The Phantom of Equis

It has been two thousand years since Crescendo was taken by the windagoes, and in those years they fed on every ounce of pain and suffering they could squeeze out of her, torturing her mind making her believe she had died thousands of deaths. Eventually her psyche broke under the stress leaving her a husk of her former self,and windagoes without a meal, and so she was reverted to foal once again as they had sealed her power inside to the point where she would have to suffer greatly to reawaken it,but now she was free even if she did not know it yet. She now laid barely breathing in the snow of the frozen north.

“Are you sure we should be following an oracle's advice,that old hag probably can’t even find her hooves,let alone so merchandise,” A Minotaur with a slim build and heavy winter protection said as he and his four companions tracked behind their bruly leader.

“That Oracle has never been wrong in all the years that she has held the position, I see no reason for her to be wrong this time, she said something valuable would be found near the western slope of the frozen north and I intend to find it,” The large Minotaur said gruffly as they powered through the snow,stopping when he spotted Cress laying on her side in the snow unmoving.

“Holy shit it that foal? If it's still alive it might make us a good profit!” The giant said with a greed grin as he ran up and grabbed Cressy and giving her a good looks over.

“Still breathing eh? Oh and it's an Alicorn foal! Oh we could sell this pretty thing for a lot of coin, some perverted noble might want her to fulfill his fantasies of fucking royalty,” The minotaur said turning to his companions who were also grinding with a glint in their eyes, “Id do it myself,but she’s a bit young,hmm perhaps too young to sell quite yet...I know! We’ll raize her to be a slut and sell her to highest bidder!”

“Oh that will mighty fun!” One of them said with glee.

“I say we all take turns with her ,once she’s of age!” Another said eagerly.

“So it's settled then lets- Hey! Who are you? Get lost ya mangy mutt!” The main honcho said catching sight of a anthro female wolf,who had a full winter coat of fur and was wearing modest, but practical leather armour, who was approaching them.

“You stand trial and have been found wanting, Time to die.” She charges and snaps the neck of the first one before he could even blink.

“What the hell? Get that bitch!” One them yelled going for his battle axe on his back.

Letting them come, she takes them out one by one. “May xixis have mercy on your souls.”

All of the minotaurs laid on the ground dead,their blood staining the snow red,as Cress continued to lay motionless in the snow, her breathing getting slower by the minute.

The wolf takes cress in her paws, and starts to let a silver glow cover cress. “Please let me be on time!”

Cress’s breathing returned to normal and she opened her eyes, but her stare was blank and her royal blue eyes unfocused, it was as if she was dead but her chest going up and down, told a different story.

Thinking quickly, The wolf holds cress close to her fur to keep her warm, as she gets somewhere warm. She brought them to a cave that one would most likely not notice if they did not know it was there. Inside the cave was a humble setting, a fire pit in the center, a workbench with several tools,a rack for her weapons,and queen sized bed with animal furs as covers and thick wool as a mattress.

The wolf gets a fire going and sets cress near it to warm her up a bit. “Please work. It is not yet your time to die,”

After a few tense minutes Cress’s breathing was stable,and she seemed to have fallen asleep. The wolf smiles and sets to make some food for herself and her new guest. As she worked she noticed that Cress had stated tossing her sleep and sobbing quietly, she was obviously not enjoying whatever dream she was having.

Setting down the food The wolf heads over to cress and lays close by. “Its ok, your safe now.” She gives cress a hug.

The foal tensed up at first but eventually nuzzled closer,and seemed to relax a bit,and seemed to now be sleeping soundly.

The wolf smiles and lays near her charge like a furry breathing blanket. So they were both asleep. After a few hours Cress began to stir a bit and wiggled out of her grasp before sitting by the fire, with a blank stare.

The wolf wakes not long after and goes over to cress. “It will all be ok your safe. Feel free to take your time to tell me why i found you like that.”

The foal said nothing but looked at her with a blank stare,her eyes lacking the shine that most beings have.

“She can respond quite yet her mind is still to damaged, but I can talk to you,” the foal seeming said her eyes glowing red and a dark aura surrounding, “This body cannot sustain me, so Ill be moving on soon, but I will answer a single question before I leave, child of xisis,”
“What happened to this foal? Why is she in so much pain.” The wolf asked.

“Oh that is a long and wonderful story!” The being cackled before telling her the complete story of what happened to Cress, which took a about an hour.

“That's terrible! Used as a living weapon forced to fight for something she would not have agreed with. That does it! I vow to give this foal the life she deserves or my name is not eris!” The now named eris exclaimed.

“Ugh so noble,it makes me sick, oh well you no longer interest me ta-ta!” The voice said turing into a cloud of dark energy and flying away.

Eris holds cress close and a sliver glow envelopes cress as if to comfort her.

A few weeks later Cress seemed to be aware of her surroundings as she no longer just sat staring at the fire, but seemed to explore the cave, although her memory seemed poor as she would do this once a day, and seemed to be surprised everytime by her surrounding. A few more weeks past and Eris had gone out to check the weather for today, Cress left the cave and trotted up to her.

The foal looked at her and seemed to be struggling to do something, “M-ma-m” She began to say.

“Thats right im your mama.” Eris smiled and picked up cress and held her.

“Mama,” Cress said happily nuzzling Eris’s neck.

The next few years were happy ones, Eris begin to teach Cress many things,such as combat, magic, and the ways of xisis. At the end of her fourth year with Eris, Cress had wandered away from the cave in search of something to due. She was attacked by a huge yeti and in this moment Cress transformed into the state she used to fight the King of the Alicorns and decimated the yeti.

“What, how did I?” Cress said looking her new body over in astonishment.

“This is the power I felt in you that was locked away, How do you feel pup?” Eris asked with a smile.

“I feel-” Suddenly she felt a pain in her head as her memories of before Eris came flooding back, with the exception of her time with the windagoes which were only images flashed here and there but giving her an idea of what they did to her. She broke down sobbing and holding her head in pain.

“My pup! Are you ok!” Eris races to cresses side. “Please take it easy.”

“I remember everything, mom...thank you for not telling me, I didn’t want to remember this,” Cressy sobbed into her adoptive mother shoulder.

“Let it all out, i am here for you.” Eris hugged her tight.

Cress sobbed for about minute before they walked back to the cave. The next few years went by and Cress was a lot more solemen than before and prefered her new form over her alicorn state., and on her eighteenth birthday her mother had a surprise for her.

“My sweet pup. It is time you leave the nest. I will always be here for you, but you need to meet ponies and other beings as well.” Eris shed a few tears. “I give you this cloak, the one my father made for me, and I pass it on to you my pup.”

“Thank you mother,I'll make you proud!” Cress said hugging her before taking the cloak and putting it on. Cress and Eris then worked together to help her prepare for her journey, they packed a modest satchel with necessary supplies and when they were finished,Cress hugged her Mom one last time before flying off to begin her journey.

For the next year she took her time exploring the world, she learned several things some of them the hard way, like how to spot an untrustworthy person or trouble in general,she learned that she like to alcoholic beverages practically whiskey,and she also learned that she could change her gender, which she did to avoid unwanted advances. So one day he when she was passed out drunk for the third time this week,she found herself facing a huge white dragon in her mind scape.

“It is about time we had a chance to talk, my child.” The dragon said. “I’m xixis and I have great plans for your future,”

“Oh great another fucking dragon inside me,okay grandma let's hear it, I don't have anything better to do,” Cress said looking annoyed.

“What if I said my offer comes with some perks? Like multiverse travel?” Xixis smiled. “Bet that will change your tune!”

The Dragon now had Cressy’s full attention, “Multiverse travel eh? That sound interesting,” She said with a grin, what do you want in return?”

“All i ask is that after you arrive in a dimension, that you help spread my word. Other than that. I'm going to give you info on where my sages are as a goodwill gift,” Xixis touched a claw to cresses head and she gets hit with the info.

“I see so what exactly is your word?” Cress asked in curiosity, “Unless you're talking about telling people you exist and your totally fucking awesome,”

“Did eris not teach you my word? Yes tell them im great and regith sucks, There's more to it however.” Xixis smiled. “Just pay it forward what kindness you have been shown to others.”

“Okay but I reserve the right to be the shit out of assholes,” Cress said with a nod.

“Only if they are really assholes, find out way before you judge if possbile.” Xixis said.

“I gotch Grandma, don’t worry about a thing,” Cress said with a smile, “Hmm this calls for a name change, after all I'm practically a completely different person,yeah Crescendo has been dead for the last twelve years, call me Kronos,”

“Go kronos, and do good work.” Xixis starts to fade from his mindscape.

Kronos woke up with a groan, “Well that was something, eh better get to work,” He jumped up and flew to the first location a tower that rose from the ocean thousands of miles south of Equestria. He landed at the top of the tower where a unicorn in a almost regal cloak was waiting with four unicorns standing at attention behind him.

The head unicorn approached him with a welcoming smile. “I welcome you to the retreat of the sages.”

“Yea the grandma dragon,asked me to come here, I assume you have some badass spells I can learns,that will help me not get murdered in another universe,”

“Yea but you’ll have to focus on a particular school,you can learn certain spells from other schools, but the code states that you have to chose one school to pledge to,” One of the Unicorns said from behind the head sage.

“Ok there are the school of time-” One of the other unicorns began.

“Time,” Kronos said interrupting the unicorn.

“At least let us finish, time, elemental,space,the list is long and varied.” The head unicorn said.

“I'm going go with time,cuz it fits my name,” Kronos said explained.

The unicorns nodded and Kronos spent the next few years learning a variety of spells from the unicorns, most of them revolving around time manipulations, but also learned a few handy spells to help with mundane things, like cleaning. Eventually through gruelling study sessions and hundreds of test, Kronos became a respected time mage and gained the blessing of time immunity and reincarnation. After ten years of extensive training in magic, a farewell ceremony was no being held for Kronos who had decided it was time to move on.

“You came to us as a student but now you are a master. In such a short time we have come to admire your drive, Now go and make us proud!” The head unicorn said with a smile.

“Thank you sir, It was been a great honor to study with you all, I will go on to make you all proud I swear,” and with that Kronos was off to meat the next set of sages. Kronos arrived at a volcanic mountain and in side it was a bustling forge run by a short but very confident earth pony.

“Lockjaw but more into your flame we need that metal to be as hot as you can get it!” He yelled at one of the dragon who were melting iron for the forge.

“Master perhaps the dragon need help over pushing him too hard?” The master forger’s assistant said.

“Hmm you may be right,Lockjaw take a break but get your brother to take over,” The earth pony said.

“Master we seem to have a visitor.” the dragon assistant said.

“Huh, ah! I was wonderin when you were gonna stop by, don’t worry the old magic slinger told me all about you, and I’ve got a treat for you,” The pony said grinning leading them to a large circular room with a large group of unicorns sitting by the walls,and two large dragons on either side of everchanging forge mold.

“Now this forge is only allowed to be used by xisis’s most respected follower’s you being one of them we’re gonna make you a weapon worthy of a fella like your self, should serve you well on your travels through the multiverse,” he the old earth pony said as Kronos said walking up to the forge.

“It’ll pick a weapon type that it think fits you, I say think because it’s not always spot on, it's usually pretty close though,” the earth pony said as Kronos looked at the forge which had decided on a sword with curved handle guard.

“Oh a sword. Light and even it shall serve you well.” The assaint said.

“Yea well let's get it made then,” Kronos said

“Which means you need to go git while the dragons,the unicorns,and one of my best metalworkers get to work, hmm I’m thinking mythril with a magic absorption spell and genetic modification in case you need to give your allies some power ups,” The earth pony said.

After several hours the forge master was handing Kronos as black sword that was in black sheath. Kronos half unsheathing it to reveal a white blade.

“Nice the workmanship is amazing, thanks so much for taking the time to make this,” Kronos said giving the forge master a smile.

“Eh I only did it cuz xixis wants you alive to spread her word, and for that you need a reliable weapon,” The forgemaster said, “Anyway have fun and don’t die,”

“Take care old man,”Kronos nodded.

“Oh right almost forgot, you got summons from the oracle, better go see her,she doesn’t summon people unless its important,” the forge master said, “She lives in city called canterlot, here take this map,”

“Right thanks, guess I have one last stop before I can finally explore the rest of the multiverse!” Kronos said with a giddy smile.