us that helps us get out of this dump. Just ONE! I don't care what we have to do, as long as we get to do it."

Suddenly, a loud screech echoed through the slums, making everypony wonder what had happened.

"Must be da trains." one gryphon said as he continued through his way.

Mond left her train after being awoken by a passenger, and looked at the marvelously clean and beautiful city with everything here. There weren't just ponies here. Sure, she knew a deaf gryphon who tended the gardens while Psycho was still at the castle, but that wasn't anything important.

"Wow. Well then, I better start searching for those two. How to start?"

As Mond started walking through the crowds, a weird black thing was watching her from very high up, and it was perched on one of the tall buildings. From afar, it looked like a round black ball with bat wings, but up close, the thing was revealed to actually be a flying black eyeball with wings. It slowly followed the unicorn mare as she continued her way through the city, and slowly squinted its eye.

Far away from Duchess, however, a camp of bandits found its existence annihilated. None were spared. Destitute continued calmly walking, his spiritual aura emptying everything around him. However, he stopped when he heard a voice:

"A deity has appeared. It is a weakling of extreme proportions, but your powers have yet to fully form yet. I shall send the unknown out to assist you. It will arrive when you reach the city. Erase into Nothing."

Destitute remained immobile for awhile, until he started to walk forward once again. Forever in a straight line and with his eyes closed.

In the Buffalo deserts, near the southern border, and dangerously close to the Dry Rock Oven, the changelings ruffled about in their extremely cool tunnels illuminated by green and orange crystals. Queen Chrysalis was trying to calm her subjects. They were, in such a long time, satiated of their eternal hunger. Some things are best not explained.

"SILENCE!" she roared. The changelings obeyed and sat down on whatever surface they were nearest to. "Good. After a few trials and errors, we finally found a way to satiate our hunger. Sure, the town will require rest for regeneration, but we will be able to wait for quite a long time! ahahaha!"

The changelings followed her laughter.

"Yes. So remember the feeling of a full belly." the queen tapped her stomach a few times. "Because you might never get it again. However, we are changelings! So we do not fear hunger p..."

A white glow began to grow in intensity within the middle of the changelings, and all of them jumped away as far as they could. One of the changeling was being bent and twisted in every way possible. The queen reluctantly walked towards it while being cautious and wary. She said nothing, for the second she arrived, the changeling already began changing color. What was once black drained into white, and what was once green bled into red. The twisting continued until the changeling found itself on all four hooves and looking straight in front of itself with even less emotions than Destitute.

"What is-"

Chrysalis, as she lift a hoof towards the white changeling, found herself catapulted towards her throne and slammed into the wall. When she finally slid back down, she tried to rub her head with a moan, only to discover that her entirety right foreleg had dissappeared. All that was left was what looked like a small portion of the shoulder and small dots connecting to form an irregular stump, along with a few dots flying around it. The queen was too horrified to say anything, until the leg grew back on its own. She then jumped and yelled at her subjects:

"Remove that white changeling at once!"

The others were too frightened and were shaking in place. They refused.

"You defy your queen?!" she bellowed with an even more sinister tone.

The changelings looked at the white one, then at their queen, and back again several times before nodding in response. Whatever it was, it turned around and calmly began to walk out of the caves, much to the surprise of every changeling there. The only strange was that it seemed to be erasing whatever space was in front of it, as if through will, and made itself another tunnel to climb through as it tried to reach the surface. The white changeling left everyone stumped at what just happened, and what that thing was exactly. One thing was for sure, that now white changeling possessed immeasurable power of unknown origin. Whomever it aimed for would have to be careful.

Da helpful Sapian

Mond's attempts to ask for the location of the two she saw in her dream provided nothing at all. Everytime she used politeness to call for someone, they would ignore her. She's always start with "Excuse me" or "Pardon me", but they never worked. The ponies and other creatures had better to do than respond to a stunning unicorn.

"Is there nopony with any courtesy or manners?" none of the passing characters replied. "Hmph. I guess they are all just impolite ruffians. Hm? What's going on over there?"

There was quite the commotion going further away, near some steps going to another portion of the city. Several ponies, griffons, and such creatures were surrounding whatever was going on. They were all chanting like barbarians. There was a fight going on, apparently. Mond forced her way through the crowd, but forgot to take her luggage with her. At the end of this living barricade, there, appeared two creatures. One, that Luna easily recognized, and another that she thought had died out when she was still a filly. A green minotaur with a buff physique and a whited out eye stood before a strange black creature. This black creature had a very pointed muzzle, making it almost canine-like. However, its arms were extremely huge and long, making its appearance similar to that of a gorilla, a very weird gorilla. These creatures weren't known for being slouched over and using their arms to walk, as, despite initial thoughts, their legs are actually quite long and capable of supporting the weight of their arms and allowing proper bipedal walking.

"You ruined my job, ya bastard!" the minotaur shouted with fury.

"Ehee. Too bad for you. My kind doesn't like your ways. We prefer to find our own way of living without taking from others. You are simply inferior." the creature constantly moved from side to side while smiling and mocking the minotaur, who spioutd smoke from his nose. "What's da matter. Can't take a joke?"

"You're getting it now!"

The minotaur charged towards the black creature, intended on impaling him with his horns. The creature simply laughed and jumped extremely high into the air, causing the charging minotaur to smash into a wall and get stuck there for a couple of seconds. When he was finally out, he looked up to see the creature winging on a cable and laughing.

"Get down from there and fight like a minotaur!"

"If you wish."

The creature swung more time, before throwing itself with tremendous strength at the minotaur. It turned itself into a spinning cannonball, that hit the bull with full force, tossing it far down the stairs and into the fountain in the middle of the pathway there. Everybody leaned forward to see the loser. Mond was impressed by how well these creatures fiught, but she still needed answers on how they still existed. However, as she was going to get back to her luggage, she saw a tall, bipedal figure in a black cowl grabbing it.

"Hey! My luggage! Let go of it. It isn't yours!" Mond shouted as she galopped towards the creature the creature who was now running away.

Despite the spells she cast, which were of pinpoint accuracy, the creature was able to avoid every shot even when it held the luggage under its arm. Unfortunately for Mond, her stamina wasn't as great as it used to be, so she found herself quickly out of breath, and quickly losing her thef, until said thief was smashed into the ground by the creature from earlier. Lots of smoke escaped into the air as they left their old home, which was now a crater. The creature grabbed Mond's luggage and walked clumsily towards the stunned are with a wide smile.

"Here you go."

"Uhh. Thank you very much."

"Just doing my job."

With that, the creature was about to leave by climbing one of the buildings and leaping somewhere wherever.

"Wait."

"Hm?"

"You wouldn't happen to be a Sapien, would you?"

The creature looked at Mond in surprise and turned back around to show a wide smile.

"I didn't think anybody remembered what my species was."

"I thought you had all died out."

"That was a millenia ago. Where were you? We were having trouble with suviving because of a certain incident some time ago, but we found a place unaffected and managed to regrow there. Sure, we have grown accustomed to the magics now, but there are still a few things we can't deal with."

"I also noticed that you aren't walking on your hindlegs. Why?"

"Oh. We sorta adapted to our new environnment, so we grew more accustomed into using our big hands for movement."

"I see. This reassures me."

"About what?"

"Nothing that isn't personal."

"I understand. So...you needed anything else?"

"Yes. I need some information. I'm looking for two particular individuals."

"Mhmm?"

"A diamond dog and a-"

"AH!" the sapien yelled as he threw his huge hands forward." You're looking for Furrows and Pencil Box."

"Huh?"

"A female diamond dog always chewing on a bone and a stallion with a strange cutie mark that noone recognizes?"

"Y-yes."

"Then I'll take you to where they live. As an added precaution, I'll stay with you. Their living quarters aren't exactly the best of Duchess."

"Okay. Where do we...put me down. No wait! AHHHH!"

The Sapien grabbed the unicorn mare and started to climb the closest building and began swinging and hopping about as nimbly as posible. Of course, the creature itself seemed perfectly at ease with this, but Mond was practically having a heart attack. When the big handed creature noticed this, he started laughing loudly and performed even more frightening acrobat techniques.

Finally, after a long trip across the city, the sapien landed with a large thud on the muck ridden ground, causing large splashes everywhere. Mond was dropped gently on the floor, where she lost balance and nearly fell every second. The creature found it easier to just hold the baggage and let the mare get back on her hooves.

"They're right there." the sapien pointed towwards two characters who were just fooling around, flicking at rocks to make them skid across the dirty water.

"Hold...hold on. Hmph! Oh. I'm going to hurl."

"Let me just do something that the sapiens learned during the days of peril. Just gotta put this suitcase thing down, stretch my fingers." the crack resonated like a powerful explosion through the slums."Place my middle finger on the left artery of your neck, then my pinkie here on your stomach, and, finally, I push on your chin. Hup!"

"OW! Ow....hey. That actually works!"

"It's great for hunger pains and sickness related to the stomach. It's a dangerous technique, though, as we push on vital areas. Why not go see them now and get to what you need to do?"

"Good idea."

Mond and her friend hopped over to the stallion and the diamond dog. For some reason, both the diamond dog and the sapien started to show some subtle signs of aggresion towards eachother.

"Hello there."

"Hm? Oh WOW! What's a gorgeous mare like you doing down here?"

"I've been looking for you and your-"

"Looking for me huh? Heheh." Box stood side-by-side to the mare and passed a leg over her neck. "I thought so. No mare can resist me. How about we go somewhere quiet and-HAGH!"

Mond punched the stallion with her forehoof so hard that his back literally bent upon impact of the stomach, forcing an "Ooogh" from the other nearby characters. He fell to the floor holding his broken stomach.

"Not for that, you lecher. I need you two to help me with something of utmost importance.."

"And what is that?" Furrows asked as her friend was currently incapacitated.

"This!"

Mond's horn grew with a powerful intensity and a bright white liht that engulfed her, the sapian, and the two chosen ones. They all found themselves within a white world. While, for the first time ever, Furrows dropped the bone in her mouth, Sapian didn't seem surprised at all.

"About time you got her you slow bitch." echoed a familiar voice.

"Oh...it's you." Monde complained as she lowered her head in irritation.

While many parts of a told would end here, there was still the matter of Destitute and the white changeling. While Destitute had actually stopped moving while in the middle of burning city as the sun began to set, the white changeling continued its way through the scorching Sorpian deserts. They were a very far-reaching portion of desert that crossed through the oceans and reached directly towards the southern portion of the Griffin kingdom and the Disirvian mountains. Why would it go so far away from Duchess? Because at a certain point in the desert, there's a close reach to the section of Equestria where the city is, and at the rate it was moving, it would be there at around the same time as Destitute, only, with a few hours of difference.

As the changeling walked through the desert that proved its reputation by being even hotter than the buffalo deserts, the ground began to rumble. You see, in the Sorpion deserts, there exists a close cousin to the one hundred meter tall Nyum-Bunet. They are called Geradins, and the only go so far in their "territory" before giving up a chase.
As the sand mount grew, the white changeling stopped and continued to stare forward with no sentiment whatsoever. What was in front of it was a pretty big creature made of several different colored stones and compressed sand blocks. Around the wrists of its hands, both which possesed eight fingers, slowly rotated two black bracelets with straight threads boring into said wrists, slowly carving away what stone is left. It was very big, and its head demonstrated its rage and fury. Without hesitation, it immediately pounced on the invader.

The changeling looked like an ant compared to this being...a beng which, when it reached hal- a-hair distance from the unknown, found itself completely obliterated by some sort of invisible barriers protecting the white changeling. It had a miliar sound to exploding plasma erupting on an energy shield. Such a sound effect that would only be left to imagination. As the remaining particles and immense gust of wind slowly dissipated, the changeling began to make chittering locust sounds before erupting in a deafening cacophony. It soon stopped and decided to continue its intended trajectory, making sure to erase whatever else would dare to get in its way.

Seduction is destruction

With a dark wave of energy flying over the group, a familiar looking mare appeared in front of Pencil Box. She seductively approached the stallion and fluttered her eyes before the stunned pony, who harbored a stupid expression on his face as the mare fluffed her tail right under his muzzle, only to quickly circle around him and start gnawing on his ear and whisper in it like she did with Luna:

"I've been watching you for awhile now. You seem to like lust. When you die, I'll drag you into the Abyss, and we'll have lots of 'fun' together."

At these words, Box froze up. He finally understood who this was, and he feared it more than anything. As she came back up to his face, the sapien grabbed her with his huge hand and threw her extremely far, just like a baseball. Unfortunately, her wings came into effect, and she came back into a charge with a malicious smile. As the distance between the two became smaller and smaller, a bright light shone right before the impact. It was Creator. As he looked at his "brother", he huffed, and turned to see that the sapian was bowing to this high entity.

"I did not think that I would have the chance to meet the great creator before my time came. If it is not much to ask, have my actions been dutiful and just in your eyes?" the sapian asked as he lift his head to look directly at the entity's eyes.

"While I would not normally say this, this encounter is indeed rare, so I shall tell you that you have indeed been perfoming well, although those 'contacts' of yours are somewhat...doubtful in their tasks."

"I know, but I only aim to catch the evil and set them straight."

"Tcheheah! Good luck with that."

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Pencil Box yelled.

"Ah yes. Pencil Box and Furrows. You have obviously met our messenger...Mond." Creator presented the unicorn with a hoof pointing.

"Yes. I have. And it hurt."

"That's what happens when you are a lecher."

Instead of glaring at the black and blue mare, Box simply backed away in fear. If this was who he thought it was, he'd be better off shutting his mouth.

"That may be so, but I believe that he can still right his wrongs." the sapian interjected.

"Your species tires me with your 'good deeds'."

"And your unholiness also irritates me. How about closing that breach so none of us have to deal with it anymore?"

"Hmph! It was YOU mortals who created that for Blumarak. It's not my fault if I modified the spell. Oh wait. Yes it is!" Destroyer burst open with laughter.

"ENOUGH! Creator roared. "You two!" he pointed at Box and Furrows, who scampered up immediately."You have a mission to accomplish. You must find the object related to Pencil Box's cutie mark."

The four summoned looked at Box's cutie mark, and scratched their heads in confusion. Box walked up, worry and fright ornating his face:

"What do you mean? I don't even remember how I got this."

"All in due time. Your friend, the sapian, knows a few contacts who can locate the box in question."

"What does he mean by that?" Mond wondered as she slowly twisted her head towards a less than jovial creature.

"It's my species goal to rid the world of evil creatures, but by abiding to the rules set. Therefore, we have a tendency to do bounties and such. We don't, owever, keep much of the money. We give the majority to victims, and keep a small amount for ourselves. We have no need for money, but it's always good to keep a bit."

"That not be a good thing, I think?" Furrows wondered.

"No. The contacts tend to be just as cruel."

"Good. We cannot tell you where the box is as the Nothing tends to listen in on us. There's a special creation of its that moves the box whenever we mention the location in any way possible. Now go!" Creator pointed towards the back of everybody and a bright light began to engulf them all.

Before any words could be said, besides the rude gestures that both the Sapian and Destroyer sent to eachother, everybody found themselves back where they were before Mond cast her spell. Nobody around seemed to have noticed anything. Pencil was sweating profusively in panic, while Furrows found that she still had her bone in her mouth.

"What just happened?" the stallion asked aloud as he wiped his forehead.

"What happened is that the two highest beings of existence have asked for our help to defeat something that even they can't defeat."

"Is that even possible?!" he yelled.

"Yes. It is something called 'the Nothing'." Mond added, her face very stern.

Sapian's eyes widened and his heart skipped a beat.

"I had misunderstood. The Nothing? Even its name indicates that there exists nothing that can defeat it."

"Well, obviously, there is, and you know where to start."

"Hmm. Yes." the sapian started to scratch his chin. "Yes. There's a bar not far from here. It's full of dangerous characters, but it's a place to start. Let's go."

Three of the four started to leave for the target location, while Pencil tried to sneak away, only to be grabbed by Furrows and placed on her shoulder.

"We have important mission to accomplish. Did you not want exciting thing to happen to us?"

"Uhhh...touché."

The flying eyeball was still observing in this dark and ripping cavern. It had definately noticed what had happened and had been watching the four during the time they were "frozen". As it was about to fly off, it was pelted with a rock by a pegasus colt and felt eye first onto the ground. It understood full well that the children were mocking it. It just got back up, and dodged the next rock, only to charge directly towards the colt again. A scream was heard as the flying eyeball opened its eye to show that the occular organ also served as a mouth. It chomped tightly on the blue colt, which promptly yiped and started running away from the flying eyeball.
His friends just stood in place and laughed the entire time this happened. Unfortunately, they all panicked and ran away without a sound when they saw their friend turned into a skeleton, with the eyeball chewing on the bones.

This part of the slums was extremely dark, extremely dirty, and extremely humid. Characters with questionable intentions were everywhere. There were buildings with rather...'special' offers here and there, but the place the group was going to was just a bar. It was straight forward, and was etched in black, as well as glowing pink, green, and purple. There were many characters going in and out of the bar. However, while thr group were moving forward, two ponies dressed in black popped up with sharp weapons in hoof.

"Stop right there. Heheh. Give us all your money...and that mare there too."

Those were the only things the first one said, as Sapian grabbed him, while furrows grabbed the other, smashed them together, and tossed them aside into opposite buildings. The other robbers and kidnappers steered clear when they saw what just happened. Coming closer to the bar revealed that it was also a "dance hut" as they were called in the slums. The beat in it was literally making everything rumble around. The sapian smashed the door to the bar open, and the group was flooded by flashy colors coming from illuminated crystal being directers by handles and a wide variety of gear work. Nobody paid attention to this action, and Mond stepped forward.

"Who am I calling?"

"Silmen."

"SILMEN. REVEAL YOURSELF UNTO US AT ONCE! WE HAVE BUSINESS TO CONCLUDE WITH THEE!"

Everybody clutched their ears at once as Mond's Canterlot voice erupted like a furious volcano. The entirety of objects made from glass inside the bar either cracked or exploded outwright.

"Are you nuts?!" Box screamed. "You don't shout names like that out in the open he-"

"What? WHAT?! What do you want? What's wrong with you?! Why are you destroying everything with your voice?" screamed some sort of bug creature.

"A silph?!" Mond looked horrified.

"Yeah? What's it to ya?"

This "silph" was quite old. In basic appearance, they resembled praying mantis, only, the blades were now hands equipped with four digits. This one was wearing a torn up gray suit and seemed to have become "bald", if Silph's did indeed have hair, as judged by the long strands of gray slipping off the sides of its head.

"Do not mind her, Silmen. We need info." the sapian forced himself in front of the mare.

"Ah. Sapian. Need another job?"

"No. It's related to...well..."

The sapian hunched forward to speak quietly in Silmen's ear while shifting his eyes from left to right. The glass the creature was cleaning dropped like an egg and exploded just like one.

"Dear Creator. Come with me."

"What did you tell him?" Furrows had found another bone and continued to chew on it as she asked the sapian this question.

"The Nothing."

"Ah."

While the bar itself was filled to the brim with colorful lights and decorations coming from a wide variety of cultures, as well as possessing numerous things made of wood, such as tables, chairs, and stools, the back was empty. Completely. The entirety of the stock was underneath the bar.

"There he is, meditating between the moon rock and the sun stone."

The four stopped immediately to see a pony who's age seemed impossible. His fur and mane had long since lost their color, and had become whitish-gray. They were extremely long and unkempt, but there was something odd about the face.

"Sapian. You have come for more teachings? No. I know what you are here for."

"Yeah. I want to know what my cutie mark represents and-"

"-How you got it when you don't remember? I suppose you've just recently heard of the Nothing?"

"Y-yeah."

"Come closer to me. Do not be afraid."

Box looked nervously at Furrows, who patted him on the back, giving the stallion a well needed confidence.

"Now then. Look into my eyes."

The stallion opened his eyes, and the strangeness of his face became apparent. Hiw two eyes were grown on the right side, while the left only had a vertical scar in its stead. Box started to panic, but began to remember.

"Remember this place? Of course you do." the elderly stallion spoke, despite the lack of his prescence, and the prescence of Pencil Box in this place.

This place was nothing but shades of blue, but Box was sure he had seen this place. He was young, and there was a stallion next to him. This pegasus had just finished making a box. It was so familiar to the young stallion. There was a tiny colt in this place, which was now apparent to be a workhouse, with all sorts of tools on the walls, as well as drawers filled with crafting materials.

The little colt joyfully opened the music box and began to sing to its tune, but this was where the memory became fuzzy, then skipped forward to one that the stallion had never seen before. The colt was holding a box that he made himself. The older stallion looked at it with a disencouraged face, certain that it wouldn't give a beautiful melody, although the box itself was beautifully crafted. The music holder was now opened, and the stallion was shocked at the magnificent music floating through his ears. He seemed to have been complimenting the colt, who soon received his cutie mark. It was the same one that Pencil Box had.

"You know it now. This was your father. Before you avert your eyes, see what happened that made your memories die away."

As the two started to bob their heads and hum to the tune, a mysterious bipedal creature made from black smoke came through the door and engulfed Box's father. The little colt tried to fight it, but he was cast aside like paper, with his father diminishing into defragmenting particles as he tried to get out of the clutches of the shadows, but it was too late.

The vision stopped, and the bar's beat came back. Box was gasping madly.

"Is it done?" Silmen wondered as he tried to get over the sapian.

"Yes. You do not need to say anything. What you are seeking was hidden in the office of the head of this city."

"The mayor?" Furrows yiped. "But he have great security. How do we get past?"

"This is your task, not mine."

"Thank you very much for reminding me of my past." Box hugged the elderly stallion who obviously wasn't expecting this and nervously patted the hugging pony on the back.

"That's...quite alright. Now go. I must continue meditating. Before, though. Mond, I must speak with you. The rest of you, leave."

Once the room was quiet, and the doors shut, Mond stepped up to the stallion with a curious but suspicious look.

"What?"

"Luna, I presume?"

"Wh-"

"Don't act surprised." the stallion said as he looked at the small unicorn with his eyes."I know it is you."

"How?"

"I believe you have a student of mine in your dungeons. The first floor, I believe."

"Huh?"

"Farseer. He is in the dungeon of the psycho smiles."

"The psycho...*shiver*."

"If you do not put that past behind you, it will continue to add excessive weight upon your mind. My student in your dungeon should be able to help you wit that. Several times did he come into contact with your friend, and he returned unscathed."

"And who is this student?"

"Farseer."

Luna suddenly looked shocked and tried to gasp, but no sound came out.

"Then you are..."

"Yes. I'm HarSight."

The night had now completely fallen, and Destitute was resting in the now extinguished town. There was nothing lefta round him but the cries of ghosts. As one would think of ghosts, the spiritd of those who died had summoned an evil spirit. It was in the shape of a pony wearing a suit of armor seemingly from Tankopon, a country from the far-east. It was a Dorammo, a spirit of vengeance. Destitute did not react to this unholy prescence, and continued to remain immobile. The spirit brandished its spear and threw it at Destitute, who took it right at the tail and the weapon come out of his stomach.

The stallion turned to around to face the Dorammo, and opened his eyes to exert a massive pressure. While this worked on everything around, the spirit did not react, and the more the Dorammo stayed in the town, the more visible the spirits destroyed by the fires and falling debris became. They were all twisting and tchurning as well as wailing in pain at the one who caused them this horrid existence. Destitute cared not, and the spirit of vengeance seemed angered by this, its glowing green eyes now having become red through the black space in its helmet. It is through the its mouth that another spear as taken. As Destitute saw the staff dissolve into nothing, the Dorammo attacked.

Thinking of a plan

In the now haunted town, Destitute and the Dorammo were in full battle, and everything around them began to...change. The landscape would erase with the stallion of black and white, while the spirit of vengeance would mutate it into untold and unspeakable horrors. The black and white stallion could have easily brushed the spirit off, but he was not at full power. He required more orbs, and Duchess would give what it owed. In a place that none can view, the Nothing watched its two entities. The white changeling was making good progress, and a massive portion of the desert was erased along its path. However, it watched in amusement what existence deemed to be something that shouldn't exist, but did. Tortured souls around the town were being morphed into tainted souls, ripe for Destroyer. Not Nothing, but it would have to suffice.

"In the beginning, there was nothing. And in the end, there will be nothing. My two children may have created something that I despise, but they will be rightfully punished when I find them. I have seen countless universes die and wither, only to be reborn anew instead of becoming nothing again. Creator creates these dimensions while Destroyer crushes them, only to have Creater rebuild them once more. I have grown tired of this. They have even gone to irritate me to the point of creating a near infinite , amount of possibilities and outcomes, but no more! Time has no meaning for the Nothing, and it shall devour everything and return everything to how it was. Perhaps transporting my two disciples directly to Duchess can help?"

The skies above the two fighters wreaked open, and a gigantic arm covered in equally giant worms, a similar sight from before, smashed upon the little town, despite the Dorammo tryin to fight back. A soul breaking screach was heard at that precise moment as well. The arm lift back up into the sky, and spoke to Destitute, who was bent and broken in almost every area. He still didn't seem to care.

"Destitute. Cease your futile amusement and get to Duchess at once. I will only transport you a few hours from it. You may be nothing, but your powers have yet to fully replenish. The unknown will have the same action forced upon it. Do not enter the city without its prescence."

The stallion cracked every bone and bodypart back into place, and quickly found himself in front of Duchess...somewhat. There was still a way to go before reaching it. He would not waste time.

The group had stopped within Box's very humble shack. It was another one of those houses embedded into the wall. It took some fumbling, but Pencil Box managed to unlock the door and get inside. The sight, accompanied by his nervous smile, indicated that the inside wasn't very pretty, and it was not. The place had almost no light, it was quite dirty, and the furniture was covered in dust.

"So. Um. Sorry for this appearance, but I never sleep here. I always sleep outside as it's less expensive."

"I can see that." the sapian actually looked delighted. His species was used to this type of living."I'll sleep on the chandelier."

"What? Too late."

The sapian had hooked himself onto what would appear to be a poorly constructed chandelier made from various pieces sloppishly glued together. The creature somehow stayed stuck to the ceiling and refused to move. He already fell asleep.

"Wow." Furrows chuckled."He know how to sleeps well. I also tired."

"But what about dinner?" Box looked insulted.

"I been eating many bones today. I don't need dinner."

"Pfff." Box threw his forelegs out and twisted his head."Like you know anything other then bones."

The diamond dog wouldn't listen, and simply went to sleep on the floor. The stallion looked tired and disappointed, but quickly looked up to see that Mond was staring at him with wlightly wide eyes and a tilted head. She had just placed her luggage against a wall. The stallion gave a "poker face" and looked quickly to both sides.

"What?"

"You seem anxious about something? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, but I've never been good at making food...or eating it."

Mond started to fumble through her luggage after hearing Box's excuse."You aren't used to eating?"

"Nope. Furrows has always been the one to eat bnes, and she can eat a wider variety of things, so she doesn't care, but me? I can't even eat the grass outside." he gave a loud sigh."Being poor and in the slums may give one a heart full of adventure, but the belly remains empty. Hoompf!"

The mare threw a sealed carton full of a fine green salad filled with a variety of flowers and salad dressings at the head of Box, who fell on the floor, moaning.

"What was that for?"

"Look at the contents."

"Why? What's...What?"

Mond gave a smirk and opened up her own carton with magic, lied down, and began to eat. The food felt typical to her, but she couldn't help but notice the stallion's broken efforts to try and open the box.

"Oh. My apologies. I forgot that this was sealed for unicorns. Here." the box broke open, filling the starving stallion's nose with an unknown scent that drove him crazy.

Pencil Box's face upon tasting this delicacy was border-line mixed with insanity. He seemed in ectasy.

"You okay?" Mond asked with concern.

"Where did you get this? I think my tongue doesn't work anymore."

"It's from Canterlot castle."

"WHAT?!"

"Perhaps I shouldn't have said that."

"Well...you ARE a unicorn, and unicorns are typically royalty in Canterlot, unless we count the burning city..."

"Burning city?"

"It's a leged about a city made by earth ponies long ago, who somehow managed to make a castle float above a dormant volcano, who actually looks pretty active."

"Interesting. I've never heard of that one."

"Yeah? Well I've got more. Um...that bed is upstairs, so you can sleep in it. I'll sleep down here."

"You don't need to-"

"I insist. That thing taught me the error of my ways, so I've vowed to attone for them."

"DAMMIT!" a faint voice echoed through a few creases in the walls.

Both ponies looked around in confusion.

"What was that?" Box wondered.

"I don't know. Probably your neighbors. What about your stories?"

"Hm? Oh yeah!" Box jumped back into reality after an idea flew through his mind." Well then. Let's see-"

The next morning, the group was wide awake and stretching in the alleyways. Other "slummers" were doing just the same. It seemed that, as opposed to typical beliefs, the inhabitants of the slums were not aggressive due to their shared hardships. Mond noticed this as one of the slummers shared a piece of bread with a complete stranger. The sapian was the first to open the conversation:

"So, I know where we need to go to get within the townhall without being seen."

"How you manage that?" Furrows added as she chomped on another bone.

"I sneaked out of the house while you all slept and met up with certain contacts. There's a dance floor near the left wing of the townhall called 'Opi Style'."

"Opi Style?" Mond scratched her head.

"Yes. I know it's weird, but we still have to get there. The building is still up there, and only you and I are practically unknown. Your friends have a much more sinister reputation."

"We have no choice, so we go." Furrows shouted as she ran with extreme speed up the stairs of the slums and into the main city."

"Great. Well. Let's go."

Outside of the city, near one of the entrances, two guards lay upon the floor, their tongues sticking out, and their eyes overturned. They looked dead, but a keen eye could see that a white hoof had to do with this predicament. The cold breeze of the wind swept through the grass, and gave a fun spectacle of grass "dancing". However, the flowing air stopped as soon as it hit the open, blue metal doors left ajar by the intruder. Destitute calmly walked through the city as he looked around at what most normal characters would be awe-inspired by. He felt nothing, and saw only vibrant colors that shouldn't exist. On this feeling, he went lower in the main city, literally shoving everybody that passed, and angering a passing Minotaur, who, despite his envy for a fight, found himself catapulted into a building, forcing the watchers to flee in fear, until the stallion opened his mouth and his eyes. The combined pressure and ear-piercing scream both cracked the ground, windows, and buildings, but also managed to peel away orbs from one half of the collapsed group, and make contact with the others, resulting in the orbs switching appearance, and become devoured by the stallion.

From a height came the fying eyeball. It landed on Destitute's head, asking for a scratch, which it received. The small creature nestled itself in the stallion's mane with a bit of tucking. The sight of this thing scared everybody off, but, even that was nothing for the sight, of the white changeling burrowing out from the ground. This rose to the typical "Ah! A changeling!" scream. It cared not, but it began clicketing and making weird noises, which everybody around understood, bizarrely:

"The object we search is not over here. I have already searched. Perhaps in the lower levels shall we find the desired object, or, atleast the key to activate it."

The unknown constantly flicked its head from side to side as it "spoke", bringing in strange feelings within the urrounding observers, who quickly fled. Destitute just nodded and continued his pathway forward with the unknown. That is...until-

"Halt! We saw what you've done. Stop moving and come quietly, or we'll have to use force." spoke the chief of the city police, also know as the "leutnant" by Pencil Box. "Please. Resist us. It's always so fun to deal with punks like you who think they look 'cool' dressed up and colored creepily."

Leutnant was accompanied by three other officers, and all four wore riot armor, and held both spears and short swords.

"I shall deal with them. Continue your passage."the unknown said to Destitute, who bared no mind to this speach.

"Heh. Ha! Well then, let's go!"

Seen from an angle that showed only the location that the ponies once were, one could see, a mere second after their movement, a bright flash, followed by the spears plopping onto the ground and slowly desintegrating into nothingness. A sad wind actually managed to flow through the city despite its size and shape. Something bad was going to happen, and nature knew that all too well.

A tiny tunnel

Destitute started to fumble about through debris, dust, and disastrous remains as he searched for whatever the object was, expecting it to be hidden here. After all, the Nothing did say that this was the next dimension it was hidden, and it couldn't touch that object unless it had been nearly activated. Either way, the stallion ignored everyone trying to ask about what he was doing, and why he was doing it. Even if they insisted, the flying eyeball on the stallion's head still snapped at everyone foolish enough to do such a thing, causing many to faint and several to run away screaming. What was the white changeling doing? It was entering the wall houses or trash shacks by erasing everything in its zone of effect. Somepony tried to kick it out, put that unfortunate soul got too close, and was erased from existence, knocking the heads of those who knew said pony.
Finally, after a few half-hours of searching, the unknown and Destitute met up. The white changeling started speaking with its typical clicketing:

"We have yet to find it. Perhaps, then, the key should be close? Or, are we to continue searching for the object?"

Destitute said nothing, but walked against a gryphon, who immediately became enraged and started to yell:

"What's yer problem, mate? Ya wantin' ta foyt meh? Commin' 'round 'n hitting gryphons fer no reason?"

"..."

"Not talking, huh? Fine. I'll bust up yer brains by me claws."

As the gryphon raised his claws up high to strike the stallion, he immediately noticed that he could no longer move. Much to the fear of everyone around, the white changeling came up and introduced itself in a peculiar manner:

"Have you seen a box of some sorts, or have you seen the key?"

"Wh-what?"

"A box, you feeble error of Nothing. It emits special tunes..."

"Y-you mean a music box?"

The changeling twisted its head, while Destitute continued to scratch the eyeball.

"Perhaps."

"Uhh. There are tons over there in that shop."

The gryphon pointed to an out-of-shape boutique that held many still working music boxes and clocks.

"Destitute, if you could."

The creepy stallion sent his eyeball first into the nearby shop, and slowly followed afterwards. It soon emerged, with the shop slowly desintegrating into nothing.Destitute walked back up to the unknown, and the yeball coughed up a cog. The white changeling twisted its head back to the hostage floating in the air.

"You lied."

"No! Whatever you're looking for, it should have been there."

"...Destitute. We shall begin destroying this city. The amount of living beings down here should be enough for you."

"Wh-what are you doing?! AAAH!"

The group continued their ways through the city, ignoring the surprised citizens and the mumblings some made when they saw Mond. Soon enough, they arrived at a weird looking dance parlor, who's beats were actually reaching outside pf the walls. Lining behind it were decorative bushes that, in actuality, surrounded the entirety of the gigantic beige townhall. Said building was enormous in width, height, and length. Windows of plain design provided light to all five floors of the building, while pillars placed both on the inside and the out gave way to lovely decorations.

"Wow." Box blandly cast out."I never got this far without the chief stopping us. I wonder where he is."

"Not important. We simply to get in here. Just a warning: even during the day, this place is full of ponies and other dance maniacs." the sapian said as he gently pushed on the two black doors leading inside the dance parlor.

Much to Mond's surprise, this place was enormous. It was built as such that it looked small from the outside, but it, in-fact, had a massive hole dug out so the building could go deeper. If one looked closely, each floor was limited by a single ring of stairs on which there were several fountains built into the walls with fake plants within these "glass walls". Others had jacuzis, while lower floors had restaurants. Finally, the main floor was so far down it looked very small. In reality, it was the biggest part of the dance parlor, and it was flooded with an insane amount of vibrant colors and dancing ponies. More plants and sumsuch were all around, and right above the dancing floor stood a balcony with some funky looking minotaur creating some "beats".

"That's him." Sapian said as he continued towards the bottom, scaring a few ponies in the process.

Mond felt like her head was about to pop. The music was way too loud and much dfferent than the style she was used to.

"Owowow!"

"Too loud?" Box mocked.

"Are you playing a farce? Of course this is too loud!."

"Haha! You've just gotta get used to it."

Mond shot the stallion an annoyed grin with a single opened eye. The stallion simply gave an innocent shrug. Once finally at the dance floor, the brown and white minotaur spoke on the high-speakers:

"Aha! There ya is. I've been waitin' fer ya, Sapi. C'mon back. I'm waitin'."

With a flick on the music system, the minotaur threw his hands in the air, extending both his index and pinkie finger, and yelled: "Rock on!", only to quickly disappear in the room behind the balcony on his sliding chair.

"He's annoying. Welp, let's climb up those velvety blue stairs." sapian sighed.

When the two ponies lift their hooves to shrug past the dancers, they found that the sapian had jumped on the ceiling and swinging on the cables, while Furrows jumped on the side of the wall lining the right side of the stairs and ran across the curving matter, leaving everyone in shock.

"Wow. I didn't know she could do that. Well, we might as well follow."

As much as it was annoying, the two ponies finally made it into the minotaur's room. He was constantly smiling, and wore some shades as well. This room was just as round as the dance floor, and it also had the same velvety carpet strung all over the place, although this one was purple. Ornating the walls were several golden sisks, pictures, frames, decorations, and things that reminded many of the disco era. The minotaur was sitting on a rotatable chair with his head on his hand, and was smiling widely.

"So what canna do for yaz? Want a drink?" the minotaur smiled as he rolled his "r".

"No. We need a way into the townhall, and you, supposedly, have a point of access." Mond stepped forward.

The minotaur just shrugged and left his arms up like that."I dunno whatcher talkin' about you pretty mare, but I do know that you seem to want ta dance!"

"Cut the crap, Fex. You have a passage right behind your chair. It leads directly into the mayor's room thanks to some of your screwy magic things." Sapian lashed out.

"Yes. I can hear it too. The wind blowing behind the wall. You not very discreet."

"Perhaps, but me am know how speak english."

The bone in the diamond dog's mouth snapped like a twig, causing the minotaur to flinch away, only to be compressed by the Sapian, and then by Furrows as well. They were one millimeter from the minotaur's face.

"Wow. Does she normally do this?" Mond asked Pencil Box.

"Only when she's really angry."

"I can see that. They're both beating on the minotaur."

"We can talk while they're doing that."

"Sure."

A few minutes later, the minotaur reluctantly hopped out of his chair, went to his desk, and pressed a red button underneath, revealing an opening passageway that looked like a small, wet, rocky tunnel. Fex was gasping in panic after what he went through, and only gasped more when Furrows gave him a side glare and ran into the tunnel.

"There we go. You two, get in. I need to tell our friend one last thing."

The ponies nodded and galopped after Furrows into the tunnels.

"Now then."

"Blahblah! Thats it! I don't owe you any more favors."

"On the contrary. You still owe me one. I'll see you around for it."

Once the sapian passed the doors, they slid shut, with a quiet poof noise. Fex looked around, regaining his calm. He stood up, fixed up his hair, and walked back out into the dance floor.

The tunnel really was dank, dark, and wet. There was water trickling everywhere, and everybody's feet were getting soggy. It was only thanks to Mond's magic that there was a semblance of light. Humorously enough, as she was up front, she kept encountering spider webs that would make her jump around in a fury of horror and disgust, much to the amusement of the other three. Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel. Mond didn't recognize the yellow crystals embedded around the tunnel itself, but they were even more numerous around the exit. Sapian stepped forward.

"Okay everybody. We'll have to fight through if we want to get that object."

The others nodded, and Furrows passed in front of the creature. "Three. Two. One. Go!"

The four slammed through the door, expecting to encounter a whole group behind the passage, only to find that there was nothing. Just a desk with some quills and ink, two red chairs standing in front of it, and a bookcase behind the desk.

"Alright. They aren't here yet. Let's go get that...thing. Whatever it is." Box proposed as he smacked his forehooves together.

It literally took an hour, and everything was overturned and flipped, yet nothing was found. Mond scratched her head as she rested on the floor.

"Ugh. How are we ever going to find it?"

"We not even know what it look like."

"Let's just take a small break. Apparently, the entire place is empty, so we should have some respite." Sapian proposed as he leaned against the desk.

"I dunno. I feel something behind the bookshelves themselves."

Box leaned closer to the wooden shelves, and started to punch the wall behind them. This lasted for a few minutes until a break was heard, attracting everyone's attention. After a few short moments, Box found a small wooden door with weird symbols etched on it. He opened it, and found a box. A music box, to be precise. He carefully placed it on the desk, and stared at it, as if tranced or under shock.

"Pencil, what's wrong?" Mond worried.

"It...it looks like his cutie mark."

"W-what?"

"So we do this quest just for music box?"

"Not JUST a music box, Furrows. It's the one my dad said our family possessed for an extremely long amount of time. I can't remember for how long. I-"

Pencil Box was interrupted by the sounds of screaming and explosions outside, followed by some weird vorping sounds too bizarre to properly describe. The group looked outside the window, and their eyes widened in disbelief and pure fear.

One action gives a gift

( a theme should be nice)

Outside, there seemed to be a war. The soldiers and security officers were galopping in certain directions, while the ground shook violently. Warning sirens just now began to blast off with a wailing roar as strange blackish creatures flew through the air right in front of the townhall's window, only to be followed by three more armored pegasi. I gigantic creature of white, seemingly made frow a sprawling white ink, was destroying everything around it with no emotions on its face. Every now and then, however, a huge sphere would englobe it and begin to erase everything. The most prominent aspect of this scenery, however, was Destitute floating in the air and having that same "water-dissolving away in the current" effect on his body which kept changing from earth pony, to pegasus, to unicorn, and, sometimes, to all three. Above him grew a massive swirling vortex of darkness. Several gigantic worm-like entities swung and writhed out of it while three eyes, placed bizarrely, glew out of this vortex. These same eyes had an uncanny resemblance to Destitute's, however, the middle was flipped to look like some sort of pupil.
Every now and then, a tremor would occur, and something would pop out further from the hole. In the room of the mayor, the group was shocked with what they were seeing. Furrows even lost her appetite, something that has never happened.

"What in the Creator's name is that thing?" Sampian walked forward in a very slow motion, contemplating the vortex as well as Destitute, both who were floating above the city.

"That must be the Nothing." Mond's face scrunched up in a fierce demonstration of disgust and anger. "That's what we have to destroy, but it's with THAT box that we must do it." she pointed torwards the music box that Pencil was holding.

"W-what? No! I don't want to lose this!"

"Stop being such a pussy and use it already. H-hey! Ow! Leggo! Fu-"

"Fuck off, Destroyer. Now I have to burn my mouth for pronouncing such a heinous word. Now then."

The voices echoed out of nowhere, but the group knew who it was.

"Your box won't be destroyed, but it will seal the Nothing off from this dimension. We will intervene when necessary. Nobody can see us. All you must do is help us distract the army as well as the white creature. Mond and Pencil Box shall reach the portal and use the box. Go!"

"Wait!" Pencil Box shouted, but it was too late. The Creator had left.

Sapian adjusted himself and pat Box on his shoulder.

"It's okay. We'll all get out of this alive. Besides, Furrows told me you wanted an adventure, no?"

"Hm."the stallion nodded.

"Then let's go! We don't have much time!" Mond shouted.

"But how do we reach-ah!"

With one swift movement, Furrows and Sapian blasted through the walls, hanging onto the many wires strewn about the city. It was barely a second they got out that more pegasus and flying monsters passed right in front of them, causing the wire to start wobbling. While the two massively powerful creatures were swinging on the string, Mond used her magic to strenuously transport Box and herself to the closest location to the wormhole. Seeing from afar, the white giant noticed Sapian and Furrows, an headed towards their position, destroying buildings on the way. Unfortunately for it, the second it got close to the two that had now reached solid ground on a building's roof, it found itself smashed by a gigantic beam of light erupting from the sky. The two definately had great support.

"Wow. We should hurry up and reach that hole. C'mon. Death isn't around the corner this time." Pencil Box skid off a slanted rooftop and bounced off some weird elastic trampoline, ejecting him higher than normal.

He coawed Mond to follow, but she simply tilted her head to the side and smirked, only to find herself next to the stallion in a heartbeat.

"You unicorns and your cheating magic."

"It isn't my fault that I possess a great skill in magic."

The short coversation already stopped as several of the shadowy creatures slammed right in front of the two. It was abvious one could not touch them, as they seemed to erase tiny portions of whatever they touched. The two began to back up with fear etched on their faces.

"I thought you said death wasn't near!"

"I did. Oh!" Mond nearly tripped over the edge of the building. "Great. Now we're trapped."

"Then we fight to the death!" Box roared as loud as he could, throwing a foreleg in the air.

Mond and the monsters just slowly tilted their heads to look at him in a massive "Dude, what?" moment. As this atmosphere swept on, the creature's felt themselves be swept off just the same as they were rushed by demented red beasts that swarmed out of some opening near the city.

"D-d-d-d-demons!" Box trembled as he pointed at the unholy spawn attacking the Nothing's workforce.

Humorously, several of the larger, winged demons weilding swords and maces smiled at Box while they passed, giving him the looming feeling that he was still going to the Abyss. Mond said nothing, but simply tucked on the stallion to make him run faster, the box clutched tightly on the unicorn's back with magic. Every time some creatures would pass, either the soldiers of the city would tackle them into nearby walls or directly off buildings, or the demons would bodyslam the monsters through the roof and further down. After trial and error, the two finally reached the highest point of the city, which barely even reached the opening. Before any actions could be taken, a massive tremor shook throughout the lands, and the creature came further out of the hole.

Its body was covered in swirling black worms of a grayer hue than the body, while the body itself was almost dragon-like in apperance. The face WAS swept forward like a dragon's, but it also didn't seem to resemble the reptile. There were also the three eyes it possessed. One was near the right corner of the nose, another was at the typical spot on the left side, and another was on the top of the head. These places still had giant worms swirling about them, but nothing more, aside from the enormous arms and hands plowing away at everything they landed on, effectively erasing them completely. It was an enormous monstrosity. If seen from afar, it was certain that its whole girth could destroy the entirety of Duchess. However, when it saw Pencil Box, its booming mockery could be heard several kilometers across.

"What? Why are you laughing?" the stallion trembled even more than before.

"Because you believe you can destroy the Nothing, which doesn't exist. My being as you see it is as all inderior life forms perceive me: as best as their tiny minds can. Neither mortal or immortal can see me and not become immediately erased within the Nothing."

Mond stepped in:"Then why do you try and destroy everything? There is no point. You simply erase things and return to your own dimension?"

"Dimension? The Nothing has no dimension. I do not have an existence, therefore, I need not a dimension."

"What? If you don't exist, how can you do all these things?"

"Such is the way of the Nothing. Destitute."

The stallion, who was floating in the air underneath the portal, lunged at Mond, and missed her by a hair as he punched through a building, creating an uneven tunnel through everything. After this event, a wide but thin fog flew across the floors of the city, giving an ominous feeling. As Mond leaned forward, Destitute came back out, strange tentacles having formed on his back. With her magic, the mare grabbed the box and threw it at Pencil.

"Go! Use it! We'll hold them off as best we can. Oh no-"

Destitute dragged the mare down with it through the collpasing portion of the neighboring building, only to find himself being launched across several meters from his initial starting point, with Mond following after. It wasn't long before the Nothing turned its attention back to the small stallion, who was just moments away from having a heart attack. It didn't help when the Nothing's mouth opened, revealing the same swirling black hole as within Destitute's mouth, but with the bodies of the giant worms popping out of the holes every now and then.

"..."the Nothing was swinging from side to side as its eyes looked at the stallion and his box."You do not know how to operate it?"

"I-"

"Ha! Hope makes way for nothing as it is realize to be a lie and a failure. You shall become nothing. Your world shall become nothing. And that box shall be taken elsewhere. Now. Become inexistant."

The hand reached ever closer to the stallion as its immense girth envelopped everything around it. It looked like the entire sky was falling. As Pencil Box felt himself fading, he heard a strange voice:

"Remember what your father taught you."

Pencil Box inexplicably found himself back in his father's workshop, the decorated box in hoof.

"Now then, son. This is how you open it. You click on the four heads of the flowers in the middle of each side, then you push on the top, and when it begins to open, you spin these silvery cogs."

As the stallion did just these actions, the beautiful box spun open and revealed a most beautiful melody to the ears of the tiny colt. His eyes widened just as his mouth, and he watched the box gears spin around as it depicted a scene that was indecipherable to anypony who ever saw the interior. It depicted a black smog crossing over plains and cities, and making them disappear. Once it reached a lone creature, it prepared to lunge at it, until said creature lifted a box towards it. The box emitted music notes, and the cloud retracted as it writhed and twisted, only to quickly disappear. It was a fun looking paper theater, but neither the colt nor the stallion knew what it meant. Pencil just stared at the box and saw himself being lifted into the air by his dad, only to hear him say:

"I love you son. You're the best kid a father could ask for."

"Remember..."

Pencil Box found a tear leaking from his eye, and many more followed shortly after. With a struggle of strength, he pushed on the four flowers. The Nothing stopped and wondered what was going on, but by the time Pencil Box has spun the cogs, it was too late.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A soothing and beautiful melody echoed throughout the world of Equestria as Pencil looked up with a teary fury at the Nothing who was now beginning to dissolve and being reabsorbed by the hole in the sky. It tried desperately to erase the stallion, but every strike that was supposed to reach Pencil Box became a dissolved mess. The monsters were also being reabsorbed into the Nothing, while Destitute flung by as well. One of hs tentacles hooked onto a rod protruding from the building Pencil was standing on. The stallion stepped forward, the music box in one foreleg, and said, with a face of great seriousness:

"This is payback for what you did to my father. Become one with the Nothing as you already were."

Pencil approached Destitute with his box, and as it approached the stallion's face, the music tore away the right side of the face, specifically, the eye. However, only bits and pieces of white and black flung away. The music box slipped from Pencil's arm as he looked more closely at the eye of this creature. It was a brown eye with a soft brown coat surrounding the rest. The ominous feeling Pencil had as he stared at this emotionless stallion was overwhelming, despite the whole hoard of monsters being reabsorbed into the nothing.

"D...dad?" Pencil thought out loud.

Destitute forced a smile, which was accompanied by some strange sound making one think of cracking, or a burnt piece of bread being broken apart. As the black and white stallion gave what was possibly the only emotion he would ever have, the rod broke and cast Destitute straight into the portal. Pencil tried to grab him, but dire consequences would arise.

"DON'T LOOK AT THE PORTAL!" the disembodied voice yelled.

Too late. Pencil Box passed out.

One week later. One whole week, and finally, Pencil reawoke, Furrows chewing on her bone next to the stallion's licey bed.

"What happened?"

"You become unconcious after looking at hole. Mond and Sapian bring you back here, while two-left eye pony helped your soul return to body. I stay by and helped heal you and clean you. It not hard work."

"What about-"

"She return home. Said she have present for us when you awake."

*ding dong*

"Ah. That must be present. Let's go."

"But my head still hurts."

"Stop whining."

The diamond dog grabbed the sickly stallion by the tail and dragged him down the stairs, his head bumping off the steps, the sounds being accompanied by a monotonous "ow" sound. Pencil was thrown at the door, where the kncking continued.

"I'm here! Hold on." he opened the door. His jaw dropped."What are Celestia's royal guards doing here?"

Right in front of the two's house stood several royal guards, with two heavily armored guards protecting what looked like a brown bag on a small plank of wood. Everyone around was wondering what was going on.

"Her royal majesty, Princess Luna, sent us to escort your rewards to award you of the heroic duties you performed."

"Heroic duties? But I didn't do anything."

"She says otherwise. She told us that you stopped the annihilation of our world, and that she bore witness to it all."

"Bore witness? What's in the bag?"

"One million bits, to be exact."

A loud breaking noise could be heard, and Furrows popped out from behind her friend, her jaw agape. The royal guards didn't seem to take too well to her prescence.

"We will wait here and help you install yourselves into your new home, as well as escort your rewards. We will wait for you up top. Whenever you're ready, come join us."

"Yes...sir."

While the royal guards walked away, Pencil turned around and wonderd.

"What's the matter?"

"He said that Luna saw what we did. But how? She wasn't he...MOND?!"

Meanwhile, at the castle, Luna was looking out a window in the hall, towards the direction of Duchess, a look of satisfaction ornating her calm and serene face. Celestia saw her during one of her strolls and commented on this:

"Luna, what are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"And why did you remove a million bits from our treasury? Does it have something to do with tht bizarre music I heard while I was away?"

"Maybe."

"Hmmm. I don't know why you have just suddenly done these things, but I trust you did them for a reason."

"Definately."