Chapter Seven:
Out of Control SOUL

He could only remember bits and pieces. Finding her, his family taking her in, evading the angry villagers while trying to bring her to peace. He had taken every single blow the ponies and humans had to offer, and it was only when he had returned home that he had cracked and turned to dust. Then... he had awoken, devoid of any emotion. All he felt was hatred... and a ever-burning urge to kill. His father had found him, only to leave when his back was turned. He was alone. Until she came back. When the last human and monsters tried to stop them, needless to say, the maid would need a bigger feather duster. This had happened years ago and then, the new monsters had arrived. They were ruthless, and terrifying. Perfect for the duo in some ways. The newly appointed king had been corrupted by her when he had least expected it and easily destroyed the King of the Ponies with her power. But she needed a proper vessel. A SOUL with a purpose. With strength. With DETERMINATION.

Rarity sat at the coffee table in the living room examining the rose that she had picked out from the backyard. It was striped with orange, pink, and red. Almost as beautiful as the ones in the Royal Canterlot Garden, if it weren't for the tiny gray spots where the flower was withering. It was fascinating. A mix of beauty and despair; a point-of-view of life itself. Thriving on nothing but sunlight, water, and oxygen. It was enough to give her a headache. It was either that or the noise coming from upstairs. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were fussing over who won at a video game. Fluttershy was cuddling with Jem's dog, Pinkie Pie was watching a rather silly show of aquatic sea creatures with what appeared to be an optimistic, yet rather dim witted, sponge as the main character, and Spike was... looking at the rose alongside Rarity. "Wow... I've never seen a rose like that back home." Spike said in a trance.

"It is lovely isn't it." Rarity replied. "I was thinking I could use it as a new color scheme for my dresses once we return home."

"Rarity..." Spike said a bit sadly. Rarity looked over at him, concerned.

"Is something the matter Spike?" She asked.

"Well... what'll happen if we never go home?" He asked shakily.

"Spike!" Rarity gasped, "Don't even think about that!"

"But... there is a p-possibility..." Spike was on the verge of tears. Pinkie and Fluttershy took notice and looked over at their direction concerned.

"Spike... of course we're going home soon." Rarity said passionately, "We've only been here for-"

"One. Month." Spike said getting frustrated, "We've been here one month, and we're no closer to getting home than when we had arrived." His tears were now clearly visible. "Without spell books... we're lost. We're trapped here."

"Now now Spike! It isn't all bad here!" she said trying to lighten the mood.

"Not bad? NOT BAD?!" Spike yelled. The yelling had stopped upstairs. The faint noise of hoof-steps were closing in and AJ and Rainbow were at the midsection of the stairs. Rarity had shrunken back, her ears laid backwards. "What about Rainbow?! Her wing was shot with a mullet!"

"Bullet-" Applejack corrected.

"Not now Applejack!" Spike yelled. AJ shrunk back at the tone he was using. "We have absolutely no spell books! Jem's Dad hates us! and we're not even allowed outside! The only good thing to come out of this was-"

"Jem." All of the girls said.

"Uhm... I was gonna say we're all together." He said curiously. The girls blushed and instantly agreed with him. This didn't shrug off his confusion. "Why did you all-" He was interrupted with the phone ringing. Rarity went over to the home-phone and looked at who was calling. Over the summer, Jem had taught them how to properly read and speak human. The translation spell was using too much energy for Twilight to keep it up, so he figured that teaching them the basics was a good start.

(Flashback to Summer. One week after the funeral.)

Jem had woken up feeling groggy. He always felt like that whenever a storm had occurred the night before. He got out of bed, put on some clothes, and exited his room. He looked into the bonus room and saw Twilight had already awoken and was nowhere to be seen. One part that sort of startled Jem was the obnoxious snoring coming from the group. It sounded like normal horses that you would find at a barn. Jem shrugged it off and walked downstairs only to find Twilight on the ground, her horn flickering.

"Twilight!" Jem shouted running over. Twilight shut off her horn completely and came out of her glazed trance. She stood up and talked to Jem. All that came out were neighs, nickers, and other animal-like sounds. "I-I don't understand you Twilight." Twilight tilted her head. She tried to speak again. Jem knew she was only saying the same thing. The others must've heard and came downstairs. Jem couldn't tell what they were saying. He pointed to his ear and shrugged, gesturing that he couldn't understand. Rainbow must've misinterpreted what he was getting at and instead grabbed his head and neighed very loudly into his ear. Besides the ringing in his ears, he heard his family shouting, wondering what was going on.

"The spell must've worn off." Spike said. Jem turned around bewildered.

"Spike, you can speak english?" Jem asked.

"Not exactly..." He began, "Twilight's modification spells tend to last longer on me than other ponies. Wait one second..." Spike then began neighing and making other noises. "You didn't understand me?" Jem just shook his head. "I told them you can't understand ponish anymore. The spell was giving Twilight too much strain."

"How long has she kept it up?" Jem asked. Spike turned towards Twilight and spoke ponish. Twilight replied back with a short answer. Spike turned back towards Jem.

"Ever since they met that hunter... and you."

"Why didn't she turn it off while she was sleeping?"

"I can answer that one." He said, "Starting up a translation spell can take up more energy than keeping one alive. An overnight sleep isn't nearly enough time to recharge her magic so she needed to keep the spell going."

"Okay then... I'll teach them how to speak english." Jem said determined.

"Honey... that might not be the best idea." Jem's Mom intervened, "I'm a teacher, so teaching should be easy for me."

"Or me." Jem's Dad added. Jem's sister just shrugged at the situation.

"Actually..." Spike began, "I think Jem should be the one to teach them. They all seem a lot more comfortable around him than with you guys, no offense." Jem's parents looked at one another and nodded.

"Go for it." Jem's Dad said walking away.

"Tell us if you need help." His Mom said before joining his father. Jem gestured to the girls to move upstairs. They did as they were told and went into the bonus room.

They had spent the entire week learning english and they pretty much had it under control which was pretty surprising. To test them, Jem had each of them read a paragraph from a book. "About once a week... Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut... Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together... but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way -- all over the place." Rarity had read without the spell.

"Well done Rarity!" Jem exclaimed. Rarity proceed to read the book to herself, clearly enjoying it. "Rainbow?"

"The boy with f-fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of r-rock and began to pick his way toward the l-lagoon. Though he had taken off his school... sweater and trailed it now from one hand... his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead."

"Great job!" He proceeded to Pinkie:

"We made our best speed across the strip of wood that now divided us from the sto-sto..."

"Stockade." Jem finished.

"And at every step we took... the voices of the buccaneers rang nearer. Soon we could hear their footfalls as they ran... and the cracking of the branches as they breasted across a bit of thicket."

Then onto Applejack:

"The Second Civil War... also known as "The Heartland War,"... was a long and bloody conflict fought over a single i-issue. To end the war... a set of constitutional am-amendaments... known as "The Bill of Life" was passed. It satisfied both the Pro-life and the Pro-choice armies... The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen... However, between the ages of thirteen and eighteen... a parent may choose to retroactively "abort" a child . . . ... on the condition that the child's life doesn't "technically" end. The process by which a child is both terminated and yet kept alive is called "unwinding."

"Very good. Except the word you missed is pronounced, a-MEND-ments." Applejack nodded sheepishly and continued reading. Up next was Fluttershy:

"The phrase ‘m-man’s best f-friend’ has been in e-existence for a long t-t-time, and for g-good reason too. Every dog has a p-purpose. Every d-dog has a meaning in this world, just as every human b-being does... And who doesn’t love m-man’s best friend?"

Then came Twilight and Spike:

"Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation." Jem clapped for all of them. They had officially learned english.

"Excellent job! All of you!" Jem said proudly.

"Hey uh Jem?" Rainbow asked.

"Yeah?"

"Could you read us this book?" Rainbow asked as she held up her copy of 'Lord of the Flies'.

"Um... sure." Jem said as he took the book and began reading chapter one. "Ralph saw it first, and watched till the intentness of his gaze drew all eyes that way. Then the creature stepped from mirage on to clear sand, and they saw that the darkness was not all shadow but mostly clothing. The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing. Shorts, shirts, and different garments they carried in their hands; but each boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge on it..." For the rest of the afternoon, the girls and Spike had listened to Jem read the story, laughing at the silly voices he gave the characters, crying at the deaths, and finally smiling at the end. From that day forward, Twilight wouldn't use the translation spell.

(Present)

The phone number was for a hospital in the area. Rarity was about to pick it up when- "Jem told us not to pick up phones Rarity." Rainbow Dash said sternly.

"It's the hospital darling." She said worryingly and she picked up the phone putting it on speaker. "Hello?"

Is this the Kaplan Residence? a female's voice came in over the speaker.

"Why indeed it is dear. What appears to be the trouble?"

"One of your family members named Jeremy has been hospitalized. He has a friend named Twyla Sparks and Jeffrey with him. Do you have any relation to them?" Rarity almost dropped the phone in shock. "Hello?"

"Y-yes... I know them. Why?"

"Beca-eegdtrfgfdhrye"

"Hello? HELLO?!" Rarity yelled into the phone. A long beep sounded on the phone meaning the telephone wire was cut. There was pounding and other sounds coming from the roof.

"Th-they're here..." Applejack said quietly.

"They?" Spike asked. "They who?"

(Jem's POV)

I woke up in a blink. My arms were in pain, as was my head, chest, and basically every part of my body. Next to me was Twyla, eagerly waiting for me to wake up. "JEM!" She tightly hugged me and I yelped in pain.

"Twyla stop!" My Dad yelled. "He's in a lot of pain right now!"

"R-right." She said blushing, "S-sorry Jem." It actually didn't feel bad in my opinion. Sure my limbs did hurt but it was comforting to be hugged by her.

"Nono it's... it's okay actually." I said quickly. The doctor came in to give the diagnosis.

"Ah you're already here. Good."

"What's wrong with my little brother doctor?" My sister asked.

"Well we ran tests and we found something very peculiar." The doctor continued, "It appears to be a heart, emitting a light brighter than any other that I've ever seen. It's in the same area where his scars appeared. When we attempted to remove it from his chest cavity, it opposed any strain put onto it, as if it was fighting to stay in. A very determined heart I must say. However, besides the scars, it doesn't appear harmful at all. If anything, it's keeping your son very healthy. He should be discharged tomorrow, now please. Let him rest." They all walked out of the room, until I called Twilight back.

"Twili-Twyla, could you stay here for for a few minutes?" I asked. She did as she was told and came back. As soon as they were outside of the door. I began questioning her. "You're not telling me something. What happened back on your world? Something bad must've happened." She sighed.

"I had hoped for you to learn about this differently." She was going to tell me the entire truth. "A long time ago, before Nightmare Moon was banished, Monsters, Ponies, and Humans lived in peace together..."

(Flashback)

When Equestria was discovered, more than one species wanted to live there. The humans, being the civilized group they were, signed a peace treaty with King Capricornus and Queen Supernova, stating that they would live together in harmony for generations to come. When the monsters arrived, they threatened to take the land by force, until the King, Queen, and Leader of the humans, Arthur Callow, made peace with the original King of the monsters, Asgore, and his kind-hearted wife, Toriel. The monsters had changed their ways and became peaceful, learning to cope with the other species. Eventually, crossbreeds sprouted and were seen as miracles at first. There were Centaurs, Satyrs, Thestrals, and soon enough, skeletons. But then, it all toppled over.

"Thank you so much for coming James! It's an honor to meet Arthur's grandson!" Capricornus said delighted.

"The pleasure is all mine kind sir!" The young human said to the king, "And what a lovely wife you have!" Supernova was cream color, with a wavy scarlet mane.

"Your kindness is truly something to be valued James." Nova said bowing her head slightly.

"Will King Asgore and Queen Toriel be joining us tonight?" James asked.

"I haven't heard from the old man in awhile. That was why I asked you to send your human over to their village. Any word?"

"Not yet sir."

All of a sudden, the doors to the dining room burst open, revealing a very big muscular monster. The monster was covered in scars, had a missing eye, and the one that was still in its socket was glass. They couldn't tell if the monster was blind or not. "I am Deltarune. The new king of the monsters. May I sit down?" They couldn't even answer as the large beast went over to Asgore's chair and sat down. "I apologize in advance for my unnerving look. War has not treated me well."

"What war?" James asked. The monster glared at him menacingly and James backed down.

"Could you please explain to us where King Asgore is?" Supernova asked, "We haven't seen or heard from him in quite some time. And I understand you are not Asriel Dreemur?" The monster nodded.

"Sadly, the royal family was obliterated. Somehow, the enemy had gotten past even the kingdom's greatest defenses."

"How can that be?" Capricornus asked. "With General Undyne leading the militia, nothing could've ever gotten through the gates to the castle. No less the entrance to the village."

"Unless it was an inside job your majesty." James added.

"Are you insinuating that I had something to do with the royal family's death?" Deltarune asked.

"No! Not at all!" James exclaimed.

"Good. Now shut up and eat puny mortal." Deltarune said bluntly and dug into his steak.

"A little while later, James was found dead in his own home, the family sword shoved through his chest. He had carved a smile into his body like the one on your chest. The humans decided to make their species a democracy so if one leader died, it would be easier to have another in their place. The monsters soon after began to abuse power. The new king Deltarune declared that all crossbreeds would be destroyed. He saw that species should remain with their own species, so the beastiality law was put into service. Many families were forced to separate, and many children were killed that very year. Then, Deltarune had asked Capricornus the most unspeakable offer, they labeled it, the Monster-Terra pact."

"You expect us to hand over all of the land for monsters to thrive?" Capricornus asked.

"I know it sounds like much-" Deltarune started.

"Much is an understatement Delta!" the king yelled, "You're asking us to hand over the land that has been in our possession for generations! The answer is no!"

"Please sir! I-" Deltarune began.

"Guards take him away!" The guards grabbed Delta and pulled him away.

"You'll regret this Capricornus! You're making a huge mistake!"

The week after, every single human was found dead without a single survivor. Or so we thought. Two humans had managed to escape and came here to your world. They reproduced and soon, the humans were back. But back in Equestria, things were terrible. The relationship between the monsters and the ponies had grown into a hateful one. Celestia and Luna were only in their hundreds at this point and even joined in the war. The war only started when Deltarune took everything too far. When Capricornus woke up the next morning he felt a warm liquid on his hoof...

"Sweetheart? Are you drooling? I never thought you would..." Capricornus opened his eyes to see his wife's glazed over, her face frozen in an expression of fear, blood spilling out of her neck and onto himself. Capricornus jumped out of bed and stared at his dead wife. The funeral was issued and a state of war was effective immediately.

(Present)

"When Capricornus died," Twilight continued, "Everypony had lost hope. But when Celestia and Luna joined the battle, they emerged victorious and sealed the monsters underground with a BARRIER."

"A what?" I asked.

"The BARRIER was a spell that no pony or monster could break unless they were empowered with very strong magic. I was doing an experiment and-"

"You came here by accident." I finished.

"Jem I'm so sorry!" She said nearly breaking down in tears.

"Hey its okay Twi. I'm just happy I got to meet you and the others!" She smiled at me and leaned in closer to my face, but I leaned back. "W-what are you doing?"

"Oh... I-I thought that... never mind." She said slightly disappointed. The doctor came back in wearing a mask.

"You are ready to be discharged!" He yelled happily. He very unprofessionally unplugged everything and pulled me out of the bed and pulled me out of the room, only to be brought to a darker one.

"W-what is this place? W-why am I here?" I asked.

"Just for a... heart... transplant." The doctor laughed maniacally and he revealed himself to be the leader of the hunters named, Silas J. Turner. I tried to make a run for it but he grabbed me and strapped me onto a gurney.

"HEL-" I tried to call for help but was unable to because of the wad of tissues he shoved into my mouth.

"Let's just get this over with. Shall we?" He said grinning an inhumane smile.

'I-if I could just touch him,' I thought, 'Maybe then I could activate my SOUL and stop him!' He approached with a scalpel prepared to tear into my flesh and pull out the SOUL.

The monsters came from everywhere. From the fireplace, from the windows, even from the walls. The house was a complete wreck. But the monsters? They were easy to beat. The girls had easily learned how to use their SOULs, and learned to push monsters away or make them disappear. Flowey was outside watching the carnage.

"How could have I hired such weaklings?!" He exclaimed. "It just isn't fa- W-what? Good, she's taking care of him right now. Your job is done old friend. Go ahead and relax. What do you mean you can make the monsters stronger? Well do it then!"

As soon as she had worked her magic, the monsters SOULs were powered on pure adrenaline and determination. the ponies and dragon were easily over-powered and were tied up. "Do whatever you want to us! But leave our friend Jem and his family out of it!" Rainbow yelled.

"Too late pony." A monster said before the hoard turned around and left.

"H-hey! Get back here you cowards!" Rainbow yelled. Their bonds dissipated and they were standing alone in a wreck of a house.

"W-what did he mean by that?" Fluttershy asked.

"Forget that!" Pinkie yelled. "Look at this place! We need to clean it up before they get home!"

"Pinkie's right." Applejack stated.

"What?! But what about Jem and Twilight?!" Rainbow yelled.

"If we go out there... we'll just get ourselves into more trouble." Applejack explained, "Jem and Twilight can handle themselves. We need to fix the house before they get back."

"If they get back..." Rainbow muttered.

I kept struggling but the straps were too tight. It was as if they were perfectly done with no weak spots. "Jem! Are you in there?!" I could only give muffled screams. and she wouldn't even hear me over Turner's maniacal laughs.

"This is going to be even more fun than that kid at the aquarium!" What did he say? My friend Gabe was the only one who was killed at the aquarium. That meant. No. No. He killed Gabe. My best friend. I just felt anger, an urge to kill, I could feel my chest burning as my SOUL used all of its power just to break myself free. I pulled harder and harder until the straps broke. "What?!" He yelled. My eyes glowed pure white, my SOUL clearly visible on my chest. My scars had faded in the couple of seconds it was powered up. Then it stopped. I was back to normal and I was free. "NO!" He yelled as he ran at me with a scalpel. I fell back and braced for the stinging sensation of being stabbed. But it never came. All I could hear was the sound of the door bursting open and the sound of gunshots. Turner crumpled into a corpse and his SOUL floated into midair. The black of his SOUL disappeared to reveal a white one which cracked, and scattered into five pieces. Whoever had taken control of Turner was dead.

"KID!" I saw Calvin Streak in the doorway holding up a pistol. He ran over and helped me get up. "You okay?!"

"I-I'm fine." I said shakily.

"Jem!" My family and Twilight came running into the dark OR. I was instantly engulfed in a group hug, and I loved every second of it. As the tears came down onto my face, I smiled, being happy to be alive.

(THE BARRIER)

Demonic Wing was outside of the BARRIER studying the portal. He was having trouble finding out where it lead.

"Any luck?" Nightmare Moon asked as she appeared next to him in the form of a shadow.

"No... Nothing yet. This portal is just... indecipherable."

"You'll figure it out Wingy. You always do." Demonic blushed at the nickname she had given him. He wasn't the largest fan of it, but he loved it nonetheless. He continued to try using his demonic abilities to learn where the portal had lead but ended up with nothing. The world it lead to either had too many objects blocking its atmosphere, or it lead to nowhere.

"I'm calling it for the day." He said as he walked away from the side of the mountain.

"We'll find out where it leads Wingy." Nightmare said optimistically.

"And hopefully we'll get you a real body as well." Demonic said happily as he flew off towards his temporary chambers in the castle.

Meanwhile Starlight and Cloudy were looking around Ponyville for helpers. Nopony so far had known anything about inter-dimensional travel except for Clockwork and Derpy. That was two helpers down, now they needed a couple more. Cloudy had considered they went to go find his old friend Golden Rise. He lived on the outskirts of Ponyville but was always seen around town. He had marvelous Wings as if they belonged to a phoenix. He had a golden coat, yellow and orange mane, and a satchel full of spell books. He had the ability to use magic without a horn which amazed some ponies. Starlight and Cloudy found him on his front porch looking at an apple in front of him. "Are you Golden-" Golden Rise held up a hoof telling her to be quiet. He concentrated and turned the apple into two red doves.

"Apologies" he said, "I need perfect concentration for some spells to work. Now how can I- Cloudy Arrow! Is that you?!"

"Hey Golden! How've you been buddy?" Cloudy said happily.

"I've been well Cloudy! And you must be the famous Starlight Glimmer I presume?"

"Well... not famous-" She said trying to be modest.

"Nonsense! You're just as famous as the Elements of Harmony!" Golden exclaimed. "So, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

(Kaplan House)

Thanks to Rarity's magic, the house was fixed faster. She wasn't the best at it, but she had a few tricks up her hooves. Every brick, piece of wall, and shard of glass was cleaned up and magically resealed to it's original place. Jem, his family, and Twilight had all returned to the house soon after they had finished fixing it up. Twilight deactivated her screen spell and turned back into a pony. After explaining what had happened at the hospital, they went upstairs but just as Jem was going to go to bed, the girls and Spike pulled him into the bonus room.

"H-hey! What're you-"

"Jem, the monsters attacked the house." Applejack said quickly.

"W-what?"

"They were looking for you and wrecked the house attacking us." Fluttershy added.

"But the house is fine?" A brick fell from the attic just as he mentioned that. "Oh that makes sense."

"That's why we all came up with an idea..." Rarity said slowly, "Maybe we could turn into humans as well and go with you to school?" Jem had to think about this. With Twilight it was easy... but all seven of them?

"I don't know guys." Jem said with insecurities.

"What? afraid of being followed around by six girls?" Rainbow said in a cocky sort of manner. Jem rolled his eyes.

"My school is strict with security. With the events happening at other schools... they might assume that I'm a terrorist." They all frowned. It wasn't just about being with Jem... they wanted to go outside. "But..." they all perked up, "Maybe outside of school would work?" It was agreed that they would finally be able to go outside. Instead of going back to his bed, he slept in a separate sleeping bag next to the pullout couch.

Author's Note

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone By J.K. Rowling
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
A Dog's Purpose by Bruce Cameron
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Undertale and the name Deltarune by Toby Fox
MLP FiM by Hasbro/Lauren Faust
This story and the monster Deltarune by ME!