The Titans' Orb: Breaking Dawn

by Mister Horncastle

Rating: teen
Tags: Sex, Suicide / Self Harm, Profanity, Non-consensual, Violence, Crossover, Death, Human, Narcotics, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Mystery, Dark, Warcraft, Other, Self Insert, Adventure
Length: 29871

In the third instalment to the Titan's Orb saga, the stakes grow higher as Callum's newfound destiny is woven into his already treacherous mission, to protect his pony friends while they locate the remaining shards of The Titan's Orb...

Book 3 in the Titans' Orb saga.
•┈┈┈┈┈┈┈••✦ ♡ ✦••┈┈┈┈┈┈┈•

Nearly a year has passed since Twilight's Company arrived on Earth, and with Callum's help, they have located half of the Orb's fragments. Their quest however, is far from over, for the remaining pieces are still yet to be found, their whereabouts unknown.

Meanwhile, Callum's recent discovery only further solidifies his role in Equus' fate. But even with his newfound destiny, an ever-lurking shadow looms overhead, threatening to end their search for the Titans' Orb.

Nah'Lek the Defiler is closing in...

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Published 2020-03-15 16:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-07-02 10:19:18 UTC

Prologue: An Alternative Approach

“Where are they…? WHERE ARE THEY!?”

The Defiler’s lifeless amethyst eyes became that of a glowing blood red as he used his staff’s magic to rip apart the mansion room by room, every furnishing and wall was completely obliterated until nothing remained of the building but splinters, torn fabric, shattered glass, and porcelain fragments.

“Uurrgh…” Nah’Lek grumbled, his violent tantrum eventually subsiding.

He had wasted almost a week in Ukraine only to discover a complete ghost town; the irradiated zombies which had once dwelled in Chernobyl had been wholly expunged by Hawnu Rey’eng, leaving absolutely nothing for both Nah’Lek and humans alike to uncover, as far as the outside world could ever know, people had simply died of radiation poisoning and rotted away; Elephant’s Tusk had reverted back into Elephant’s Foot, shrinking back to its original state and solidifying into corium, the multiple bodies of the scientists had simply burned away into nothing but dust and ash.

After tracing magical residue away from the site, leading him to a rotting bear corpse just across the border of Belarus, Nah’Lek realised he had been fooled by the guardian; the residue was already a month old and led to a remote location in Portugal. With no alternative, he pursued, and found himself stood amidst the blackened ruins of a stone compound, scorched away by a blaze of an unnaturally powerful fire.
The trail eventually ended at an abandoned mansion, with not a pony in sight; they had certainly been there however, for their tracks littered the entire building. There were hoofprints everywhere, and numerous brightly coloured mane hairs dwelled upon the pillows of each bedroom. He would have most certainly caught them if he hadn’t been duped by Hawnu Rey’eng; although with that said, while the ponies were naïve, the human would have known better to stick around too long.
That damn human.

“Callum… Horn… Castle…” He muttered, his mandibles clicking with irritation.

A boy of seventeen, immune to the Fel’s corruption and capable of withstanding demonism after exposure to concentrated Fel; it was impossible, even Stardust Moonshimmer was vulnerable to the substance.
What made this young creature so special? Surely his mental illness couldn’t have been the only thing sourcing such an immunity, his soul was vast and powerful, but what made it so?
If Nah’Lek had anticipated him to be a genuinely challenging opponent, he’d have delved deeper into the boy’s brain while infiltrated as a shade; instead, he’d grown too bold and chose to toy with Moonshimmer.

While frustration was common to the Defiler, (for his very own Fel-infused blood fed on rage and bloodlust), frustration at himself was exquisitely rare, Nah’Lek didn’t make mistakes. It became abundantly clear that this was no longer a simple hunt for pitiful sheep, for a wolf lurked amongst them, ceaselessly guarding over them.

“Loyalty… Courage… Honour… Selflessness… Love… Pathetic traits in which this wolf gains his strength, the only way to tear them asunder is to destroy his pack.”

Turning to the green skinned warrior that stood to his right, Nah’Lek placed a single claw onto the orc’s shoulder, its sharp tip faintly screeching against his metal pauldron.

“To hunt a wolf, Grommash, you need to isolate it and break its spirit.”

“What are you suggesting?” The orc asked.

“We no longer need to hunt down the human… We only need kill his friends…”

Baring his pointed teeth and exhaling loudly through them, Grom shrugged off his master’s claw.

“I am not here to kill halfling horses, I want the human.”

“You will kill whatever I command you to kill.” Nah’Lek replied coldly.

The second orc, the larger of the two, pushed Grommash out of the way and snarled at the Defiler.

“When you slaughtered Gul’dan and took his place, demon, we willingly followed you and your promises of war and bloodshed, and yet we still have neither! You pledged to us that we would become conquerors!”

Surprisingly, Nah’Lek didn’t lose his temper, his head merely tilted no more than an inch to the left, such a subtle movement sent a faint chill down the spines of both warriors.
Rather than replying to the larger orc, he continued conversing with Grommash.

“Remind me, who is the current warchief of the Horde?”

“My son, Garrosh.” Grom replied.

“And what is young Hellscream currently doing with the Horde?”

“Preparing them for war on Equus.”

“What were the Horde’s numbers before we left Draenor?”

“Nearly three million orc warriors, half that in direwolves, two thousand ogres, and nineteen ettins.”

Nodding, Nah’Lek faced the larger orc once again and leaned towards him menacingly, until their faces were merely a few centimetres apart.

“War is coming, bloodshed is coming, and the Horde will have it all, but only if the company of ponies on this world fail in retrieving the shards of the Titan’s Orb. By being here alongside me, you are ensuring my promise is kept. Your boldness impresses me, Blackhand, but do not test my patience again.”

Blackhand, while fearless and audacious, knew he was inferior to the demigod. He reluctantly stepped back and dipped his head, spitting on the ground with distaste as he did so.

Walking away from the orcs and out of the mansion, Nah’Lek withdrew his staff and aimed it at the trees, which began to groan as the very lifeforce was drawn out of them; the bark turned black and the evergreen leaves grew brown and grey. It wasn’t much sustenance at all, t’was barely enough to conjure a demonic spell, but Nah’Lek had grown hungry. Whilst he was unimaginably more powerful than his old self when he was a mere mortal on Azeroth, the Fel always had a price, a price paid in lives taken.

After all the trees in the area had withered and died, Nah’Lek was approached by Grommash.

“What is our next move, Nah’Lek?”

“We are to separate the group, and kill whichever members aren’t escorted by the human.”

“But how? We don’t even know how to find them!” Blackhand growled.

“No, but I may know of an individual who does.”

Looking beyond the orcs, Nah’Lek’s mandibles quivered and clicked with excitement.

“Twilight Sparkle told me much, the blubbering whelp gave me all of the knowledge she knew in order to prevent further agony, other than disclosing her location of course. As it happens, she revealed a very peculiar piece of information to me. Something that occured rather long ago, which was then remedied and hidden away by Celestia, leaving nothing but fragments of memories, shrouded in fog.”

The Defiler approached his green-skinned companions, and chuckled ever so quietly.

“Were you aware that one of the Equus-born has been to Earth before?”

With the question obviously being a rhetorical one, the orcs grunted as they waited for their master to finish, to which he gladly obliged.

“It’s time we pay a visit to Rainbow Dash’s human father…”

Chapter One: A New Dawn

Gasping loudly, the cold sensation subsided as the sword withdrew its freezing defence, I opened my eyes and stood completely rigid as the purified mana from Stardust’s soul flowed through me, repairing every wound I had, the Kirikan claw inside my chest completely dissolved and the protruding tip fell to the ground.
Finally, my muscles relaxed and I dropped down to one knee, sword still in hand; after a few faint breaths, I arose to take in my surroundings, the first thing to catch my eye was that the collar had come off my neck, it was most likely removed by magic when I first touched the sword to sever my connection to Twilight, which was probably for the best after all I’d just experienced.
The next thing I noticed was the sword podium, the transparent blue crystal was crumbling, with the lightest touch from my fingertips, it shattered into tiny grains. From the faintly glowing remains, a shape began to manifest, a thin cylinder, no bigger than a wallet, it had a rectangular loop on one side, a perfect fit for a belt; and on the top was a spherical dip with a horizontal slot, a perfect fit for the blade.

After reaching down to collect it, I picked up the faint sound of hooves in the distance, I took off my belt and attached the weird item while I waited for them to arrive. Upon inserting the blade, I was amazed to find it was somehow deeper on the inside, the blade completely vanished into the slot, leaving nothing but the handle; it somehow remained bottom heavy as well, meaning that the sword wouldn’t ever fall out by accident.

“CALLUM!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs.

I looked up to see the unicorn galloping towards me at top speed, she must have expected the worst after receiving no replies via telepathy, yet as she approached me, she found that I couldn’t be in a better state; I was standing upright and was in no pain at all, the only visible blood was that of the Kirikan.

“You’re… You’re okay… I don’t understand.” She panted, out of breath.

“Yeah, I’m only just getting my head around it too.” I replied.

The others caught up to Twilight and surrounded me, all bewildered by my perfectly healthy condition.

“I thought a Kirikan attacked you?” Applejack said, confused.

“It did attack me, and I would be dead, if not for this…”

Gripping the handle, I pulled out the sword, the blade grinding against the sheath as I did so, creating the most beautiful crystalline song; the blue light which it emitted lit up everyone’s faces as they gasped in awe at the relic.

“Whoa, dude, that’s a sword!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“That’s not just a sword, that’s a piece of art right there!” Rarity followed.

It took Twilight less than a second to understand what she was witnessing, and gulped loudly.

“Th-That’s… That’s… That’s Vitra ‘Aku…”

Everyone turned to face her with confusion.

“Vitra what-now?” Dashie asked.

“Vitra’ Aku, scholars simply called it The Titan’s Sword, formally owned by the Champion Stardust Moonshimmer, and Champion Skaan Boulderfury before him…”

“You mean this… This is the real Titan's Sword? From the old stories?” Rarity asked.

“Oh my gosh… It’s real…” Applejack breathed.

Licking her dry lips and gulping once more, Twilight nodded, before speaking under her breath at me.

“Which means… You… You must be…”

Without another word, Twilight dropped down and bowed before me with respect, Applejack and Rarity followed, whom had the same look of awe upon their faces. While the others had absolutely no idea what was going on, they also bowed out of courtesy.
The most unexpected occurrence then followed, Twilight, Rarity and Applejack began speaking in unison to me, (although their heads remained bowed), it seemed as though they were reciting a poem of sorts.

“O’ thee hath arrived before us all, with Vitra ‘Aku in tow.
Earned from the Champion before you, with your final killing blow.
Respect for you need not be earned, for the knowledge of you is told.
Your being here is welcomed, but your reason shalt be cold.
For when the chosen wielder comes, disaster’s soon to follow.
So unto you we ask thee now, halt thine world from turning hollow.
And when your duty hath been done, may your body lay to rest.
So when we art in need again, another can take your test.
A newcomer that hath strength like thee, can fulfil your mighty role.
For Equus shalt always be shielded, by one possessing a Regal Soul.
O’ welcome thee, o’ welcome thee, we bow beneath your thrall.
We hail to thee thine Champion, the saviour of us all.”

There were a few lines that Rarity and Applejack had forgotten, but Twilight recited it flawlessly; they looked up to me and I gulped, the poem was about me. But that wasn’t even the scary part, what concerned me more was that I knew exactly what it meant, as though I’d heard it before. It was a welcoming recital for the new Champion, but also an acceptance that there were dark times ahead, an entire nation welcoming the apocalypse, and a single trusted individual to prevent it.

Something very bad lay onward from here…

“Rise.” I spoke.

They all did so, and I smiled to my friends and lightly shook my head.

“None of you are to bow to me, I’m your friend, not your bloody king.”

“No, but you’re our saviour, chosen by the Titans themselves, darling!” Rarity replied.

“You’ve seen them? Haven’t you? You’ve seen the gods…” Applejack asked.

I nodded, and then held up the sword.

“They live in this sword as memories, trapped in a looped fragment of time, in order to welcome the next challenger upon them claiming the blade for themselves.” I explained.

“What do they look like!?” Twilight yelled, and then covered her mouth with both hooves.

I raised an eyebrow at her, and she dipped her head.

“Sorry, I’ve been wanting to know more about them since I was a filly.”

“I’ll tell you more about them soon, but right now I need to wrap my own head around things, I’ve just been through one heck of an ordeal since encountering the kirikan.”

“So, uh, yeah… Can somepony please tell me what the fuck is going on?” Rainbow Dash piped up.

“Um, despite Dashie’s language, I’d also like to know what’s happening…” Fluttershy mumbled.

Chuckling lightly, I sheathed the sword and sat back down onto the cold stone floor, before explaining everything to them.

Starting off with how I broke down the door and discovered the underground tropical paradise, I explained in great detail about the kirikan which had emerged from the pond and attacked me, and how I used the sniper rifle’s piercing shot mode to kill it just as it leapt at me. Upon realising one of its claws had gone through my chest, I stumbled around looking for a way to find the girls, and then found the sword floating above a podium; upon touching it, my collar was detached from my neck and everything went white.

“So that’s why I couldn’t reach you… You scared the life out of me!” Twilight muttered loudly.

“I had no idea it’d happen, I didn’t even realise until I returned to my body.”

“Returned to your body?” She repeated in question, her brow furrowing.

“Ah… Yeah… Well don’t be alarmed, but I may have possibly died when I touched the sword.”

“What!?” The girls all cried out in unison.

I continued to explain what happened, and how the sword possessed the ability to absorb souls; I told them how it had literally ripped the very soul out of me and trapped me inside the sword, where I met the Titans in person, within their pocket of looped time.

“That’s when I was pitted against the Champion before me, Stardust Moonshimmer.”

“Goodness, now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while…” Rarity murmured.

“Wasn’t it Stardust who ended the Great War?” Applejack asked.

Nodding, I explained how I was made to fight him to the death in ritual combat, and I narrowly came out on top after a fight that felt like hours of dodging and deflecting hostile spells with the sword itself, while trying to land killing blows myself.

“So, you actually killed him? The actual Stardust?” Twilight quietly inquired.

I gave her a look of regret and sorrow, it was no secret that she was enthralled by the legendary unicorn and enjoyed his secret company, while she wasn’t as close to him as I was, she certainly considered him a friend.

“Yes, I killed Stardust.”

Despite the sadness in her eyes, she remained astounded by what had transpired, and hummed to herself.

“You defeated somepony with a Regal Soul, incredible…”

“A what?” I asked.

“A Regal Soul is what we call an extraordinary soul that has surpassed its natural strength, it is made up of an unusually large amount of mana, and gives the owner certain abilities, depending on their own personal traits, it ties into the same magic surrounding cutie marks. Very few beings are known to possess them, from what I know, the only Regal Souls belong to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Discord, Hades, Starswirl the Bearded, and all the previous Champions.”

After a moment of taking in that information, I tilted my head.

“Do I have a Regal Soul now then? Seeing as I’ve absorbed Stardust’s?”

“I imagine so… Do you feel any different?”

Inhaling deeply, I shrugged and shook my head.

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you, I feel really shaken up and weird right now. I think I need some time to adjust to all of this before being able to tell what’s changed within me. All I know is that I’ve got a neat sword, and this strange object.”

Standing up once more, I showed Twilight my magical sheath, and she instantly grinned proudly upon knowing what the object was; she went on to explain that the item was called a void sheath, a small and lightweight vessel for a weapon. Void sheaths were bigger on the inside; the only visible part of the blade would be the handle, with the rest suspended within its own pocket dimension, similar to the ponies’ enchanted bags.

“All Canterlot Guard Captains have one, although they’re nowhere near as exquisite.” She finished.

“You can say that again, it’s gorgeous!” Rarity exclaimed.

“More like awesome, you’ve got a secret weapon of mass destruction hiding on your hip!” Dashie added.

I couldn’t help but draw the weapon once more and inspect the design, causing everyone’s faces to gravitate towards it, awestruck by its brilliant blue glow.

{There’s so much going through my head right now…} I thought to myself while they were distracted.

This was all too much, it was like torrents of incomprehensible information was being processed all at once, was I ready for this? Like, actually ready for this responsibility? Did I need to act differently? More formal? Would I need to compose myself like Hawnu Rey’eng and be all mysterious and biblical in my speech?

I very nearly asked Stardust for some advice, expecting his words of wisdom to echo in my mind, but no such thing came, nor would it again; for I had killed my friend.

{I truly am a killer… A seventeen-year-old boy with a proficiency for ending life…} I thought with indignity.

How was that a Champion? How on Earth could I live up to Stardust’s legacy?

“Callum? You okay?” Applejack asked.

Coming back to my senses, I slammed the blade into the sheath and cleared my throat.

“Yeah, I’m fine, just taking this all in.”

Nodding with understanding, Fluttershy drew attention to the blood on my attire.

“So, I take it you’re not, um, dying? From the kirikan attack?”

“Thankfully not, Stardust’s soul repaired the damage when I absorbed it.” I replied.

“Can I take a look? Just in case?”

Knowing she would persistently worry about me if I refused, I took off the cloth shirt and couldn’t help but gasp, (as did everyone else), at my new physical state; not only had my friend’s Regal Soul repaired the kirikan’s attack, but it had completely fixed the damaged tissue across my body, my skin was smooth as a baby’s bottom, without a single scar to be seen; even the burn from Twilight’s fireball had vanished.
And that wasn’t even the best of it, it seemed that I’d undergone the Captain America treatment, as my muscles seemed somewhat bulkier; while I didn’t feel any stronger at all, I definitely looked it.

“Whoa…” Rainbow Dash exhaled.

“Bruh, I’m fuckin’ swole!” I exclaimed.

{I like Regal Souls…} I thought to myself, grinning.

“Are you sure you don’t feel any different?” Twilight asked.

“Honestly, I don’t feel a bit different. Maybe I’m in shock? I don’t know.”

Humming, Twilight agreed with that theory and decided to drop it, and so I moved to another subject.

“So, guys, we really need to figure out what to do next. Are we heading straight for the next shard? Or are we resting for a while? I’m not sure about you lot, but it’s been a long few weeks.”

Mostly nodding in agreement, the girls and I went into a discussion about our further plans, and eventually decided to set up camp in the underground tropic area and rest up for a few days, before embarking on our new destination, the fourth shard of the Titan’s Orb…

Six Days Later

My eyes shot open as the screaming echoed through the underground garden, I rushed towards Twilight’s tent with a hand firmly grasping Vitra ‘Aku’s handle, ready to engage; the other girls emerged from their own tents and followed suit. The adversary, however, turned out to be nothing but one’s memories of torment. Gripping Twilight’s shoulders, I shook her awake and she lashed out in all directions, (thankfully not hitting me in the process), until she eventually opened her eyes and recognised me.

“It’s him, Callum! He’s back! Nah'Lek's back!” She wailed.

Shaking my head in response, I sat down properly beside the unicorn and held her tightly.

“Nobody’s here, just me and the girls.” I replied.

As her wild lashing slowly came to a halt, she looked around and then back to me, before burying her head into me; I rocked her side to side as the girls watched awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

“Another one in the Frozen Forest?”

Her answer was to splutter heavily onto my collar, coating my neck in saliva.

{Thanks for that.} I moaned in thought.

I decided it might be a good idea to use the collars to visit the forest again at some point, and see how much her mind had healed since purging her brain of the Fel, perhaps it would serve as some exposure therapy?
Now wasn’t the time, but I’d certainly keep it in mind.

“False alarm gals, head on back to bed, I’ll keep an eye on this one.” I commanded.

Nodding, everypony wearily went back to bed, while I remained until Twilight had calmed down; when the tears finally came to a stop, I zipped up the tent and lay down beside the unicorn.

“You’re staying?” She asked.

“Would you like me to leave?”

Shaking her head, Twilight flopped back down and sniffed a few times, before taking a deep shaky breath.

“Why were you still up?”

“How’d you know I was awake?” I replied.

“You’ve still got your boots on, you never took them off when we all went to bed, you’ve been pacing around the sword room again, haven’t you?”

Sighing, I nodded.

“Observant as always.”

“Of course.”

Chuckling, I put an arm around her and caressed the sword’s handle, still around my belt.

“It’s been about a week, and I just can’t wrap my head around this Champion shit, I’m really struggling with where I’ve come, and the choices I’ve made…”

Now it was my time for the waterworks; quite unexpectedly, a wave of emotion came over me, and I couldn’t help but face Twilight and press my cheek against the fluffy part of her chest.

“… I’ve killed so many people, Twilight.”

“Oh, Callum.”

Putting a foreleg around my neck, she returned the comforting gesture I’d given her only a few moments prior, and held me while I let out the months of pent up stress.

“I didn’t mean to… I didn’t want to… I had to keep you all safe! But it feels so normal to me now, like I was born to do it. I don’t like how that feels, Twilight, I want it to be difficult, I don’t want to be a psychopath, I really don’t!”

Easing herself to a position where she could face me, Twilight grabbed my shoulders and pressed her nose to mine, being sure not to gouge an eye out by accident with her horn.

“Listen to me. You are not, a psychopath.”

Sniffling, I let her continue, trying to track with her words and not break down further.

“You’ve done nothing but protect us from day one, and I never saw that until recently. What happened with the clone at the airport started all this, and it was my fault, and I’m so, so, sorry…
I started messing with your head from the very beginning of all this, and that’s on me, but you’re not a psychopath, there’s not been a single death on your hands that wasn’t to protect someone, everything you’ve done, you’ve done for a reason.”

“But, I don’t feel anything anymore, there’s no shock, no remorse!”

“What do you call this then? Huh? You’re in tears, buried in my chest, crying about it. If that’s not shock and remorse, then I need to retake my psychology exams, because how you’re behaving right now is exactly how a psychopath wouldn’t be.”

Wiping my eyes, I sniffed.

“I don’t enjoy killing.”

“I know, trust me.” She breathed.

Knowing she was referring to when she killed someone in Portugal while under the Fel’s corruption, I knew that she had once felt a true desire for causing pain and death, Twilight knew better than anyone what it felt like to have pure evil flow inside your veins.

“Now stop this nonsense, Callum. I just woke up from my own spooky memories, I don’t need you breaking down on me too, okay?” She teased.

“Spooky? That’s the word you’re using to define it?”

Even in the dark, I knew she was now emitting one of her famous sheepish grins.

“You know that’s what we’re calling them now, right?” I chuckled.

Her response was to moan with playful annoyance, and we settled on calling Twilight’s night terrors ‘spookies’, and that they would be the code word for whenever Twilight had a bad night, so I could look after her accordingly during that particular day.

Yawning, I realised how tired I was, and decided to call it a night.

“Well, I should let you get to sleep, and I’m knackered, so yeah.”

“Please don’t leave, I don’t want to be alone.” She requested.

Rolling my eyes, I zipped the tent entrance shut and flopped next to the unicorn.

“Yay…” She whispered.

“Mm’hmm.” I hummed back dully.

Giggling, she got comfortable and placed a foreleg over my shoulder, and we drifted off together.

{Bloody weird dream…} I thought, rubbing my eyes.

Having just dreamt about Nah’Lek wearing a fez, attacking me with oversized maracas, I chose to get up and begin the day; Twilight still slept soundly beside me, clutching my pillow to her chest, this explained the crick in my neck.

{Huh, so that’s where that went.}

Slowly unzipping the tent and standing up outside, I had my morning stretch and looked around for anyone else who might be awake, and thankfully found Applejack and Rarity a few yards from the tents around a cookpot.

“Morning, darling!” Rarity sang.

“Howdy.” Applejack added, yawning.

“Heya.” I replied, sitting down beside the farm pony.

Before I could respond, a cup of tea was levitated towards me, I gladly took the cup and took a sip.

“Ooh, that’s some good tea.”

“Well, I’m glad someone likes it!” Rarity said, glancing at Applejack.

“Oh, har har, don’t make remarks just because I don’t like your hot dish water.”

Before they could begin the day on a squabble, I asked what was in the cookpot, which turned out to be potato and leek soup, my favourite.

“Just using up the last of my spuds, thought it would be nice to start the day well fed.” Applejack explained.

Nodding with agreement, I gratefully accepted a bowl and proceeded to consume it within seconds, Applejack couldn’t help but emit a small laugh.

“Well I’ll be, Sugarcube, someone’s appetite has grown. I hope just a mere bowl of soup can suffice for the mighty Champion’s stomach!”

“I can cook something more filling if you need, m’lord.” Rarity offered.

“Oi, what did I say about that, Rare? I refuse to be addressed like some sort of deity.”

Apologising, Rarity awkwardly filled my bowl with some more soup for me. Afterwards, I got up and went to drink from the nearby basin in the sword room; from what we’d discovered, the whole underground temple ran on water, which was continuously replenished via the lake at the centre of the tropical zone.
We had also found a prayer room full of skeletons, which gave us a clue to whom had built this place; Twilight’s theory was that when the orb shards and the sword came to Earth, Hawnu Rey’eng had helped a small group of people to build a technologically advanced temple underground, where they would live and thrive on endless water and food from the tropical zone. In return, they would worship him and protect Vitra ‘Aku until the ponies discovered it.
The inhabitants of the temple had since died out from unknown causes, (most likely just from the lack of sunlight and continuous inbreeding), and their temple remained sealed off; we then speculated that Hawnu Rey’eng had somehow brought a kirikan from the Everfree Forest to Earth, and set it loose into the tropical zone to continue guarding the sword chamber after his worshippers had died off.

“Callum.”

I turned around and found Rainbow Dash stood before me, her eyes bloodshot, and the fur on her face soaking wet with tears, it looked like she’d been crying for the past few hours; I rushed towards her and gave her a tender hug, before wiping some of the tears away from her cheeks.

“Oh Dashie, what’s wrong, sweetie?”

She looked at me, shaking like a leaf.

“I remember.”

Tilting my head, it took me a moment to realise what she was saying, and when the penny finally dropped, all I could do was hug the mare; it was no wonder she’d been crying so much, the emotional toll such a thing would have taken on her brain was beyond comprehension.
Rainbow Dash now had the memories of two lives, two childhoods, and two fathers.

“Oh god, I had a feeling this was going to happen at some point…” I sighed.

“You knew, this whole time?”

Nodding, I explained to her that it was Celestia’s decision to erase the memories of Earth from her mind in order to spare her the emotional distress, and believed that her brain physically wouldn’t handle the raw impact of two entirely separate lives, on completely different planets for that matter; the sheer amount of information for her brain to process could have possibly damaged, if not killed her.
Understanding why I’d kept such knowledge from her, she didn’t feel angry towards me, but certainly felt like she’d been lied to by the princess.

“I need to go see him, I’ve got to find my dad…” She told me.

Before I could open my mouth to speak, she continued with an unexpected bombshell.

“Alone.”

This was a problem, a very big problem.
I could only imagine what Dashie was feeling right now, but I knew there was no way I could outright deny her to see her human father, but vice versa, it would be impossible to let her go and see him all by herself; as both the Titan’s Champion and the ponies’ guide, I felt like it would end up being my decision, but I wouldn’t make it without heeding council from everyone.

“Okay, well it’s not my call right now, we need to let everyone know and explain the situation. From there we can plan our next move and see where the road takes us.”

She seemed to take that answer well enough, and bowed her head. Getting onto my knees and giving her another hug, I lifted her chin and forced her to make eye contact; her pupils were extremely dilated and her eyes were still very bloodshot.

“Dashie, are you alright?”

“What kind of question is that? Of course I’m not alright dude!” She barked back.

“I’m sorry, that was a stupid question… Look, I meant to say, are you as okay as you can be? You are experiencing a traumatic event that I can’t even begin to comprehend, so I need to know if you’re still in the game, Rainbow.”

Sighing, the pegasus broke eye contact and looked at the sandy dirt around her hooves.

“I haven’t a clue… Everything feels fucked up right now…”

After a moment of pondering, she looked back up at me with a solemn expression.

“Look, I don’t think we can have sex anymore dude, not for a while anyway. Looking at you right now, it feels like looking at my dad, and I’m not into that whole ‘daddy-daughter’ shit, I’m sorry.”

I exhaled out of my nose with surprise, and smiled warmly.

“Dash, you don’t need to be sorry, not in the slightest. I wholeheartedly understand and I actually agree with you. You’ve got to clear your head and process all of this, us not sleeping together will help that in my opinion. Besides, we’re just friends anyway, we just had some benefits on the side for a while.”

Smiling back at me, Dashie gave me a reassured nod and planted her forehead into my chest.

“Thanks bro, you’ve always understood me.”

“What can I say? You’re easy to understand.” I replied teasingly.

“Am not!”

“Are too.”

“Go on then, sum me up!” She challenged.

“You’re a thrill seeker with a deep underlying anxiety problem, you’re socially insecure and cover it up with daring acts of bravado in a desperate attempt to be respected and seen to be without weakness.”

Rainbow Dash stared at me with her mouth agape, before shaking her head and frowning at me.

“Yeah? Well… Well… Eat a dick!”

Raising an eyebrow, I raised my hands to my chest.

“I admit defeat, your original and well-thought-of insult has wounded me to the core.” I stated dryly.

Before Rainbow Dash could tackle me (as she was clearly planning), Twilight came into the sword chamber and called out to us.

“There you are!”

“Twilight, what’s up?” I asked.

Galloping over to us and skidding to a halt, she focused on Rainbow Dash and instantly noticed her bloodshot eyes, and grabbed her face with both of her front hooves to examine her.

“Oh my… Oh dear… You’ve remembered too, haven’t you?”

“Get off my face, egghead!”

Looking up at me, Twilight took in a deep breath before unleashing a hyperactive burst of dialogue.

“So, back when we first met, I explained that a year in your world is a day in ours, and somehow you already knew that, well now I know how you knew that! Rainbow Dash was caught in an experiment of mine years ago and was sent to Earth, and was somehow turned into a filly, where a human found her and raised her as a daughter, which is how the Princess knew of this place, and it’s why the Titan’s Orb came here in the first place! All the dots are connected, it all makes sense Callum! IT ALL MAKES SENSE!”

Gasping for air, Twilight panted with verbal exhaustion, while I slowly raised an eyebrow.

“It appears Rainbow Dash isn’t the only one to regain her memories.”

Shaking her head to regain focus, Twilight turned to Dashie with an expression of melancholy endearment, clearly only just realising the emotional impact this would have caused.

“Rainbow… Are you okay?”

The pegasus remained silent, and I knew she needed to be left alone for a bit to think on this further.

“Twilight, do you mind if we had a moment to talk? Perhaps with the others as well?” I requested.

It took less than a second for her to clock on, and nodded keenly. I gave a tender hug to Rainbow and left her alone to her thoughts; while on the way back, I thanked Twilight and asked her further about her memories of the ‘My Little Dashie Crisis’.

“So how’d your memories come back exactly? Was in it a dream? Or did you wake up with them?”

“Both really, I had a dream of the moment we came back to collect her, but it didn’t feel like a proper dream, it felt really real, the details were too fine. When I woke up, it all just hit me that we’d been to Earth before, and then the memories came flooding back.”

{Curious…} I thought, humming.

I’d originally thought it was due to the circumstances that Dashie had finally regained her memories, but now it seemed far too coincidental that Twilight had remembered during the exact same morning; my guess was that Celestia’s spell (unknowing to her), could eventually wear off.

After gathering the girls and having them seated with a bowl of soup each, Twilight and I broke the news to them about Rainbow Dash, and gave an in-depth explanation about what had happened, and that her memories had returned; needless to say, everyone was startled and confused at first, but were soon able to get enough of a grip on the situation.

“So how does this come into play, in the grand scheme of things I mean?” Rarity asked.

“Well, that’s the issue I wanted to bring up, because I thought it would be best if we all made a group decision on this matter before making our next move.” I said.

Sighing, I looked around at everyone and read their facial expressions for a few seconds, hoping to foretell their judgements before telling them.

“Rainbow Dash wants to leave the group, to find her human father.”

Chapter Three: Globetrotting

“Ugh, this heat is making me nauseous.” Moaned an exhausted Rarity.

“Good thing there’s a ridge ahead,” I huffed in response, “even if the Landie isn’t there, we get a few moments in the shade at least.”

“I certainly hope it’s there, I’m hardly the hiking sort of pony, especially in this heat!”

“Well, stay on your guard, you’ll probably spot it before I do with that rifle of yours.”

Rarity simply wheezed in response, mainly focusing on the walk ahead. Reaching into the pouch that dangled at my waist, I sprinkled another deposit of crystal onto the ground and kicked some sand over it to prevent it blowing away.

“How much of that do we have left?” Rarity inquired.

“About a quarter of what we started with. We’ll have to make fewer tracks if it’s not at this ridge.”

“Then let’s hope you’re right, darling.”

“Well, in the case that I am, it might be best for you to lose the umbrella.” I chuckled.

Sheepishly giggling in response, the unicorn reluctantly removed the brolly from its mount and put it into her saddlebag; it didn’t take long before she was reaching for a bottle of water.

“You really don’t like the sun, do you?” I chortled.

“Pfft, like you enjoy it any better.”

Flexing my eyebrows and shrugging in passive agreement, I decided to check up on Twilight.

{What’s up, Sparklebutt?}

{Please never call me that again.}

{No problem, Sparkypants.} I teased.

{Or that.}

{What about Book Horse?}

{Right, I’m taking my collar off.}

{Jeez, okay! No more names, I just wanted to check on how the Dashie situation’s getting along.}

{It’s going rather well actually, she’s remembered the state where her father’s home is, so at least we have a vague idea of where to go once we reach America.}

{Okay, good to know. Which state is it?}

{A place called Michigan, does that ring any bells?}

While I knew of the name from hearing of a place called Lake Michigan once, I hadn’t actually a clue where in the state itself was, I’d need a map as soon as possible.

{Yeah, I vaguely know of it. Did she remember it on her own or did you give her a buzzword?

{A buzzword, oddly, the phrase ‘alarms’ triggered the memory.}

Humming, I recalled on the fanfiction and how it told of Rainbow Dash’s flight lessons in a rundown park in the middle of a suburban area. When performing her very first sonic rainboom on Earth, it set off numerous car alarms.

{That’s interesting, have you tried the phrase ‘hugging in the forest’ at all?} I asked.

{Why in Equestria would I have tried that exactly?}

Elaborating, I explained to her that the writer told of Rainbow Dash first discovering the My Little Pony cartoon and completely freaking out, (rightfully so), and how she had run away into the woods; her father came after her and they eventually reconciled, emotionally hugging it out in the pouring rain.

{Huh, that’s incredible! Thanks Callum, I’ll try talking to her about that!} She exclaimed.

{No problem, good luck!}

{How’s it going up in the world above?}

{Pretty good actually, we’ve already found a vehicle, two actually!}

{Shut up, no way! So, are you on your way back already?}

{Not quite, one of them has been damaged and the other has driven away, but we’re currently tracking it and closing in on a ridge where it might be hiding. On the way back, we’re going to salvage some parts and fuel from the damaged one as well, that way we can get a long way before needing to worry about fuel.}

{Sounds hopeful, I’ll leave you to it!}

From her voice alone, I could tell she was instantly off to try out my suggestion; I couldn’t help but smirk to a feeling of warmth and hope. She might have been severely damaged and suffering from PTSD, but the real Twilight was still there, enthusiastic and eager to learn.

CRACK!

“Shit!” I yelped as the bullet smacked the sand, no more than a metre away.

Well THAT was one way to change the bloody subject! Diving onto my front, I scanned the ridge ahead for movement and found none, Rarity had followed suit and was laying low with her rifle drawn, quickly trying to identify our assailant.

“See anything?”

“Nothing yet, dear.”

“Well look harder!”

THMACK!

“Jesus! That one nearly hit me!”

Shaking the sand out of my hair, I squinted my eyes and frantically searched left to right along the rockface, soon enough they’d get a lucky shot.
There! A glimmer on the rockface! T’was the glint of a sniper’s scope, and it had given them away.

“Rarity, near the top, left side!” I barked.

“Got you!” She hissed in reply.

BANG!

Silence.

“So much for sneaking up on them...” I grumbled.

“I got him, but there could be more.”

“You think?” I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

As predicted, more bullets came down at us, smacking the sand all around; the assailants were clearly inaccurate with their guns, for bullets were hitting all over the place. Rarity quickly pinpointed their locations and fired two shots, which I could only presume hit their targets.

“Switch the rifle mode to Piercing Shot, it’ll help you spot them!” I ordered.

Doing just so, Rarity was able to count another four men on the ridge and promptly took another four shots, before releasing the rifle and looking over to me.

“Three of them are gone, and the fourth is missing an arm now, dear.”

“At long last, she finally misses a clean kill.” I teased.

“Oh no, darling, I injured him on purpose so that you didn’t feel useless!”

Blinking twice and then shaking my head, I stood up straight and stared at her.

“You’re telling me that you haven’t missed a single shot? Not one?”

“Well, no, this weapon is extremely accurate! Besides, the purpose is not to miss.” She replied innocently.

{Damn, this bitch straight-up has aim-bot activated.} I thought to myself.

{What now?}

{Not now, Twilight. Rarity’s cheating.}

“Come on, let’s go find that car.” I commanded.

“Right behind you, darling!”

{When you say cheating, do you mean she’s better with a gun than you?}

{Ugh, shut up Twilight… Yes.}

{Ah hah! Called it!}

{Haven’t you got a book to be reading or something?}

{Haven’t you got a car to find?}

{Piss off, Egghead Sparklebutt!}

{Look Callum, if you want to do name-calling, I can and will outdo you.}

{I dare you, Book Horse.}

{You’re literally a hairless ape with depression.}

Changing tactics, I thought I’d toy with her.

{You just insulted the Titan’s Champion for the fifth time today.}

{Oh my gosh, I completely forgot…}

{You forgot I’m the Champion? Now that’s an insult, consider that’s the sixth time.}

{No, no! I just mean, I need to remember who I’m actually talking to! I’m so sorry!}

{Twilight.}

{Yes?} She replied nervously.

{I’m playing with you.}

I’d have continued the game, but she was clearly getting distressed over the matter; for someone who enjoyed a bit of banter, she was prone to taking things too literally at time. Then again, I supposed that was to be expected of Twilight.

{Oh…}

{Go on, you numpty. Go and torment Rainbow Dash some more, Rarity and I are busy.}

{Alright, good luck!} She giggled sheepishly.

Continuing my walk in silence, I smiled to myself warmly.

“And what are you smirking at?” Rarity inquired.

“Oh nothing, I was just teasing Twilight via telepathy.”

“How so?”

“Just about the whole Champion thing.”

“Ah, I see. Well, as far as I’m concerned, you’re the same Callum I know and love, just with a much greater responsibility that commands greater respect.”

“That’s how I see it, I suppose. No need to treat me differently, I’m still me.” I agreed.

Closing in on the ridge, our conversation came to a halt as we shifted our attention towards the environment to scan for any potential threats. The tyre tracks became thinner and thinner as the sand transitioned to stone, it had better be in this area somewhere or we might end up losing it altogether. Soon enough I came across the first corpse, a mangled body from one of the gunmen higher up, whom had fallen down here. Out of curiosity, I drew Vitra ‘Aku and placed the tip of the blade against his body, lightly cutting into him; sadly, I wasn’t awarded with his soul, I had to deliver the killing blow for that.

“Ssh, listen.” Rarity hissed, her ears twitching.

Tilting my head, I picked up the sound of a faint grunting, an individual in pain; the noise was coming from a ledge above, far out of reach to climb, we would have to find a way up. Working our way around the brownish gold ridge, we came across a much lower shelf that would lead up to the peak. Rarity drew her rifle and covered me while I clambered up, with no apparent threats, she then lowered it and joined me. It didn’t take long until we discovered the source of the noise.

“I can’t believe you shot his fucking arm off…” I sighed, tutting.

“Well, I’m aware that you need to strengthen your soul with that of others, so I thought it would be good to injure one of them for you! On the plus side, we can also ask him where the car is!”

The man looked up at us in sheer terror, which was understandable, having just lost his arm and was now subjected to an Englishman and an alien unicorn before him, both speaking in a foreign language.

“Firstly, he doesn’t speak our language. And secondly, Rarity, you shot his arm off!”

“Well, he was holding a gun, I didn’t want him shooting us upon our approach.”

Folding my arms, I shook my head in disappointment.

“Rarity, you shot a man’s arm off.”

“Okay, I’m sorry! What, are you expecting me to stitch it back on now?”

“Well you are very good at stitching!” I retorted.

“Har har, very funny.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the man reaching for the pistol in his waist holster, with a swift dash n’ slash, I severed his other arm; he cried out in pain and writhed side to side.

“Callum!” Gasped Rarity.

“What?”

“Warn me next time, you imbecile! That’s utterly abhorrent!”

“He was reaching for his gun!”

“Oh, so it’s fine for you to dismember people, but if I do it, I’ve committed a crime?”

“Pretty much, yeah.” I replied with a grin.

“Ugh, just put the fellow out of his misery already, this is beyond cruel.”

“He literally tried to kill us, Rarity.”

“And you’re going to stoop to his level, are you? For Celestia’s sake, Callum, end his suffering already!”

Looking away from the scene, Rarity groaned loudly with distaste as I drove the blade into the man and finally put him down; I decided that it would be in my best interest to take his pistol, holster, and ammunition, there was no drawback to having a handy sidearm. There didn’t seem to be any further threats, but the car was still nowhere to be found.

“Let’s check around the other side of the ridge, the Landie might be around there.”

“I certainly hope so…”

After covering the sun scorched peak of the sandstone mound for the other men Rarity had killed, (just to ensure they were all dead, and to loot their bodies for pistol ammunition), we clambered down to ground level and surveyed each nook and cranny, eventually we found our prize tucked away in a shallow cave.

“At long last, got you.” I merrily muttered.

Not even needing to instruct her, Rarity had the intuition to switch the rifle to Piercing Shot mode and look through the scope to see through the vehicle’s body to make sure nobody was secretly cowering inside it; beckoning me over, I peered through it myself to find the rear cargo storage had a lone man squatted in hiding, a pistol aiming toward the door and evidently shaking like a leaf.

“What do we do?” Rarity hissed.

“Hm, I’m sure the car can live with a slight maiming.” I chuckled in response, withdrawing Vitra ‘Aku.

Noting exactly where the man was sitting, I approached the side of the jeep and thrust the blade into its hull as far as possible, piercing the metal wall and presumably the man’s torso beyond it; my presumption revealed itself to be true as I withdrew the blade to find it coated in fresh blood, along with the sound of his pistol clattering onto the metal floor inside the car.

“Got him.”

“Good job!” Rarity praised, lowering the rifle.

We approached the door to open it and found the man’s body slumped in a heap in the middle of the compartment, blood still oozing out of him.

“Ugh, this is going to need a good cleaning.” Rarity said with disgust.

“Definitely.” I agreed, grabbing the man’s body and dragging it out of the doorway.

Dropping the corpse next to the car, I took his ammo and found the Land Rover’s keys in one of his pockets and smiled, it was always a grand moment when a plan came together.

{Twilight, I can gladly confirm that the vehicle has been obtained!}

{Oh brilliant, that’s simply brilliant! Good work!} Commended a very excited Twilight.

{We’re on our way back, not sure how long we’ll be but you might as well start packing up the base.}

{Alright, I’ll give everyone the good news. And speaking of good news, Rainbow has remembered more about her father! Apparently, he was a trash picker.}

{A trash picker? Like a binman?} I asked.

{I’m not sure, she can’t quite remember the definition of the job. It sounds to me like he collects junk and stuff, and then either keeps it or sells it to others, but I couldn’t say for sure.}

{Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess. Good find though, keep trying to trigger more memories, we need to get a name, or a more accurate home address.}

{On it, see you later!}

“Right, let’s get out of here!” I announced.

“Here, here!” Rarity cheered.

Hopping into the driver’s seat, I instructed Rarity to sit beside me and use her gem finding spell to steer us back to the others; I put in the keys and started up the engine with no issues.

“Now, this may take a moment, I’ve never properly learned to drive.” I admitted.

“That’s not exactly what I needed to hear.” Rarity laughed nervously.

“I’m not atrocious, just be wary that I might stall it a couple times.”

Shifting into reverse, I backed out of shadowy inlet and around the ridge to where we’d come, where Rarity started pinging up the crystal dust trail. Thankfully it wasn’t too difficult to steer in the right direction, and soon enough we were on our way back towards the canyon.

“There’s the entrance, on the left side, dear!” Rarity sang.

Pulling the wheel and reaching the slope, I eased the car down until we found the other Land Rover in the same state we’d left it in. Turning off the engine, I hopped out and went over to see what we could retrieve together.

“Hm, well I can’t say there’s an awful lot to salvage, but there’s definitely a few bits and bobs here that we can use. The fuel is top priority though.” I hummed after scouting around the vehicle.

I hopped into the storage compartment and took a half-empty fuel cannister, a crowbar, and a large toolbox, (complete with a handheld drill). Rarity then helped me with her magic to siphon the diesel out of the jeep and into the cannister, almost filling it to the neck.

“Talk about lucky, we literally have an extra full tank now!” I exclaimed.

“How far will that take us?”

“I couldn’t tell you for definite, but trust me, it’s a long way.”

“Sounds good to me, let’s get back to the girls.”

Nodding in agreement, I tugged on my collar and began communicating with Twilight.

{Twi, you there?}

{Yes sir!}

{We’re on our way back, head on up to the surface.}

{Alright, see you soon!}

While I was moderately tempted at some of the undamaged remains of the weapon crates, while scarce, there were a few rifles, grenades and launchers scattered around; alas, there was easily a fifty-fifty chance that they had all been spiced as well, (which was a shame, as I would have utterly loved to fire a rocket at something), and so I sided with the mature half of my head and headed back to the functional Land Rover without giving the weapons so much as a sniff.

After packing all the salvage into the back of the jeep, I got in the driver’s seat and buckled up, as did Rarity beside me; I stuck the keys into the ignition and took the handbrake off, shifting into first gear.

“Shit.” I grumbled upon instantly stalling.

“Callum, language!”

Ignoring her, I went to neutral and tried again, only to stall for a second time.

“Fuck.”

“Language, please!” Shouted Rarity.

“Yes milady! Sorry milady!” I shouted back.

Chuckling, I eventually got a handle on the vehicle again and took off, easing my way past the wrecked car and faintly smouldering crates. Once I was clear, I shifted into second gear and rumbled along the gorge and back to my friends.

Heading up the sandy slope and into the sun, I pulled out of the canyon for good. Ahead was nothing but desert for miles and miles, it was time for Pinkie’s gadget to shine.

{Me again, I’m not too far off now, I need Pinkie to launch that flarework of hers, just so I don’t head the wrong way. Are you at the surface yet?}

{Not yet, we’ve just gone up the main stairwell, remember where that throne room was?}

{Yeah.}

{We’re there, so we won’t be too much longer.}

{Awesome, just let me know when you’re about to send it up, or I might miss it.} I advised.

{Oh don’t worry about that, according to Pinkie, you couldn’t miss this unless you were blind.}

{Sounds promising, I look forward to seeing it.}

Taking out the keys to save fuel, I leant back in my seat and sighed.

“Everything okay?” Rarity inquired.

“Yeah, everyone’s almost at the surface. Pinkie will send up her flarework so we don’t get lost, then we can be on our way.” I answered, yawning midway through my sentence.

“Tired much, darling?”

“A tad, yeah. The heat has always made me a bit drowsy.”

“You and me both, dear, I could easily take a nap about now.”

Huffing with mild amusement, I decided to further my study of Vitra ‘Aku and withdrew it from its sheath; all along the flat of the blade were strange artistic markings, all of which happened to be a much darker shade of blue than the rest of the sword. The pattern almost looked Greek in design, but I was certain that was a coincidence. The only part of the design that truly stood out was near the tip, which somewhat appeared to be a pair of feathered wings sprouting out from the rest of the pattern, it was very subtle; Hawnu Rey’eng’s involvement came to mind at first, but I quickly discarded the idea as I remembered this sword was thousands upon thousands of years old, with many different Champions from Equus; pegasi had feathered wings, as did griffons, not everything had to concern that old rust-bucket.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” I breathed.

“Simply mesmerising…” Rarity sighed back, gazing at the relic with sparkles in her eyes.

Without any threats nearby, I decided that it was about time I strengthened my soul for the first time; although I had no idea what to expect, I had the slightest hunch that it wouldn’t feel pleasant. After explaining to Rarity what I was about to do, she sat back and watched with anticipation.

Gripping the handle tightly, I closed my eyes and cleared my thoughts, and then mentally willed the sword to transfer the souls within to my own; akin to the healing process, the sword reacted to my wishes almost instantaneously, and began to glow brighter than usual. The orb which rested at the top of the hilt shone a brilliant white as it erased the memory and consciousness of the souls within, completely eradicating their existence and refining them into pure mana.
The mana then seeped out of the sphere and into the handle, where it was then absorbed through my hand and into my body, my veins glowed faintly beneath my skin as the mana travelled up my arm and into my chest, where it spread outwards to merge with my very being. My vision changed as even my eyes were affected by the adaptation, white and blue swirling patterns took up the majority of my sight as the mana passed into my eyeballs.

“Gah…” I gasped faintly as the alterations began to take place.

The sensation I felt could only be described as strong growing pains, mixed in with severe nettle rash; all of my muscles began to ache heavily, and my skin seared from head to toe as my entire body had to adjust to permanently containing a larger amount of energy. Soon enough, the sensation faded, and everything returned to normal; the bright glow that Vitra ‘Aku normally emitted was far dimmer, no longer carrying the souls’ energy.

“Well, that was certainly something to behold. Are you alright, dear?” Rarity inquired, lightly touching me.

“I think so, but that felt bloody weird…” I breathed, blinking rapidly.

“Did it hurt? You appeared to be in pain, and your eyes were glowing.”

“My eyes were glowing!?”

Rarity nodded, and explained how it quite literally looked as though my eyeballs had been replaced with balls of white light for a few seconds.

“Well that sounds epic.” I stated, thrilled at the concept of having glowing eyes.

“It was quite the spectacle, I must admit.”

“Man, if I get the opportunity to do that again, please take a picture.” I requested.

Rarity chuckled, but before she could reply, our conversation was cut short. Twilight contacted me via the collar, signalling that they had reached the surface and that Pinkie was about to launch her flarework. I relayed the information to Rarity and ordered her to look across the desert on the left side of the car, while I looked across the right, that way it would be impossible to miss.

“Right, keep an eye out, it should go up any second now…”

“Don’t worry, darling, we’ll spot it.”

And spot it we did, and what a sight it was.
Glistening almost as bright as the sun itself, a flickering ball of light shot upward from beyond a dune in the distance, surrounded by smaller flares of various colours; reds, yellows, pinks, greens, dozens of fireballs flung out from the main flashing sphere. It was like an entire firework factory had caught fire, needless to say, it was very much impossible to miss, even in the light of day.

{Excuse me? Mister human? Can you see the enormous mass of light?} Twilight teased.

{Alright, alright, I stand corrected.} I replied dully.

Turning on the car once more, I trundled along towards the magnificent display, the jeep’s four-by-four design and large wheels made short work of the sand below, not many vehicles made for civilians could handle such terrain quite like a Land Rover Defender.

“I must say, I’m rather alarmed that Pinkie Pie had such a potent item in her possession. Contained within her mane of all places!” Rarity chuckled nervously.

“The thought that crosses my mind, is what else does she have stored in there?” I replied.

We both laughed loudly upon deciding it was for the best that such a mystery remained unsolved, and that for all we knew, a shard of the Titan’s Orb could be dwelling upon her head.

It took about ten minutes to reach the girls, it was both relieving and refreshing to see their bright colours once more. I turned off the engine, hopped out, and ran straight into Rainbow Dash’s embrace; the others joined in and I found myself at the centre of a girly group hug, (although I wasn’t complaining).

“Gosh, it sure is glad to see you both back in one piece!” Applejack exclaimed.

“And so soon, for that matter!” Twilight joined in.

“Yeah, we most certainly got lucky with finding a car so soon.” I agreed, pointing to the Landie.

“It looks so awesome, almost exactly like your brother’s one!” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

Everyone agreed, the only main difference was the colour, Oliver’s one was a dark olive green, while this one was a light tan, lightly sprayed with brighter yellow to help the vehicle blend in with the sandy environment.

“So, did you like my flarework? Did you? Did you? Huh, huh, huh?” Pinkie squealed.

The pink mare hopped around me, eager for my approval.

“Pinkie, it was incredible, I loved it!” I cheered, (a little over-enthusiastically in order to humour her).

Squealing with delight, she skittered around in the sand, gleefully kicking up clusters as she went.

{Attention whore.} I thought playfully.

{Callum!} Twilight thought back, shocked.

My eyes widening, I looked over at the unicorn to see her raising an eyebrow at me; shrugging innocently with a sheepish grin, I saw no need to continue wearing the collar as we were now in close proximity, and removed the accessory.

{Ha ha! I’m free to think at my own liberty, fuck you, Book Horse!}

Twilight tilted her head with confusion, at long last, unable to read my mind. Deciding to assist her in removing her own collar, I walked over to her and lent a hand while Rarity led the others to the back of the car, showing them all where they would be sitting during the journey.

“Thanks, it was starting to bother me.”

“No problem, Twi.”

Placing both collars into her satchel, we both went over to the car and prepared to properly embark.

“Why is there blood on the floor?” Fluttershy reluctantly asked.

“Decoration.” I bluntly replied, grinning.

“We ran into some trouble, but thankfully neither of us got hurt.” Rarity truthfully responded.

“Neither of us got hurt!? Rarity, I got shot!”

“WHAT!?” Everyone yelled in unison.

Rolling my eyes, I explained how we’d bumped into some gun-wielding ruffians during our search, and that I was shot in the shoulder by one of them, nearly killing me. Before they could all freak out, I elaborated on how I’d used Vitra ‘Aku to heal myself.

“Whoa, you actually harnessed its power? You truly are the Champion…” Twilight breathed.

“That’s not all, I’ve witnessed him strengthening his soul.” Rarity gloated.

Her eyes nearly bulging right out of their sockets, Twilight zipped towards me in awe.

“I’ve only read of legends of such a thing…”

I couldn’t help but nervously laugh at her fangirling, slightly embarrassed.

“Well, next time I acquire some souls, I’ll do it again for you.” I offered.

Nodding energetically, Twilight looked up at me with a seething mass of questions.

“Do you feel different at all? More alert? Stronger? Smarter?”

“Honestly, not really.” I answered truthfully.

“Hm, perhaps it’s too subtle. Next time, you should store a whole cluster of souls before strengthening, then you might be able to notice a difference.” She instructed.

“I’ll do my best.” I replied, rolling my eyes with amusement.

“Hey dorks, can we go please? Burning up over here!” Rainbow moaned.

Remembering that we were all stood in the scorching desert, Twilight and I hopped into the car and I revved up the engine, it was time to get out of here. Reaching into my own bag, I retrieved my compass, and placed it on the dashboard until it confidently pointed in a particular direction, which happened to be south; after turning the car to face west, I turned in my seat to brief my passengers, whom were all contentedly sat upon the metal benches on either side of the cargo storage.

“Ladies and jelly-spoons, this is your captain speaking. We are about to embark upon our journey, but before we depart, I’d like to remind you all to keep your limbs inside the vehicle at all times.
Smoking and the consumption of alcohol is also not permitted on this vessel, if you are caught performing either of these activities, you will be removed immediately.
There are no toilets located on this particular model, so if you need to use the loo, please notify a member of staff so that we can pull over. Please refrain from relieving yourselves within the vehicle, nobody wants to be dowsed in shit, other than Applejack of course, whom is a filthy southerner.”

“Hey now!” Applejack growled.

Once Rainbow Dash stopped screaming with laughter, I resumed.

“In the case of an emergency, please do not panic, nobody here wants to hear your screams of terror as you rapidly approach death. Instead, I implore you to simply place your head between your legs and kiss your bum goodbye. I understand this may be difficult for Twilight, considering that she’s about as flexible as the pencils she writes with.”

“Hey, I can get between my legs just fine!” Twilight protested.

“Yeah, only because no one else does!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs.

The laughter reached a new height, as everyone howled and hooted loudly, poor Twilight however was clearly feeling quite uncomfortable with Rainbow’s remark.
Continuing my comical briefing, I came to the unicorn’s aid with a remark of my own.

“Upon the very unlikely event of a rockslide or avalanche, please use Rainbow Dash’s rear end as a shield. Take it from the hundreds of males she’s slept with, myself included, that ass can take a beating!”

Rainbow piped down instantly, while Applejack shrieked louder than the rest of the group combined, she smacked the bench repeatedly with her hoof as she belly-laughed, simply unable to contain herself. Eventually she settled down and wiped her teary eyes, and I was able to conclude my announcement.

“Thank you all very much for choosing to travel with Champion Voyages today, I hope you all have a pleasant journey. Now then, is everyone comfortable?”

“No!” They all shouted teasingly.

“Perfect!” I shouted back.

Revving the engine loudly, I took my foot off the brake and the car lurched forward.

“Fuck.” I spat, upon stalling the vehicle.

“Are we there already?” Pinkie asked.

Everyone laughed, and I restarted the car.

“Okay, for real this time!” I cheered, once again releasing my foot from the brake pedal.

After finally being able to take off properly, we sped off into the sun-baked horizon…

Chapter Four: Setting Sail

Time flies when one travels in a single direction for a seemingly endless duration, we had chased the sunset for almost a month; the vast number of bumps, rocks, twists and turns of the terrain had definitely affected the duration of the journey. If we hadn’t stockpiled on water from Hawnu Rey’eng’s old temple, we’d have died of thirst days ago. Although Rarity and Applejack still had plenty of food in their enchanted bags, supplies were being rationed to ensure we wouldn’t indulge ourselves and end up running out through sheer greed.

While we’d come across a number of towns and main roads, we adamantly stuck to travelling off-road as much as possible for the safety of solitude, the last thing we needed was to attain police or military attention; this had added a number of days to the journey, but it was definitely worth it for everyone’s safety and peace of mind.
We were now in Morocco and thankfully hadn’t encountered much trouble, we’d only encountered one bunch of angry Libyans along the way, whom had opened fire at us when we drove past, we had unfortunately acquired a couple of bullet holes on the right side of the chassis but had otherwise passed through unscathed.

Along the drive, the girls and I had devised a nifty plan on how to sneak everyone onboard a boat, or how to slip past people in general for that matter. Fluttershy generously emptied the contents of her bag into Rainbow Dash’s; with the bag being bigger on the inside, there was just enough room for everyone to slip inside along with their own bags and remain undetected, while I could then carry the single bag over my shoulder and smuggle everyone around when the situation demanded it. It was fool proof, as the bag also had an inner flap which could be pulled across to conceal the extra large compartment, essentially making it look like an ordinary satchel.

“Just don’t let anyone shoot, stab, or generally rip the bag while we’re inside it please.” Twilight requested.

“I’m afraid to ask why.” I replied cautiously.

“Well, as you know, our bags are unnaturally bigger on the inside because they’re pocket dimensions, many thanks to Discord’s unique magic. Having a single stable passageway into that dimension is fine, but just imagine a sudden rip in the very fabric of that dimension, forcing its entire volume outward into regular existence. In other words, it explodes with the force strong enough to level a castle.”

“Jeez, that’s mental.” I murmured.

“Indeed, so basica-”

“Hold up a second, you’re telling me you’ve all been carrying mini nukes this entire time!?” I interrupted.

“I’m not sure what a mini nuke is.”

“A very powerful bomb that can easily destroy a handful of buildings when it goes off.”

“Oh, well in that case, yes!”

Shaking my head with disbelief, I couldn’t believe that I’d been adventuring amongst seven magical explosives this entire time; all it would have taken was a bullet hitting any one of the girls’ bags, and we’d have all been killed. I recalled back in Brazil when we were being pursued through the sewers, bullets were whizzing past us until I got hit in the leg, any one of them could have hit a bag.

“I’m rather apprehensive to ask this, but what were to happen should a bag explode while you’re all hiding inside it?” I nervously inquired.

“Please don’t answer that Twilight, I don’t want to know.” Rarity butted in.

“I’m with Rarity, I’d rather not think about it.” Fluttershy agreed.

“Aw, come on, I’m curious!” Rainbow Dash protested.

Leaning forward into the front of the car, Twilight put her muzzle to my ear.

“We’d be forced outward with the rest of the pocket dimension, stretching us out in all directions into a very large mess. To put it bluntly, we would all explode as well, very violently.” She whispered.

“Jesus fuck!” I yelped.

“Language, Callum!” Rarity scolded.

“What is it!? What happens? Come on, tell me!” Rainbow Dash demanded.

“Yeah, I’m not repeating that.” I spoke firmly with widened eyes.

“Twilight, say!”

“Ugh, fine.”

Sitting back down in her seat, Twilight leaned over to Dashie and also privately explained to her.

“What the fu-”

“RAINBOW DASH, LANGUAGE!” Rarity shrieked before she could finish.

Every single one of us flinched as the piercing shrill of her voice ricocheted through our eardrums, everypony had their ears flattened for a brief moment,

“Sorry Rare…” She grumbled in response.

The sheer power of Rarity’s ear-splitting voice was simply incredible, I was entirely convinced that it could be weaponised under the right circumstances. To be fair, it was good that she’d interrupted, Pinkie was clearly stressed enough from being cooped up for so long, and bad language only made it worse.

“How long until we’re there?” Twilight asked, changing the subject.

“I can’t imagine it’ll be too much further now.” I sighed.

There was only so much enchanted clothing and water could do to combat the heat, I was exasperated from being sat behind the wheel for so long. The girls weren’t in such a good state either, they’d been packed like sardines in the back of the Landie, just melting away; they had taken hourly turns in the passenger seat to get some space, (Applejack was currently in the front). All seven of us reeked of sweat, which while Rarity couldn’t stand it, the rest of us had somewhat grown used to it.

“Oh crap…” I muttered as the car’s engine began to splutter.

Twilight popped her head back into the front, worried.

“What is it?”

“We’ve run out of fuel, the car’s going to die any second.”

“You mean we have to walk? Ugh…” She replied.

“You mean I finally get to stretch my legs? Woohoo!” Pinkie squealed.

To be fair on Pinkie, this would be our only opportunity to walk about before getting on a boat, to prevent going stir crazy, a walk might actually do us some good. The only two issues were the sun’s rays, and the risk of being seen by others, but it didn’t seem as though we had a choice.

The Land Rover kept fighting for another five or so minutes, before eventually coming to a slow halt and giving up on life entirely. Huffing with annoyance, I turned back to the girls and ordered them to prepare for a long walk. I opened the door and hopped out onto the sandy gravel, stretching dramatically, my arse had pretty much gone numb from sitting for so long. The girls hopped out of the back and all did the same, I couldn’t help but keenly stare at Rainbow Dash’s cat-like stretch, her wings splaying out to their full length (they were easily two metres in wingspan).

“Oy oy.” Applejack teased, elbowing me.

I quickly looked away and cleared my throat, to which AJ playfully tutted and rolled her eyes, chuckling and then putting her bag on. After we all donned our gear and took a few swigs of water, we embarked on foot once more, my compass leading us west to north-west.

We’d been trudging for about twenty minutes, and everyone was surprisingly chipper, being able to walk around was a pleasant change for the lot of us, regardless of the long journey ahead. With the pleasant mood around us, I began to hum a familiar melody to myself.

“What song is that?” Fluttershy asked me.

“Oh, it’s just the tune of my national anthem.”

“Wait a minute, humans have national anthems too? Wow, that’s really interesting, I presumed that it was just an Equestrian thing.” Said an astounded Twilight.

“Yeah, every nation has one. Despite faking my death and running from home, I consider myself a British patriot, so I’ve always been fond of it.” I admitted.

“Can you sing it?”

“Pfft, I don’t know.”

“SING IT!” Pinkie yelled.

“Jeez okay! Put me on the spot why don’t you?” I laughed.

Clearing my throat loudly, I made my best effort to do Britain proud.

“God save our gracious Queen, long live our noble Queen, god save the Queen!
Send her victorious, happy and glorious, long to reign over us, god save the Queen!
O’ lord our god arise, scatter her enemies, and make them fall…
Confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks, on thee our hopes we fix, god save us all!
Thy choicest gifts in store, on her be pleased to pour, long may she reign…
May she defend our laws, and ever give us cause, to sing with heart and voice, god save the Queen!”

As per usual with my singing, I had most likely grown a little carried away, for everyone was staring at me with intensity; Rarity (being her dramatic self), had tears in her eyes, most likely moved by the emotion and valour behind the anthem.

“Well, that sure was something.” Said Applejack, finally breaking the silence.

“Such majesty…” Rarity commended, wiping her eyes.

Twilight, (the autistic individual that she very evidently was), ignored the sentimental rhetoric of the anthem and simply focused on the lyrics, taking them far too literally; I was then instantly bombarded with a barrage of questions, which I knew had to be answered with equal enthusiasm, or I’d never hear the end of it.

“Isn’t it quite hypocritical to enjoy singing that anthem, when you know Earth doesn’t have a god?”

“Somewhat, yes,” I chuckled, “but our national anthem is very symbolic, we’ve always been a Christian nation and it’s a form of respect to our roots and heritage. For those that believe in the Christian and Catholic god, the anthem also implies that our nation is backed by god himself, essentially deeming us a strong and unbreakable country.”

“Bit arrogant.”

With a short chuckle, I admittedly agreed with Twilight, but then reinforced the fact that the anthem was mainly symbolic and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously word for word.

“Okay, so why does the Queen even need saving? Is she constantly in danger? For such a strong and hearty country, it doesn’t send a good message to your foreign neighbours if your royal family is in constant need of rescuing, especially via a divine power, it makes your royal security look incompetent.”

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at that, and then explained to the best of my historical knowledge how the anthem was written in France for the recovery of one of their kings whom was suffering from a life-threatening illness; the British then adopted it for King George the Third after he recovered from a bout of madness. In the eighteen-hundreds, more verses were added, and it quickly became recognised as the national anthem for the United Kingdom, also known as the Royal Anthem in other commonwealth countries.

Despite giving Twilight such a lengthy explanation, it took no more than a few seconds for more questions to come tumbling my way; trust Twilight to turn a short song into a bloody history lesson.

“So, you have a ruling Queen, and a democratic government? How does that work exactly?”

“Well, while our parliament passes all the laws and maintains the country and such, a lot of legislations can’t officially be passed without the Queen’s approval, which is called Royal Assent.
She’s also the only person with the power to appoint knights, dames and lords, and has the right to consult the prime minister whenever she sees fit. So while she doesn’t run the country, she has a lot of power over the people that do run it.”

“I see…” Twilight murmured, before allowing me to continue.

“The royal family also have an incredibly symbolic role and duty to the country, The Queen formally opens parliament every year, and the royals visit many different countries to represent our national identity, unity, and pride. Oh, and don’t get me started on tourism, the royal family practically keep the entire country’s economy afloat with the amount income they generate from international tourists and whatnot.”

“Huh, that’s really interesting…” Twilight hummed, processing the information.

{Please stop asking me questions now.} I thought playfully, rolling my eyes.

“What happens when your Queen dies? Does the anthem change?”

{Goddammit. Well, at least this one’s easy to answer.}

“Yup, if the next ruling monarch is a man, the song changes to God Save the King, and vice versa.”

It appeared I wasn’t the only one getting a tad tired of the exposition, as Rainbow Dash emitted a groan.

“None of us asked for a history lesson, will the both of you shut up about it now?”

"Rude.” I uttered.

“Look, I’m tired, thirsty, boiling to death out here, and have sand stuck in places I really don't want sand to be stuck in! The last thing I need right now is a load of boring facts about human royalty bouncing around inside my head!”

Before Twilight could argue the toss, Fluttershy suddenly gasped loudly and flapped her wings with excitement, flinging sand all over Applejack and Pinkie.

“Everyone, look! Over there!” Fluttershy mumbled, pointing into the distance ahead.

I could smell it before I saw it, the faint (yet indisputable) scent of the salty ocean water.

“Whoa…” Rainbow breathed.

Just as we arose over the rocky uphill, we were blessed with a vast cerulean sight which we had not seen in what felt like forever, the ocean. Such a view was truly spectacular after so many weeks surrounded with nothing but the dusty yellows and beige browns of the desert; it was like looking upon a moving painting, the sun’s rays glistened and danced upon the blue horizon, while swirls of white wave caressed the pale sand below the image.

“Well it’s about time we had a change of scenery!” Rarity sang.

“Indeed, now let’s find ourselves a boat.” Twilight enjoined.

Rainbow Dash took to the air and glided down the hill towards the water, before swooping down and out of sight, indicating there was a cliff ahead; the rest of us ran down after her and stopped at the cliff’s edge, before finding a viable route to climb down. While Dashie waited, she shot upwards and tried to scout around to ensure there were no people nearby.

Eventually we all made it safely to the beach and put down our bags while we caught our breath, I decided to take off my socks and shoes to feel the sand below, as it appeared to be very soft, and very soft it was.

“Last one to the water’s a rotten apple!” Applejack hollered unexpectedly.

After so long in the scorching desert, every single one of us were sprinting at full speed towards the water, Rainbow Dash caught sight of us from above and dived down like an arrow towards the sea as well; I pulled off my shirt and cast it aside while I ran, not wanting to get all my clothing wet. My feet made contact with the water at last and gosh was it cold, but I kept running anyway, as did the others; we kept going until a wave began to rise up above us, to which we all dived headfirst into it.

“Woohoo!” I shouted after resurfacing.

“Dear sweet Celestia, it’s so cold!” Rarity shrieked.

“Blasphemy!” Twilight yelled wildly, diving onto Rarity and pushing her under the water.

I burst into laughter, and Rarity came up shrieking dramatically, she paddled away from Twilight while frantically apologising. That was when an icy cold Fluttershy leapt into my arms to avoid another large wave, I tossed her up into the air just as the wave knocked me over in order to keep her from being engulfed by it; when I re-emerged, I waded over to Twilight and allowed myself to float beside her.

“I needed a moment like this so badly.” She giggled, grinning at me.

Seeing such a pure smile from Twilight was warmer than the entire desert we’d crossed just to be here; after all we’d been through together, after so much pain, anger and confusion, it was a moment of absolute delight to witness the real Twilight returning from beyond the grave.
The next wave crashed over the both of us, and after wiping my eyes to regain vision, I couldn’t help but burst into laughter at Twilight’s new state; her soaking fringe now covered her eyes and a single strand of seaweed was now draped across her muzzle like a Fu Manchu moustache. She shook her head like a dog to remove both the moustache and the mane in her eyes, before looking at me sheepishly with her tongue sticking out slightly, which I believed was either known as a blep, or a mlem, depending on the context, in this case, I was certain that it was a blep.

“You alright there?” I asked teasingly.

“Pristine!” She replied, unashamed.

Chuckling, I wrapped an arm around her neck and ruffled her mane, to which she wriggled away and jumped backwards into the next wave. The laughter resonating from everyone playing in the water was almost overpowering, there was so much joy when it had been lacking for so long; while I was conscious that we needed to get out of plain sight and onto a boat sooner rather than later, there were no signs of people whatsoever, and I decided to let everyone enjoy the moment for a while longer.

Roughly ten, maybe fifteen minutes later, Applejack called out to the group, contented with the fun and now ready to continue onward.

“Alright y’all, don’t you think it’s time we get moving?”

“I couldn’t agree more, this water hasn’t grown any warmer!” Rarity concurred.

“Just a few more minutes?” Pinkie requested, giggling as a wave engulfed her.

“Methinks we need to get going now Pinks, we’re going to be spending a lot of time at sea and really ought to get a move on.” I added, agreeing with AJ and Rarity.

We waded out of the sea and back to our gear, which was when a strong breeze came by and fiercely chilled our damp bodies, my teeth quickly began to chatter and I rushed to put on all my clothes. Such a biting cold upon my bare skin almost made swimming regrettable, but the smiles amongst us were warm enough to keep us from such repentance.

“Can you please remind me what the mission is again?” Fluttershy asked through chattering teeth.

“We either smuggle ourselves onto a boat that’s heading for America, or we find a way to commandeer one and sail there ourselves.” I clarified, rubbing my biceps firmly in order to warm them.

{Implying I can successfully sail a boat across the ocean.} I thought to myself.

Nodding with understanding, Fluttershy continued putting on the desert cloth clothing; thanks to Hawnu Rey’eng’s enchantment, the apparel would warm us slightly. Once the lot of us were dressed and slightly warmer, we began trudging north, with the waves crashing in to the left of us; after she had warmed up a little more, Rainbow Dash took to the air to spot ahead for us, just in case any people showed up.

“See anything up there?” I called up to Rainbow after about half an hour.

“Nope, nothing! Just more beach!”

Rolling my eyes and puffing with annoyance, it irked me that we weren’t already on the sea, but I supposed one couldn’t be hasty, seeing as not all that long ago we had located Vitra ‘Aku and effectively brought a new Champion into the universe.

{One step at a time…} I thought.

Twilight looked at me with concern, reading my expressions and attempting to decipher my thoughts.

“Wait, I see something!”

Looking up, we all watched as Rainbow Dash shot forwards to get a closer look, before plunging back down to us to report her findings.

“Humans, buildings too, not all that far from here.”

“How far’s not far?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, egghead!”

Ruffling her wings, the pegasus rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof.

“Like, a mile away, maybe more. They’re just up off the beach, on a dirt road.”

“Right, did you spot a boat at all?” I asked.

“No, but I wasn’t close enough anyway, I just saw the people.”

Nodding, I ordered Rainbow Dash to take to the skies once more and scout ahead, using the clouds for cover, and hopefully find a boat. I then instructed the girls that we’d be sticking on the beach and hope to slip by unnoticed, but that it would be best that they prepare to hide inside Fluttershy’s bag just in case. Twilight and I put our collars back on, just so we could converse telepathically if need be.

{Working all good?} I thought to her.

{Loud and clear.}

“Okay girls, let’s move.” Twilight directed, trotting to the front of the group with me.

Using the earthy cliff face as cover, we made our way along the beach. The continuous sound of cars could be heard in the distance, implying a main road, which further implied a town or city ahead. While that would certainly mean the girls would need to get into the bag, it also brought me hope that there would be a port. My suspicion was confirmed, as Rainbow Dash returned from her scouting mission.

“I’ve got good news, and bad news! Firstly, if you want boats, bitch you’ve got about forty of them to choose from. But the bad news is that there are humans like, everywhere!” She panted.

“Forty? Damn, must be a port city or something.” I hummed.

“Yeah, something like that, there were lots of fishing boats.” Dashie agreed.

“Well, everypony, you know what to do.” I reluctantly announced.

Fluttershy removed her bag, and everyone began moaning and groaning with annoyance.

“I’ll try to get onto a boat as soon as possible, I promise.”

“What if the bag breaks?” Fluttershy squeaked.

“What if you can’t get on a boat?” Twilight asked.

“What if there’s a fight?” Rainbow joined in.

“Jeez, girls, have a little faith in me. Under no circumstance will I let the bag break, I will find a way onto a boat, and if there’s a fight, I’ll handle it. Now play nice and get in the bag.” I ordered.

Holding it open for them, everyone took their turn squeezing into the small entrance, somehow fitting inside despite it being the size of a regular backpack; it was still bizarre to me to see the wonders of magic, even after literally seeing the Titans with my own eyes. I supposed some things would just never grow old, like unvaccinated children.

{Why are you chuckling in thought?} Twilight asked telepathically.

{No reason.} I replied innocently.

Rolling her eyes, Twilight crouched down and crawled into the saddlebag. I squatted down to look inside, the poor girls were a tad cramped, the space inside was not much bigger than a bathroom cubicle.

“I swear I’ll try to get this over with as soon as possible.”

“No no, take your time Sugarcube, I’m comfortable.” Applejack joked, squished between two pegasi.

“How does gravity affect you in there?” I inquired curiously.

Twilight went on to explain that it was a separate pocket dimension which somewhat had its own gravity, basically meaning that they wouldn’t ever fall out, even if the bag were to be turned upside down; desperate to test this, I lightly lifted the bag and held it up with the opening facing the ground.

“That, is, awesome.”

Holding the bag high above my head, I looked up to see the girls slumped against one particular side where the gravitational pull was, looking back down at me with faint exasperation.

“Finished?” Twilight asked dully.

Chuckling, I nodded and lowered the bag to eye level; Twilight then went on to implore that I didn’t shake the bag, as it would disrupt the pocket dimension’s gravity centre, causing it to change location.

“You mean like this?” I asked, lifting up the bag and giving it a light shake.

As expected, the girls tumbled into one another, resulting in six resentful glares.

“Asshole!” Rainbow Dash spat.

“I had to test it!” I replied innocently.

“All in favour of Callum going in the bag later, say aye!”

I gulped upon all six ponies (even Fluttershy), emitting a confident ‘aye’.

“Seriously though, good luck.” Twilight said, nodding to me.

Dipping my head in return, I playfully blew the group a kiss and sealed the compartment with the decoy flap, making the bag appear to have ordinary proportions, and placed a few miscellaneous items in it, such as apples, my ruined Blood Family clothes from Portugal, and a water bottle.

{Can you still hear me Twi?}

{Crystal clear, please hurry, the elbowing has already begun.}

With that, I put the bag over my shoulder and trudged onward.

After about fifteen minutes of said trudging, I started spotting people ahead, lots of people.

“Ugh, great…” I muttered to myself.

There were wind breakers, umbrellas, and the odd tent, to which I sighed with assurance that it was just a commercial beach with ordinary folk, enjoying a sunny day. To blend in, I took off my long-sleeved shirt and tied the sleeves around my waist, along with rolling up my trouser legs. I was cautious at first, but I trusted my gut and made my way towards the crowd.

Children playing, people surfing and body boarding, couples holding hands, dogs fetching balls, a guitarist strumming away and singing something pleasant in Spanish, it was both calming and surreal to be surrounded by so much positivity from other humans; it was almost enough to forget the horrors that I’d seen over my adventure. Humanity had such a broad and curious contrast, there was so much mirth and innocence here, while my time in Brazil and Portugal had nothing but malice, disdain and callousness. There was no doubt Morocco also had its fair share of bad going on, but it was very satiating to witness some good for a time regardless.

A pair of young girls were kicking a beach ball together, when one of them accidentally kicked it too far, causing it to catch the wind and plop down before me, they looked over to me anxiously, hoping I would return it to them; rather than make myself look like an idiot by kicking it back and possibly missing, I picked it up and jogged their way, before kindly tossing it to them with a warm smile.

“Gracias!” They both sang, and went back to playing.

It was so uplifting and heart-warming to be part of such a moment, it may have been a simple gesture, but I’d been so distant from the simple innocence of children playing, my life over the past eight months had predominantly revolved around killing, and almost being killed.

Moving on across the beach, I found some stairs that took me up to the main town and I was quickly greeted by cars and pedestrians, it was almost like some form of culture shock to be back in such an environment, there were so many people, I damn near had a panic attack.

“Right… Dock…” I murmured to myself.

Weaving past people and crossing a street, I kept walking until the docks came into sight; Rainbow Dash wasn’t bluffing, there were easily more than forty boats to choose from. The question was, which one should I choose?

{Twilight, conundrum.}

{Shoot.} The unicorn replied.

{I’m at the docks, and I need a group decision on a boat choice.}

{Well, why are you having trouble choosing?}

{We’ve got either fuel powered fishing boats or sailing boats. One is faster, but we obviously run the risk of running out of fuel, leaving us dead in the water. The other is much slower and more difficult to operate, but there’s no risk of getting stranded.}

Twilight didn’t respond, but I could hear muffled voices from my backpack, so I presumed she was asking the group for their opinion, soon enough, I got an answer.

{We think you should go with the sailing boat. A day on Equus is a year on Earth, so we can afford the extra time if it means eliminating such a big risk.} She concluded.

{Got’cha.} I replied.

Looking around, I figured that the best way to go about stealing one of these boats would be to either board one that’s about to leave, and knock out the owner, or simply to steal one from scratch and pretend like I owned it, and just pray that the real owner was nowhere close-by.

(Twilight, conundrum.}

{Oh for goodness sake, what now?}

Explaining my situation, Twilight thought it would be best to steal a boat just as it was leaving, so we could make a quick getaway without spending too much time getting the boat prepared and lingering on the docks for so long. Settling on that decision, I looked around and thankfully spotted someone getting onto one of the sailing boats, it was dark green with a chocolate brown trim, and had white sails. The fellow onboard was acting awfully suspicious; he was constantly looking around while hurriedly prepping the vessel for departure.

Upon carefully moving to get a better view, I noticed the individual was lugging a few black bags onto the boat; more surprisingly however, he had a pistol sticking out of his back pocket. He took one last look around, and then forcefully kicked open the door to the inside of the boat in order to gain access.

He was a smuggler, and he was stealing the boat.

“Well I’ll be damned.” I huffed with bewildered amusement.

This was a better chance than ever to get close, so I swiftly crept down the dock and then hid behind some fish barrels as he re-emerged; he hopped off the boat and took a mobile phone out of his pocket, and dialled a number, most likely to inform whomever he was working with that he was on his way. While his back was turned, I took a huge gamble and left my hiding place to board the boat; the gamble paid off, as I was able to hop onboard and get downstairs, I then hid in the sleeping quarters.

{What’s the situation?} Twilight asked.

{You won’t believe this, but someone else is stealing a boat, and I’ve been able to sneak onboard.}

{Wait, what?}

{You heard me, someone else is nicking a boat, and we’re now onboard.}

{No way, you’ve got to be joking… Are you sure?}

{Oh I’m sure, he kicked the door in! He’s currently in the middle of preparing the boat now, I’ll take care of him once we’ve embarked and made some distance.}

{Gosh, talk about coincidence? Okay, I trust your judgement, good luck.}

Taking the bag off my back and placing it in a corner, I patiently waited as the man came back onto the boat and finished loading up his mysterious (and most likely illegal) cargo. After a few brief moments, I felt myself swaying side to side as the boat began to move; I couldn’t believe it had truly been this easy, it was about time we received a stroke of luck.

Soon enough, we were out of the dock and the smuggler had seemingly left undetected, and it didn’t take long until we were properly drifting away from the last dry land that I’d know for the next few weeks.

At long last, we were at sea…

Chapter Five: The Young Boy and the Sea

After about twenty minutes of twiddling my thumbs, I heard the man’s footsteps coming down the stairs, and I unsheathed Vitra ‘Aku as quietly as I could, ready to strike. He walked around the main downstairs area for a while, humming an unfamiliar tune, before sitting down and yawning loudly. Thinking about my best plan of attack, I slowly stuck my head out from the doorway so I could see him, only to discover that he had randomly decided to start masturbating.

{Are you being fucking serious right now!?}

{What is it? What’s happened?} Twilight yelped, alarmed.

{You don’t need to know.} I responded bluntly.

{What do you mea-}

{You DON’T need to know, Twilight.}

"Just... WHY!?" I silently mouthed to myself with widened eyes.

Rolling my eyes with disgust and annoyance, I supposed at least that I could catch him with his pants down (literally); emerging from the sleeping quarters, I strode towards the man with my sword held high.

“Cockblocking!” I shouted.

The man screamed in panic, shouted something madly incomprehensible in Spanish, and lunged for his gun, he was able to grab it and made an attempt to aim, only for me to reach him and jam my blade into his chest; gasping loudly, the man tried to cry out, only for a gurgled wheeze to emit from his lips.

BANG!

I was abruptly met with the all-to-familiar agony of a bullet wound yet again, the searing pain spread through my outer waist and I naturally lashed out horizontally in response, causing Vitra ‘Aku to effortlessly glide through flesh and bone alike and very nearly cut the man in two, dismembering his arm in the process, needless to say, he was dead very quickly.

“OW!” I hollered at the top of my lungs.

Gritting my teeth, I looked down to inspect the damage, thankfully it was just a flesh wound on the outside of my hip, but it hurt like a bitch regardless. Wasting no time at all, I tightly gripped Vitra ‘Aku’s handle and repeated the same process from before, mentally commanding the sword to heal me with the newly acquired soul; my vision brightened and blurred as the mana flowed into my body and congregated around the injury. The pain soon subsided, and upon my vision returning I was extremely grateful to find a much lesser injury upon my hip, the bullet hole was now no more than a deep graze, and while it still stung, it was certainly an improvement.

There was suddenly a large thud and then a crash from the sleeping quarters, followed by a wild Rainbow Dash charging out of the doorway with her teeth bared and her hooves ready to strike.

“I heard a gunshot! Where are the bad guys, huh? Put ‘em up!” She growled.

The pegasus then looked down to see the mutilated body of the smuggler, including his nude lower half, completely soaked in blood. Her eyes widened drastically, and it took a few seconds for Rainbow to process what she was seeing; she looked up at me and blinked slowly, before tenderly walking up the stairs and then throwing up off the side of the boat.

“You were supposed to stay in the bag, Rainbow Dash!” I crossly called up to her.

“I thought you were in danger, asshole!” She shouted down back to me, retching a few times.

Rushing into the sleeping quarters, I found the other ponies crawling out of the bag as well, I sheathed the sword and folded my arms with immense disappointment.

“What part of ‘stay in the bag’ didn’t any of you understand?”

“We heard a gun go off and got worried about you! We were originally going to stay put, but then Rainbow Dash went out and we decided to follow.” Applejack explained.

“So what happened? Are you hurt? You’ve got blood all over you!” Shouted Twilight.

“It ain’t mine, well, at least not most of it anyway. Look, I’ll explain what happened in a moment, but for now I have a… mess… to clean up, so can you all please just stay there and not come out?” I insisted.

From the amount of blood on my body, the girls knew better than to question me, and patiently waited while I removed the mangled body; dragging the open carcass up the stairs, a portion of his lung fell out and I very nearly joined Rainbow Dash, gagging heavily. Thankfully we were far enough out at sea to dump the body (and additional pieces) overboard. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was sat at the front of the boat, watching the water go by, clearly trying to forget the image she’d just witnessed.

“Hey, thanks for being ready to defend me.” I praised.

“Not that you were in any danger.” She scoffed bitterly.

“Bollocks, I just got shot, if that’s not danger then I don’t know what is. It’s good to know that I have you to rely on. You never know, next time I might be in more danger than I can handle on my own, and it’s damn reassuring to know you’ve got my back.”

“It’s fine dude, but I wish I’d just stayed in the damn bag.”

“Aye, in this case, you should have.” I agreed.

Leaving her to calm down, I went downstairs and used one of the towels onboard to mop up as much blood as I could. After that, I explained roughly what had happened to the others, leaving out the smuggler’s last wank on Earth…

“Gosh, I’m so sorry you got shot again, I can only imagine how painful it must be! Thank Celestia you’ve got Vitra ’Aku to heal yourself from such a horrible wound.” Rarity exclaimed.

“Actually, I think I’ll thank the Titans, not Celestia, seeing as they literally made the sword.” I scoffed.

“Oh har har, it’s just an expression.” The unicorn replied, rolling her eyes.

“Anyway, boatman, are we on course?” Twilight spoke up.

“Not a damn clue, but I’ll make sure we’re going the right way once we’ve familiarised ourselves with the boat, we’ve got plenty of time and we’re on the move, so no rush.” I assured her.

“Extra time doesn’t warrant wasting it.” She muttered in reply.

“Quite right m’lady, I’ll get us on course shortly.” I repeated, albeit more submissively.

Heading outside, I found Rainbow Dash had mostly recovered from earlier, she was perched at the top of the mast with her wings splayed open, contently catching the wind. Upon seeing us all emerging onto the deck, she fluttered down and gave me a loud disgruntled huff.

“Oh really?” I replied dryly, raising my eyebrows.

This caused her to look away with a faint smile, slightly tickled by the response. She eventually dropped the attitude, joining the girls and I in exploring the boat and learning how it all worked; I’d learned the very basics of sailing back when I was seven when my dad would take Oliver and I to a sailing club, where we’d learn the fundamentals with other younglings of our age group, being on this sailing boat with the girls took me straight back to those old distant memories…

There used to be this nasty mother there called Madonna at the sailing club who would always put down the other kids in order to big up her own son, Josh. Madonna was one of those absolute madams who’d never stop flapping her gums about herself and her egotistical life, she was a classic case of an insecure possessive parent whom always thought that their child was a million times better than everyone else’s, and my father wouldn’t stand for it on the day she mentioned that I was a dysfunctional child due to my Asperger’s, I’d very rarely heard my father shout at someone, but it was safe to say that Madonna would never speak ill of the differently abled again; it was also needless to disclose that Oliver and I were no longer welcome to sailing club after that incident.
Turns out dad could be quite scary when he needed to be.

Retrieving my compass from my bag, I held it out in front of me and found we were heading southwest, we would need to be heading much further north if we wanted to get to America.

“Right girls, I’m going to steer us west by northwest, and then I need you to help me with these ropes so we can angle the sails properly, alright?” I announced.

With six voices of agreement in my ear, I went to the back of the boat and adjusted the rudder, keeping my compass facing to the front of the boat as I did so until we were headed west by northwest. After that, I walked the ponies through angling the sails in conjunction to the wind to ensure we were moving as efficiently as possible. Despite the odd rocking here and there, the sea was relatively calm, although it would probably grow rougher as we headed further out.

“Can we please establish this sooner rather than later, does anypony get seasick?” I inquired.

Everyone shook their heads, except for Applejack, whom uneasily rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well, I don’t exactly get seasick, but I must admit that I feel a little queasy without any dry land nearby.”

“Understandable from someone who’s always worked on a farm, all I’m saying is that if you think you’re going to hurl, please just make sure you do so overboard.”

“Must you be so blunt?” Rarity groaned.

“I’d rather it not go by as something unsaid.” I replied.

“Well you’ve made your point, can we all please stop talking about it now?” Twilight snapped.

Raising my eyebrows in shock, I realised that Twilight’s body language was very uptight all of a sudden upon me bringing up the subject, her shoulders were practically hugging her ears. Perhaps she was having another mild episode from the Fel’s long-lasting damage?

“Well anyhoo, let’s also establish the fact that we’re all going to be cramped on this boat together for quite some time, so let’s all try our best to not get on anyone’s nerves and to respect one another’s personal space, I’d rather we didn’t all come down with cabin fever.” I continued.

Nodding in agreement, we headed back inside the boat and started establishing who slept where, along with devising some sort of shift rota so we could all take turns in adjusting the rudder and angling the sails; whilst we’d usually be working together as a team, it would be good to have some form of structure during such a monotonous and cramped part of our quest.

“Rarity, what’s the situation with our food supply? How much do we have left? This is going to be a long haul journey and we need to make sure there’s enough for everyone.” I asked.

“The last time I checked, we’ve got enough to last us roughly a month, but I think we could comfortably ration it out to six weeks. Sadly it’s not the most delectable of pickings, it’s mostly nuts, beans, hay, daisies, potatoes, onions, leeks, rice, peanut butter, and apples.”

“That’ll do just fine, I won’t need much to eat anyway, my first two weeks in Portugal proved that, I didn’t have a single bloody morsel until some nice old granny fed me.”

“Goodness, that’s simply awful!” Rarity exclaimed.

Twilight dipped her head in shame and anxiously rubbed the back of her neck, for it was her corrupted self that teleported me to the wrong side of Portugal on purpose, in an attempt to get rid of me.

“Sorry about that…”

Playfully rolling my eyes, I assured Twilight that there were no hard feelings, and that the Fel was entirely to blame for the event; although she still blamed herself, she was comforted by the fact that I didn’t resent her for it.

Aside from food and the management of our shifts, we needed activities to do onboard to keep us all sane during the voyage. There was no doubt that one of the hardest parts, if not the hardest part of this particular leg of the journey, would be the lengthy duration it would take to reach America. Driving across the desert was one thing, because we could see where we were going. We were always moving forward with the horizon edging towards us, beckoning us further, encouraging us to keep going. No matter how tedious the journey, we could see with our own eyes that we were going somewhere; meanwhile out here on the open water, the only thing we could see for miles in any direction was more water, days could pass and it could seem as though we hadn’t moved an inch.

Sometimes the simpler adversities were the most difficult to overcome, and in this case, it was simply time; from the most patient to the most eager, this journey would test all of us equally.

Rainbow Dash would grow bored very quickly, but at least she could fly above whenever she needed to stretch her wings. Applejack, the hard worker that she is, would need a project to work on in order to feel productive, otherwise she’d most certainly become irritated and short tempered. Pinkie Pie was more than sure to go mental within at least a week, to be crammed into such a small space with such a hyperactive pony was a recipe for disaster.

Despite the heavy mental scarring from the Fel (giving her the potential to break at any mild friction), I had faith that Twilight would cope relatively well, for she still had a few of my old books from home in her saddle bag (to be honest I was amazed they had even survived this far), so at least she had something to keep her focused and absorbed; hopefully her inability to use magic wouldn’t interfere with this too much.

As for Rarity and Fluttershy, they were certainly the most patient and would fare much better than the rest of us, so long as they had decent conversation and a dash of activities here and there.

Unsurprisingly, Pinkie was to the rescue on that front, having packed a few board games in her bag prior to coming to Earth; upon getting them out to display, I came upon the dumb realisation that I didn’t recognise a single game as they were from Equestria, although there was one that caught my eye that looked somewhat similar.

“What’s this one?” I asked, tapping the cardboard box.

“Oh, this one’s a gem!” Pinkie giggled.

She slid beside me and pointed at the cover, which displayed four ponies sat around the board game.

“It’s called Sorry-Not-Sorry, or S-N-S for short, it’s a game for four ponies, and you all take turns to roll the dice to move your pieces around the board, you have to do a full lap around before you can get your pieces to the safe zone. If you land on somepony’s piece, it gets sent back to base. The winner is the first pony to get all their pieces into the safe zone!” She excitedly explained.

“Huh, that is scarily identical to Ludo.” I hummed.

“What’s Ludo?” Rarity inquired.

“It’s a board game practically identical to this one.” I told her, before explaining the concept of Ludo.

I had to admit, this Equestrian version looked much more fun, while Ludo had a basic square board with a simple route of tiles for one’s pieces, Sorry-Not-Sorry had an octagon shaped board with a much more playful tile route; the coloured pieces were designed to resemble unicorn horns, which was also a very nice touch, opposed to Ludo’s very simplistic cone shaped pieces.

“Well, I know what we’ll be playing later!” I joyfully exclaimed.

The girls giggled, and Pinkie put away the board games for later use.

About an hour or so had gone by, and the seas had been smooth sailing thus far, with only the odd wave that would send one or two of us into an unstable wobble for a few seconds. In the grand scheme of things, we hadn’t gone very far at all, but one couldn’t focus on that.

Whilst I had never really been one for fishing, I couldn’t help but enjoy the thought of casting a lure into the water and reeling up something for dinner; not that I had any idea of how to fish properly, it was one of the few things my father hadn’t taught me in my childhood.
But if humans had been doing it so proficiently for thousands of years, how hard could it be?

“Rarity?” I asked, clambering below deck.

“Yes darling?”

“So, I recall that you were the one responsible for packing essential gear for the quest, like camping equipment and such. I don’t suppose you’d packed a fishing rod or two by any chance?”

Humming, Rarity placed a hoof on her chin and pondered, before frowning.

“I’m sorry darling, but I’m afraid not. We don’t eat fish, so such equipment wouldn’t have been considered essential, even if I owned anything of the sort.”

Shrugging, I told her it was fine and that I’d just wanted to inquire as I’d have enjoyed the prospect of catching myself dinner, along with it being something to pass the time.
Just as I was walking away to check on Twilight in the sleeping quarters, Rarity gave a loud “Ah-ha!” and called me back.

“You know, you just might be in luck darling! Now, I know for a fact that Applejack would often go on little fishing trips with Applebloom and Big Mac to the Ponyville Reservoir for a bit of competitive angling, before releasing the fish back into the water at the end of the day. Now don’t you go taking my word for it, but I think Applejack might have brought her own rod, I’d highly suggest you go and ask her.”

“Oh brilliant, I’ll go check!” I exclaimed happily.

I headed back up above deck (trying not to bump my head as I did so), and emerged into the brilliant sunlight to find Applejack throwing up over the side of the boat.

“Well howdy there partner.” I deadpanned to her.

“Ugh, don’t mind me…” She groaned.

“I thought you didn’t get seasick.”

“Well clearly, I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

“Clearly.”

Rolling my eyes, I instructed her to keep the horizon in her field of view and to stay in the shade to help with the seasickness, along with absolutely not going below deck whenever she’s feeling queasy. I also implored her to try her very best to keep it down, as we couldn’t afford anyone getting dehydrated with our limited water supply.

“Yeah, I hear you pard...” She huffed.

“So, I hope it’s not a bad time to ask, but Rarity told me that you might have a fishing rod.”

AJ’s ears pricked up, and a sly smirk lit up across her face despite her nauseous state.

“I didn’t take you for an angler.”

Scoffing, I admitted that I wasn’t, (and not by any stretch of the imagination), but wanted to get into it now in order to pass the time.

“Well, you came to the right pony, I brought my lucky rod just in case!”

Practically forgetting the seasickness, the farm pony led me down into the boat and into the sleeping quarters where the saddlebags were stashed, alongside Twilight and Rainbow Dash having a private conversation about her adopted human father; it was so bloody uplifting to finally see them truly getting along after what happened in Portugal, from hating Twiley’s guts to having one-on-one conversations with her was beyond comforting to see, it was safe to say she’d found it within her heart to forgive Twilight and move forward from the months of pain and torment instilled by the Fel’s underlying corruption.

“S’cuse me girls.” I merrily emitted, stepping over them to reach Applejack’s bag.

Rainbow responded by playfully giving my arse a firm prod with a hoof, to which I retorted by releasing a small and squeaky fart, causing both her and Twilight to shriek and scramble to their hooves, fleeing to another section of the boat while shouting ‘Ew! Ew! Ew!’ together.

“That’s what you get!” I laughed after them.

Applejack chuckled to herself and then shook her head with a bemused smirk.

“The Champion of the Holy Titans, in all his glory y’all.”

Rolling my eyes, we dug through the bag until locating the fishing rod alongside her lures, and then clambered back out into the sun. A disgruntled Rainbow Dash glared at me as I passed her in the living quarters, to which I threatened to do it again if she didn’t give me a smile; this resulted in a cushion being thrown at me from Twilight, whom was trying to conceal the smile that clearly stated that she actually found the ordeal rather funny in all its crudeness.

“Right, you said that you ain’t into fishing, but have you at least held a fishing rod before?”

Confirming that I had, I went on to tell Applejack how I’d once caught a perch when I was about six or seven years old, and it was actually what put me off fishing for so long. Perches had two dorsal fins, one of which was tipped with small sharp spikes, and when a six (or seven) year old moron decided to grab it tightly, the obvious outcome was for those spikes to go right into his dipshit hand.

“And thus, I’ve never caught a fish since.” I concluded.

“Oh Sugarcube, I can just picture it now! A lil’ young’un Callum running around with a tiny fish stuck to his hand, hoo’wee that’s a good one!” Applejack hooted with laughter.

“It was not fun.” I replied dully, scowling at her.

“Heh heh, no… For you it probably wasn’t.” She chuckled, calming down.

Rolling my eyes, I gripped the fishing rod and allowed Applejack to reteach me the basics, before I eventually hooked up the glimmering lure and cast it into the water. The lure twinkled a few times as it sunk, before it eventually descended into the unseen depths; I eagerly awaited to feel a tugging, but no such tugging came for what felt like forever.

“I’ve just remembered the other reason I don’t like fishing, it’s boring as hell.” I grumbled.

“Oh shush you, waiting is all part of the fun!” AJ chortled.

“How in any universe is waiting fun?”

“It’s a part of the experience Sugar Cube, y’all have to be patient and enjoy the anticipation, wondering where the closest fish is and whether or not you’re within seconds of catching ‘er, or if you’ve still got some more time to wait. Fishing ain’t all about catching the fish hun, it’s about letting yourself go, whether it’s having a nice conversation, or spending some time woolgathering.”

“Woolgathering?” I asked, puzzled.

“Daydreaming and such, y’know? To zone out and think of sweet nothings?”

“Aah, got’cha.”

I’d never really thought of fishing that way, and after Applejack’s advice began to sink in (no pun intended), I found the activity to grow on me a little, and after a while, I was having a truly peaceful time just chatting with Applejack about life, whilst the rod sat loosely in my hands.

Equestria was the main subject of conversation, in which I learned that Sweet Apple Acres was utterly huge, making up just over a quarter of all the land in the entire Ponyville province.
The Everfree Forest for that matter covered almost an entire fifth of the country! It was so enormous that there had to be multiple stations for the Everfree Rangers which were dotted around the edges of the forest, in total there were forty-six Ranger stations, simply known as Forts.

“The monsters from the Everfree really cause that much of a problem?” I inquired, astounded.

“Oh you bet’cha! On average, more ponies die to that darn Everfree than they do to natural causes!”

“Blimey…”

She went on to explain that the forest itself continually attempted to expand, thus creating more breeding grounds and hotspots for monster attacks. To combat this, the Everfree Rangers had a specific division for lumber-ponies, whom went on regular logging expeditions to prevent the expansion, along with armed guards to protect them from whatever creatures may be lurking nearby.

“That’s absolutely mental, how did the show never mention this!?” I exclaimed.

Eager to learn, I demanded for more information about the Rangers, and found out that they were in fact a proper organisation which was personally backed by Princesses Celestia and Luna, whom funded them from the royal treasury and would even send soldiers to assist when they were required.

The Everfree Rangers had four divisions which one could sign up for…
There were the Pathfinders, a scouting division which specialised in mapping out the forest and keeping tabs on certain creatures, along with their migration patterns. The Pathfinders was a line of work for ponies who wanted to brave the depths of the forest and study it.
Then there were the Loggers, which (as previously explained) would cut down trees to maintain the spread of the ever-growing Everfree, a good role for strong ponies that weren’t discouraged by the prospect of hostile creatures lurking nearby while they worked, namely timber-wolves.
Thirdly, there were the Blockades, defensive rangers that garrisoned the Forts and specialised in guarding the edges of the woodland, along with escorting the Loggers on their expeditions. Decked with thick armour and portable ballistae, they were the shield that guarded the realms of ponies.

Lastly, and explicitly the most treacherous division of the Rangers, there were the Hunters.
The bravest of the brave, it was the sole job of the hunters to track down and eradicate the most deadly denizens of the forest, either by repelling them from nearby villages, or to slay them outright.
Needless to say, this division was not for the faint of heart, very rarely did a hunt end without a casualty or two, but apparently the pay was very much worth the risk.

{Well, it’s absolutely official, if I somehow did end up in Equestria for whatever reason, I’m signing up to become a Hunter in the Everfree Rangers.} I decided in thought.

We nattered for well over an hour, when suddenly I felt a light tugging at Applejack’s rod, at long last the moment had arrived; grasping the rod firmly, I looked to Applejack for guidance.

“Woohoo! We’ve got a biter! Now, the next time you feel a bite like that, tug the rod to one side, that’s called striking, which is how you get the hook in.” She explained.

Nodding, I anxiously awaited the next bite, lightly stimming my fingers across the rod’s handle.

{This is where a bloody shark comes along and eats the damn thing.} I thought to myself playfully.

The next bite came, and I swung the rod to the right, and very quickly it came apparent that the fish was hooked, as the rod was almost yanked out of my hands.

“Blimey!” I yelped.

Grabbing the rod and clutching it to my chest, I allowed Applejack to explain that I needed to pull the rod upwards towards me at first, and then reel in as I extended the rod back out, bringing the fish closer only in small increments.

“If you feel that blighter really putting up a fight, don’t fight back, or the darn line might break. Just hold the rod nice and steady, let the thing tire out before bringing it in.”

“Got it, thanks!” I replied.

Having the time of my life, I followed Applejack’s advice to the letter and slowly but surely brought the fish to the boat, and very soon it became visible just beneath the surface.

“Whoa, that’s a biggun!” Rainbow Dash emitted.

I looked behind me to find that the excitement had attracted an audience, all six ponies were now gathered around to witness the climax of my angle. Smirking to myself, I maintained focus and kept reeling until the fish was continuously breaking the water, still battling for freedom from the fishing line.

“That’s it, come to papa.” I growled keenly.

After a fifteen-minute battle, the creature lost its fight and drifted along behind the boat; I peered down with Applejack to find that it was a sea bass, a rather big one at that.

“Anyone have a net?”

“I’ll do you one better.” Rainbow Dash giggled, taking to the air.

She swooped over to the fish and scooped it out of the water, chucking it directly at me, forcing me to drop the rod and catch it with both arms.

“Damn it Dashie… Ugh, thanks!” I groaned, my wrists now coated in fish slime.

Placing it on the deck, I warned the girls that I was about to humanely kill the creature, to which Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy all shuffled back downstairs to avoid the event. The remaining three appeared to have a morbid curiosity as to how humans prepared once-living food, and watched me with unease as I withdrew Vitra ‘Aku and prepared to deliver the blow.

“O’ great bass of the sea, I hereby condemn you to die, for the greater good of my stomach.” I joked.

Other than lightly flopping its tail, the bass gave no response as I placed my blade behind its gills; at the sight of this, Rainbow Dash changed her mind and went downstairs.

“Anyone else?” I asked, issuing my last warning.

Twilight and AJ remained, and so I continued without hesitation. Firmly pushing and sliding the sword down, the fish’s head came clean off, with the body convulsing a few times out of nervous reflex.
Outstandingly, a small wisp of soul energy emitted from the creature and seeped into the sword.

“Whoa…” Twilight breathed, fascinated.

Applejack on the other hand, gulped.

“If you throw up on my fish, I’ll eat you instead.” I warned her.

Nodding, the farm pony quickly ran to the boat’s railings out of precaution, while Twilight watched me throw the head overboard and begin filleting the fish; while a crystal sword from another world was hardly an appropriate tool for such a task, the blade’s sharpness certainly did the job equally well.

“So which bits do you actually eat? Back in Brazil I recall you only eating the crocodile’s muscles, does that apply to all, uh, previously alive food sources?” Twilight queried.

“Yeah, the muscle is basically the only good bit to eat, unless you’re a bloody neanderthal.” I replied.

“Neander-what-now?”

“Don’t worry, it’s just that some people like to eat livers and such.”

“But that word, it’s awfully similar to Neighanderthal, which is a word fo-”

“Neighanderthal? Are you being serious?” I laughed, almost slipping with the blade.

I removed the first successful fillet, flipping the fish over to extract the other while Twilight explained to me that neighanderthals were ancient ponies from long before the days of Celestia and Luna, or even Champions for that matter. In turn, I explained to her that neanderthals were ancestral humans that lived millions of years ago, and had only just begun to use handheld tools, long before the days of metalwork and civilisation.

By the time we’d finished talking about the matter, both sides of the bass had been fully removed, along with the skin on the fillets, and thus they were ready for cooking.

“Rarity darling! I require cooking utensils!” I hollered.

“Yes dear!” She called back from within the boat.

While waiting for her to get the equipment and ingredients I needed, I cleaned up the fish blood on the deck and then dipped my hands in the sea water to give them a quick rinse, doing the same with Vitra ‘Aku before slotting it back into the void sheathe.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash emerged together with a portable grill, frying pan, and a small bag of spices between them; the pearly unicorn gave me a kind smile as I reached out to retrieve the instruments.

“Will this be all you need?” She inquired.

“That’s lovely, thanks. Don’t suppose you have any cooking oil?” I replied.

“Sunflower oil good enough?”

“That’ll do just fine! Oh, and a fork please.”

Dashing back down to retrieve the oil and fork, I set up the grill and was pleasantly surprised to find the pony equivalent of fire-starter blocks were runestones what would bleed some sort of magical liquid fire when activated, perfect for grills and campfires alike.

“They bleed for about half an hour before going out.” Twilight finished elaborating to me.

“That’s fine, these fillets will cook in about five minutes tops if the pan’s hot enough.” I replied.

Choosing to cut the fillets in half crosswise, resulting in four evenly sized chunks, I placed the runestone into the grill and allowed Rarity to activate it; cracking into multiple fragments, a vibrant array of flames emerged from the broken stone and lightly tickled the bottom of the pan. After applying the oil, I plonked the fillets onto the pan and they began to lightly sizzle.
Rainbow Dash and Applejack rejoined us to watch the meat cook, their curiosity returning.

“Is it safe to come out? Asking for a friend!” Pinkie giggled from the stairway.

“Yes Fluttershy, you’re all good.” I replied loudly, rolling my eyes.

Pinks hopped out to watch me cook, as did Fluttershy; soon enough everyone was yet again crowded around me to witness the activity. Opening the bag of spices, I decided simple was best, and went for the salt and just a touch of black pepper, the smell was already to die for, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“So, nopony judge me, but this actually smells kinda good.” Dashie admitted.

“Oh good, I wasn’t the only one.” Rarity nervously remarked.

After a moment’s thought and a hum to myself, I suggested that the girls could all try a small bite.

“Oh, um, I don’t know about actually trying it, it was still alive a few moments ago!” Rarity exclaimed.

“And wouldn’t it be like, really bad for our digestion?” Rainbow Dash quizzed.

“Can I have sugar on mine?” Pinkie requested.

“Pinkie!” Fluttershy yelped.

“Whaaat?”

“Look, it was only a suggestion, none of you have to try it,” I began, “but personally I don’t see the harm in just a tiny bit of fresh fish. For ponies that eat cakes, pies, and other processed foods, I can’t imagine your digestive system is actually that different from a human one.”

Twilight agreed, and being the most inquisitive creature in the multiverse, decided that she wanted to try some fried fish in the name of science; her vote swayed the majority, and soon enough everyone except Fluttershy were onboard with trying some.
Flipping over the four chunky fillets to cook the other side, I sliced one of them into five small cubes, not much bigger than a sugar cube; after a little bit of further sizzling, I took the pan off the flame and transferred the fish to one of the gold-rimmed plates that Rarity had stolen from the mansion.

“Right then, who’s first?” I asked eagerly, twiddling the fork.

“Well, as the expression goes, ladies first?” Rarity intreated, stepping forward.

Chuckling, I skewered the first cube and allowed her to levitate the fork out of my hand and pop the fish into her mouth without a moment’s hesitation; she recoiled in shock from the unfamiliar flavour but continued to chew and allow her tastebuds to adjust.

“Well? How is it?” I asked.

Swallowing the morsel and pursing her lips, the unicorn gave no indication as to whether she liked or disliked the flavour until she eventually clicked her tongue and stared at me intensely.

“Darling, I hold no shame in saying this, that was simply divine!”

She looked around at everyone and insisted that they give it a try, to which they did, and one by one the girls all ate their respective cubes.

“Gosh, I was not expecting that, but dang I like it!” Exclaimed Applejack.

“Holy shit, this is good, like really good.” Rainbow Dash munched.

“Needs sugar.” Pinkie chewed.

“Hm, I could definitely get used to it, but it’s a bit too salty for my taste.” Twilight hummed.

“In that case, don’t try giving head.” Rainbow Dash teased.

“Rainbow Dash!” I scolded.

Bursting into laughter, the pegasus narrowly escaped the fork that I almost stabbed her with, I scowled at her and finally began to eat the fish for myself, and damn it was good.

“Sure you don’t want a little bit, Flutters?” I asked.

“I’m sure it tastes lovely, but it just doesn’t sit right with me.” She replied, standing her ground.

Wholeheartedly respecting her decision, I finished the fish and threw the plate overboard.

“Hey! I was saving that!” Rarity shouted.

“Firstly, you stole it, and secondly, it’s less washing up to do.” I retorted.

“I have magic, you imbecile, washing up everything, grill included, takes about twenty seconds at most!”

“Oops.” I giggled.

“I want that plate back, mister.”

“Look, if you want to jump into the open ocean to retrieve a stolen dinnerplate, be my guest.”

Rarity looked out to sea, clearly thought of sea monsters, and looked back at me with a scowl.

“When we make landfall, you’re stealing me another plate.”

“Yes, m’lady.”

With the food fiasco behind us, we packed away the fishing rod and now-clean cooking equipment (minus one plate), and decided to play Sorry-Not-Sorry until the night time.
The board game session was truly a blast, the hours went by like minutes, and soon enough the moon had replaced the sun in the sky, and everyone was growing tired.

“I’ll take first watch if you like?” Rainbow Dash offered.

“That’s awfully kind of you, thanks Dashie.” I replied.

After giving the pegasus a kiss on the cheek, I retired for the night along with the other girls, heading to the sleeping quarters where we had to make use of the one bunk bed the small boat provided. To combat the limited options, we had devised a rotating system where the last pony to take watch had the liberty of the top bunk, while two other ponies shared the bottom bunk.
Twilight and myself on the other hand, had created a makeshift bed on the floor using the boat’s cushions and blankets, we were always comfortable sharing the small space together, with a night-time cuddle seeming to efficiently help in reducing her night terrors (or Spookies, as we’d secretly dubbed them).

“Night ladies!” Rainbow Dash called from the living quarters.

“Night!” We all called back.

Rarity blew out the candle and we all began to drift off, until an ungodly stench began to drift around the room, everyone else could clearly smell it, with grunts and moans of discomfort resonating around and Twilight literally convulsing in an attempt to prevent coughing.

“Uh oh… Stinky!” Pinkie emitted.

“Right for fuck sake, who was it?” I groaned.

There was a long silence, before the culprit spoke up.

“Sorry y’all, that fish didn’t agree with me.”

“APPLEJACK!”

“I said I’m sorry!”

Hiding under the covers with Twilight until the smell dissipated, we eventually went off to sleep.
Until I was rudely awoken by the sound of crashing waves.

Chapter Six: The Wall

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Chapter Seven: Laughs and Legends

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Chapter Eight: A Fearful Encounter

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Chapter Nine: Far Out

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Chapter Ten: Sentiment and Soap Suds

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Chapter Eleven: A Mad Dash to Safety

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Chapter Twelve: Adults in America

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Chapter Thirteen: Firebird - Part One

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Chapter Fourteen: Firebird - Part Two

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Chapter Fifteen: Recruitment Drive

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Chapter Sixteen: A Frigid Burial

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Chapter Seventeen: Road Trip

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Chapter Eighteen: The Reunion

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Chapter Nineteen: It's About Time

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Chapter Twenty: For Future Reference

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Chapter Twenty-One: Man to Man

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Chapter Twenty-Two: The Night Terror

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Chapter Twenty-Three: A Waking Nightmare

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Chapter Twenty-Four: A Bumpy Ride on the Road to Recovery

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Chapter Twenty-Five: Dash Away

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Chapter Twenty-Six: Into the Unknown

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Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Lost World

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Chapter Twenty-Eight: Apocalypse Incarnate

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Chapter Twenty-Nine: Torn Apart

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Chapter Thirty: And Lo, the Dawn Breaks

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Epilogue: One and the Same

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> Author's Note: Plans for the Future

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Chapter Two: A Means of Locomotion

"For the sixth time, we cannot control her, if she wants to do this, then we must let her go!”

“It’s not happening, we are a unit, we stick together!”

“She deserves to see her dad, Twilight!” Applejack shouted back.

For the past few minutes, the girls had been arguing over Rainbow Dash’s request, while I’d sat back and listened to their opinions in attempt to gauge which would be the best decision.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, Callum. What’s your take on this absurdity?”

Raising an eyebrow at Twilight, I finally gave my tuppence-worth to the debate.

“I’d hardly call this an absurdity, Twilight. Rainbow Dash has a very valid reason for leaving, there is no doubt about that. What matters overall is the entire group’s safety, along with the efficiency of gathering the orb shards. So long as both of those standards are being met, there’s no reason Rainbow Dash can’t leave.”

“But-” Twilight tried to speak, but I continued.

“However, there’s no possible way we can guarantee Rainbow Dash’s safety if she’s all alone, so I can’t in my good conscience allow her to head off without any way to contact us.”

“Congratulations, you’ve just talked yourself into a circle, without coming to a conclusion.”

“I’m just vocalising my thoughts on the matter, Twilight!”

“Will you all just shut the fuck up!?” Rainbow Dash screamed.

Everyone whipped around to find Dashie stood nearby, her teeth gritted and her wing feathers ruffled with frustration; she stomped forward and butted Applejack out of the way in order to stand in the middle of the group.

“This decision doesn’t belong to you, any of you!”

“Wrong! You belong to this company, Rainbow Dash, and are bound to it until you have upheld your duty, just like the rest of us!” Twilight barked in response.

“He’s my dad, and I’m going to see him, I have to, I have to!”

The arguing continued, and I could tell that is wasn’t going to come to any conclusion any time soon; as predicted, the decision came to me (despite Rainbow’s statement). Thankfully, an idea had come to me during the girls’ bickering.
Grabbing Vitra ‘Aku’s handle, I twisted the blade slightly while ripping it upwards, causing its ordinary crystalline song to be amplified tenfold, the high-pitched resonance clearly affected the ponies more than I, as their large equine ears flattened down and their bickering ceased. Not only did the noise silence them, but the mere act of drawing my sword and drenching them in its blue glow was enough to firmly grasp their attention.

“Thank you…” I sighed.

Throwing the blade into the ground, I was impressed how deep it lodged itself into the turf, its sharpness was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“Now, I believe there might be a compromise here, but it comes down to where the next shard lies. Sadly, due to losing my phone back in Portugal, we can’t use a GPS to find it, but this sword is made from the same material as the orb, so I have reason to believe that I can use it to point us in the right direction at least. Once we know where we’re going next, we can see where Rainbow Dash would need to go in conjunction to that. Personally, I think she has every right to see her dad, and I am in support of that, but I want to be in a close enough proximity to aid her should any emergency come about.”

Exhaling, I looked around to find the girls in agreement, Dashie included.

“So, how do we pinpoint the next shard exactly?” Twilight asked.

I pointed to Rarity and tilted my head slightly.

“Remember how you enchanted my phone in Brazil?”

Responding with a concerned ‘mhmm’, Rarity let me continue.

“I’d like you to cast the same enchantment, on Vitra ‘Aku.”

“Hm, I can try darling, but I doubt my magic is strong enough to bind the enchantment to such a powerful item, there’s no way it would be permanent.”

“That’s just it, I don’t need it to be permanent. I’ll hold the sword in hand and attempt to harness your spell, you’re essentially casting the enchantment on me, via the sword.” I explained.

“There’s no way that would work, you’re human, you can’t harness magic.” Twilight chimed in.

“No, I can’t, not via flesh anyway. But when I fought Stardust within the memory of the Titans, I seemed to have a way to channel a spell’s energy somehow. The old bastard was fond of lightning attacks, and shocked me a few times, but with the sword in hand, I could somewhat absorb the spell and cast it back at him.”

“What!? That’s incredible! Why haven’t you mentioned that sooner?” The unicorn demanded.

Shrugging, I simply stated that it hadn’t come into conversation yet, until now of course.
With everyone now on the same page, we went ahead with the plan and Rarity prepared the enchantment, while I firmly grasped the blade’s handle and waited with anticipation.

“Are you sure about this, darling?”

“Go for it, love.”

Nodding, her horn lit up brightly, and the spell was cast onto the sword; the blue crystal began to glow brightly in response, and I soon felt a warmth around my fingertips, it was working.

“You alright, Cal?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah, I’m feeling something, nothing significant yet, just a warmth… No, wait!”

The girls gasped and leaned in closer with worry, while the warmth became a sharp tingling pain, akin to pins and needles; the sensation travelled up my arm and into my chest, and upwards towards my head.

“It’s working, I think… Feels weird though… It’s travelling from my hand up to my head…”

The sensation was getting stronger, it was pretty painful, the human body was definitely not compliant with magic, I’d need to train my body to handle it better.

“Drop the sword, you’re hurting yourself!” Rarity ordered, panicked.

“Callum, stop, this could harm you!” Fluttershy added.

“It’s fine, I’ve got this… I just… AAH!” I yelped as my vision went white.

“Callum! Callum! What do you see?” Twilight called out.

Her voice seemed faded, as the spell seemed to numb my physical senses, (well, other than the pins and needles that now consumed my whole body).

“Nothing, it’s just white!” I called back.

Finally, my sight returned, but I wasn’t with the girls.

“I’m flying, really high up… I’m in space!” I breathed, astounded.

And what a view it was…
I could see the whole globe, above me was the beautiful terror that was the endless void of space, and below me was the ball of dirt and water that I called my home. The view couldn’t be appreciated for long, as I began to hurtle down towards the mass with great speed.

{Where are we going?} I thought.

I seemed to be headed east, far east.

{Somewhere in Asia?}

Nope, I was flying south now; the wind in my ears was deafening, yet it didn’t take from the sheer brilliance of this experience, the spell had quite literally taken my soul away to see the world.

“What are you seeing now?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’m gliding across the planet, I think we’re going southeast, Australia maybe?”

Wrong again, as I streaked across the sky like a missile, the notorious country of deadly animals faded into the distance, there was only one more option it seemed, New Zealand.

“No, it’s not Australia, so it’s got to be New Ze… Wait… What!?” I exclaimed.

Just like every country I’d passed, New Zealand soon went out of sight, I was simply gliding across the open sea, now lost and confused, although it seemed like I was heading slightly further north.

“Where in the blazes are we going?” I muttered.

Eventually, my flight slowed down, and an island appeared in the distance, this had to be it.

“I’m seeing an island, just approaching it now.” I informed the girls.

As I came up to the landmass, I found that it was pretty much barren, there was nothing but a few palm trees and a small mountain in the northern region; closing in on the mountain, I grew closer and closer to the ground, there was no doubt about it, the shard was on this island somewhere on the South Pacific Ocean, roughly between New Zealand and the Americas.

“What’s happening now?”

“I’m heading towards a mountain, I think I can see a cave embedded in the side of it.”

Just as I mentioned the cave, I began soaring towards it, it didn’t take long to reach the opening; my flight becoming more of a slow float, I drifted into the mouth and everything grew dark.
And from the darkness, a pair of bright yellow eyes blinked at me.

“Uh, what is that…?”

Without warning, the creature lunged at me, and I was greeted with rows of sharp teeth.

“Jesus fuck!” I yelped, stumbling back.

Dropping the sword, the enchantment broke away and the vision faded from my mind; I fell onto my arse and shook my head, feeling dizzy and shocked. The girls crowded around me and Pinkie Pie took the liberty of jumping onto me.

“Big scary lizard!” She screamed.

Gently pushing her off and getting up, I shook my head and picked up the sword, sheathing it and dusting myself down; Twilight came forth and grabbed my arm, desperate for the knowledge of my vision.

“What happened? What did you see?”

“What she said.” I grumbled, pointing to Pinkie.

“A lizard?”

Nodding, my response was that of a distracted grumble, my attention more on thought than on Twilight.

“I think so, some creature with yellow eyes and sharp teeth. The orb shard’s definitely there though, getting to it is going to be an absolute nightmare though, I’m not sure how we’re going to get there without magic.”

“Why? Where is it?”

“On the other side of the planet.”

“Dear sweet Celestia…” Rarity mumbled.

“How does this play into me seeing my dad?” Rainbow inquired.

Breathing deeply in through my nose, and then out with my mouth, I assembled a plan within my mind for the road ahead, and soon settled on something I considered the best option.

“If we head west until we get to Morocco, we can travel to America by sea somehow, and when we get there, you can search for your father. After that, we’ll find a way southwest to Hawaii, where we’ll have to travel by sea again down south, until we find the island.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Stated Applejack with confidence.

“Pony party world tour, yay!” Pinkie sang.

“Is this the best route?”

Nodding at Twilight with little confidence, I knelt down and sighed, planting a palm against my forehead; they needed to hear the real gist of this plan.

“Guys, this isn’t going to be a fortnight gallivant, this is going to be a bloody long journey, it could take months just to get as far as Morocco, let alone the states. We don’t have long range teleportation on our side, so we absolutely need to find a vehicle, a decent one at that. Otherwise we’re not getting to the next shard for at least a year, and that’s being generous.”

“Jeez…” Dashie muttered.

“So, what’s the game plan?” Twilight asked.

“I think you should stay here, continue resting up, while I search for the nearest settlement, and hope I can find a car or something. Then I’ll come and pick you up, and we head off with haste.”

“You’ll need a scout, someone to fly above and spot for you.” Said Rainbow, stepping forward.

Shaking my head, I told her that the main threat would be people armed with guns, a single bullet could take her out the sky, and I wasn’t going to run that risk.

I had a better idea, however.

“Rarity, come here.”

Nervously stepping forward, the snow-white mare looked up, awaiting my command.

“In Brazil, you saved my life once. You drove a knife into Vladimir’s back with the intent to kill him, it was thanks to that dedication that we got out of there alive.”

The reminder of the event seemed not to faze her, which is exactly what I’d hoped for.

“Would you show that dedication again, at a moment’s notice?”

Gulping, she nodded.

“I’ve come a long way, darling. Whatever route we have to take, I intend to see this through.”

“Good, because you’re coming with me.”

“What!?” Growled Rainbow.

Before the pegasus could argue, I explained that Rarity’s magic on the ground was what I needed, and that if she wanted to get out of here and see her father, she would need to follow my lead. Aside from swearing under her breath, she accepted my decision.

“Rarity, while I’m a decent shot, I’m confident you would be far more efficient with the rifle Hawnu Rey’eng gave me. Your lifetime in fashion has given you extreme visual accuracy and flawless coordination, you could thread a needle with your eyes closed. With that, I’d like to make you our marksman.”

“Um, d-darling, I’m not sure… I’ve never handled a firearm, I don’t even know how they work!”

“That’s why I’m going to teach you before we head out. Look, I can’t do this on my own and I need someone who can cover my arse in a firefight. Can you do that for me, Rare?” I insisted, placing a hand on her shoulder.

After a brief silence, she nodded, prepared for the challenge.

“Right, let’s get our shit together, practice for a bit, and then get moving.” I declared.

The group dispersed to help gather our supplies, while I took Rarity to the more open part of the underground temple to practice wielding a gun.

“Now, you don’t want the scope too close to your eye. Even with this thing’s good recoil, it jumps back, so you need to hold it an inch or two forward to prevent blinding yourself.”

We had gone over all the basics, the safety, the two fire modes, how guns actually work in general, all that sort of thing; all Rarity had to do now, was fire it.

“Unless you’ve got a bloody good duplication spell, these are all the bullets we have, so I’m only going to say we shoot it once to preserve ammo. So let’s hope you’re a bloody natural.”

Chuckling nervously, Rarity levitated the gun with her telekinesis and aimed for a coconut on one of the trees; breathing steadily and remembering all I’d taught her, she distributed some of her magic to slowly pull the trigger.

BANG!

The bullet struck true, obliterating the coconut and spraying its milk all over the ground. Catching the rifle from a startled Rarity, I cheered with pride.

“Bloody good shot, madam! Bloody good shot!”

“That was… Incredible!” She exclaimed.

“I knew you’d be a natural, you stayed perfectly calm and kept your eye on the target.” I praised.

“I just kept thinking to myself, thread the needle, thread the needle…”

“Well you damn well threaded it alright.”

Tightening the shoulder strap to suit Rarity’s size, I returned the rifle to its new rightful owner.

“You can keep this, marksman.”

Happy with her new title, and confident in her natural talent, Rarity confirmed that she was prepared for the journey upward and out into the open desert; we joined the others to say our farewells and receive wishes of good luck, and also to receive some necessary supplies.

“Seeing as we’ve got an endless supply of water here, it only makes sense for you to carry all the water bottles, you’ll need it out there.” Said Applejack, passing my bag to me.

“Cheers.”

“And as you’re insufferable without it, here’s your umbrella.” Twilight teased, giving the brolly to Rarity.

Rolling her eyes with playful annoyance, Rarity put it into her bag, while also equipping the saddle mount so she was prepared to wear the umbrella when needed.

“How are you going to find us on your way back?” Rainbow mentioned.

“Shit, I hadn’t thought of that…” I muttered.

“Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!” Pinkie Pie emitted loudly.

Unnecessarily launching herself towards me, she jammed a hoof into her mane and rummaged around, before unveiling what appeared to be a rocket of some sort.

{Jeez, Pinkie! How long has that thing been stored in there? A better question being, how was that thing stored in there!?} I thought with surprise.

“Um… Pinks… What is that?” I asked.

“It’s a flarework!”

“A what?”

“It’s a mix of a flare and a firework, it shoots up super bright, and then explodes into a whole rainbow, you can see it from miles away!” She gleefully sang.

“I’m not even going to ask how you have this, but good job Pinkie.”

My praise caused her to curl into a ball and roll around like a marble, I looked to the others and raised an eyebrow, which caused some chuckles here and there.

“Be sure to drink before leaving, a head start will do you good.” Applejack encouraged.

“But not too much!” Twilight butted in, “Or you’ll need to pee and dehydrate yourself!”

Reminding the lavender unicorn that I wasn’t an infant, I took a drink alongside Rarity and then received our final send-off, being escorted to the surface to face the heat once again…

“Huh, it’s not as bad as I remember.” I murmured.

“That’s because you’re well hydrated and more prepared, trust me, it’ll get worse if we spend too long out here. Let’s try to get a move on.” Rarity replied, adjusting the rifle onto her back.

Nodding in agreement, I marched forward with her up the sand dune from whence we once came, hoping to find some sort of landmark to help distinguish where we were.

“Right, look over there, see that canyon?”

“What about it, darling?”

“That’s the only thing that stands out around here, I suggest we head through it and use it as a marker for when we come back this way. I’m not sure how effective Pinkie’s flarework is going to be and I don’t want to miss it.” I explained.

“Sounds like a plan!” She agreed.

As we made our way down the dune and towards the canyon, Twilight’s voice resonated within my mind.

{How’s it going up there?}

{Not burning to death so far, we’re just heading towards a particular landmark so we can retrace our steps at a later date. I’ll keep you up to speed.} I replied.

{Good to know, stay safe!}

Choosing to not reply, I focused on the trek ahead and quietly trudged along with Rarity.

“Finally, some shade! I very almost got out my umbrella!”

“Don’t get used to it, I highly doubt we’re going to magically find a fully functional car with a full tank around the corner, might be a day or so until we find something.”

Replying with an exasperated grumble, we trundled deeper into the sandy valley.

“Say Rare, do you have any sort of marking spells? Like some magic spray paint or something we could use just to ensure we know we’re in the right place upon our return?”

My inquiry only bore a single fruit, as Rarity explained that the best thing she could do was use her gem locating spell to trace some sort of ‘breadcrumb trail’. The only issue was that we had no gemstones, nor breadcrumbs to trace.

“Unless… We did…” I murmured.

“What ever do you mean?”

“The sword podium back at the temple. It shattered into a huge pile of dust, we could head back and collect it, and then sprinkle really small deposits as we go. The sand should conceal it too, so it’ll essentially become a trail that only we could follow.” I elaborated.

“Good plan, I like it.”

“As it’s only a couple miles away, do you think you could teleport back real quick and get it?”

“Ugh, fine, but I can’t teleport multiple times like Twilight could. I’ve only got enough mana for a single trip, even for short distances, then I have to wait a couple of hours to recharge.”

Confirming that was fine, I told her to find me further down the canyon, as I’d continue exploring it while waiting for her. Nodding, the unicorn lit up her horn and charged up the spell, before flashing brightly and disappearing.

“Well… That’s that I suppose.” I mumbled.

It was annoying that I hadn’t thought of the idea prior to leaving, but it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience. Taking a sip of water, I marched on further down the canyon.

For about half an hour, my lonely wander had been utterly silent, with nothing but the wind whistling above to be heard; that was until a rather disgruntled Twilight telepathically made herself known.

{Gee, Callum, well thanks for running that plan by me, Rarity just teleported a few metres away and scared the crap out of us! Rainbow Dash nearly tackled her to the ground!}

{Oops.} I thought back sheepishly.

{Why didn’t you just take the dust before leaving?}

{Because I only just thought of it, you twat!}

{You do realise she can’t teleport back for another few hours now?}

{Yes, Twilight, we’ve gone over that. I’m just exploring this canyon and going no further, you know I’m not a complete imbecile, right?}

{That’s a matter of debate.}

{Be wary with thy tone, you insult thy Champion.}

There was a pause, and Twilight then promptly and sincerely apologised, to which I emitted a light chuckle; this whole ‘Titan’s Champion’ malarkey would very much play in my favour. With the subject now in mind, I thought I’d get more used to the sword and try some fight stances, while I’d proved a decent combatant over my time as the ponies’ guardian, there was no harm in some solo training.

“I’m never going to grow tired of that noise…” I murmured upon drawing the blade.

Playfully swaying Vitra ‘Aku around, I found that it continued to sing with faint ethereal whooshes when swinging with enough force, as the air rebounded off the asymmetrical body of the weapon. After spending a short while amusing myself with this aesthetic, I took to my old boxing stance and altered it for swordplay; from there, I did something I would do as a child, fight imaginary enemies.
Now, there was certainly a difference between wielding a large wooden stick and wielding an ancient sword of immense power, but there was no difference in the slightest when it came to leaping around slicing at thin air. Regardless, I tried to take myself seriously as I tried my best to envision various weapons coming towards me and react accordingly. My vivid imagination grew more and more precise as the empty canyon soon transformed into a treacherous valley of death, in which no mortal man has traversed; I was to be the first, and charged through enemy by enemy with relentless determination.

While having tremendous amounts of fun, my imaginary conquest came to a halt upon delivering a killing blow to an axe wielding orc; I’d become so engrossed with my training that I completely ignored the boulder, as my blade went straight into it, slicing completely though it and leaving an enormous gash.

“Whoa…”

{Yo, Twilight, you’ll never guess what.}

{What?}

{I’ve been training with Vitra ‘Aku for a while, and just sliced open a boulder, it went straight though like it was made of butter or something!} I exclaimed.

{Wow, that’s incredible! Goodness, I thought its sharpness was a mere legend.}

{What do the legends say?} I asked.

{Well, the books I’ve read all say the same sentence. Vitra ‘Aku was sharp enough to cleave through flesh and stone alike, a shield of metal is met like a disk of parchment, and a mountain is all but a carving block.}

{Huh, that’s pretty damn sharp then. Does it never dull?}

{Well, it has clearly maintained its sharpness after all these thousands of years, so don’t you think the answer to that is a little self-explanatory?}

{Hm, true that.}

{Well, have fun training, I’m currently working things over with Dash about her past, I’m trying to learn more about her life in America. It’s still a bit foggy, so I’m trying to find certain buzzwords that’ll trigger another memory.}

“Hm.” I hummed to myself.

It was ironic how I was more alone when speaking aloud than when thinking, come to think of it, I hadn’t had any actual privacy since Brazil, what with Stardust stuck in my head, and now Twilight via the collar. Over time I’d lost the appreciation for a moment of true isolation, and the realisation of that was quite a mood killer.

“C’mon, depression, not now…” I groaned as the dark mood came over me.

Trying my best to shrug off the sudden wave of lethargy and dullness, I quietly trudged further down the canyon, my pace much slower.

Quite some time had passed by, although I’d not kept track of how much exactly. The ground had very slowly begun to slope upward, it wouldn’t be long until I reached the exit and back into the desert. Pausing to rest my legs for a moment, I heard the clanking of metal up ahead.

“Finally, something interesting.”

Keeping my blade sheathed as not to draw attention to its bright azure glow, I crept along one side of the gorge until locating the source of the noise. Soon enough I encountered three men huddled around a few wooden crates, two of them were in possession of assault rifles and the third had a bill hook machete; what they were doing out here was unknown, but they were an obstacle regardless.

“I’ve played enough stealth games to handle this…”

My whispered statement, while satirical, would indeed be my strategy; picking up a rock, I through it to the opposing side of the canyon, drawing their attention to my direction.

“Madha kan hdha?” One of them spoke roughly.

“Sawf 'ulqi nazra.” Another replied.

While I didn’t understand their language, as it was most likely Arabic, I could tell from their body language that they weren’t so much alarmed, but rather curious. One of them instigated a mild investigation, casually strolling over by himself to check out the noise; thankfully, I had a cluster of rocks to hide behind so I could bait him further away. Tossing another rock back to where I’d come from, he quickly picked up on the sound and wandered out of sight from his compatriots.

{Let’s take you out nice and quietly, so nobody gets alarmed.}

{What!?}

{Ugh, nothing Twilight, not right now, I’m busy.}

{Enemies?}

{Yeah, three of them, I’m just engaging the first, so let me focus, I’ll get back to you.}

{Right, okay, good luck, and please don’t die.}

{Duly noted.}

I knew I didn’t have time to wait about, as he could turn around at any moment, so I scuttled out of my hiding place and towards him with haste, slowly lifting Vitra ‘Aku out of its sheath while being sure to make as a little noise as possible; while it made a faint squeal, it wasn’t enough to catch his ear.
While edging towards him, I had the wonderfully unpleasant conundrum of deciding how to kill him without causing him to cry out and alert the others; going for the throat was the obvious option, but I had to strike from directly behind to prevent any chance of him spotting me.

{With a blade this sharp, I could just lop his head off…} I thought.

{Okay, that’s sickening.} Remarked a disgusted Twilight.

{Still sure I’m not a psychopath?}

{Yes I’m still sure, just get it over with.}

Rolling my eyes, I cast my thoughts aside and crept up behind the man, delivering a cunning stab deep into the back of his neck, driving it all the way through in order to sever his spinal cord, windpipe, and major arteries all in one fell swoop; needless to say, he instantly dropped to the ground without making a sound, besides some post-death gurgling.
What happened next was truly marvellous, akin to my killing of Stardust, wisps of blue energy seeped out of the man’s fatal wound and into the dark sphere within the sword’s hilt.

His soul had been absorbed.

“Damn…” I murmured.

The transpiration that followed caused me to yelp like a girl, as the other armed individual spotted me and then promptly opened fire, he must have grown curious at his associate’s absence and followed him. Dropping to the ground, I grabbed the dead man’s corpse to use as a meat shield, pulling him on top of me; his gun was only slightly out of reach, more bullets smacked into the rocks around me and into the body, making blood burst in all directions. The shooting stopped, presumably for the assailant to reload; taking the opportunity to grab the rifle, I cast the body aside and darted towards the gun, grabbing it and aiming towards my foe. That’s when I realised he wasn’t reloading, he had baited me; before I could pull the trigger, my body was met with the searing agony of three bullets as he sprayed the last of his magazine in my direction, two bullets had skimmed my thigh and waist, while the third struck true, making contact with my outer right collar bone and shattering it; the sheer force of the impact brought me to the ground.

“Fuuuck!” I spat, growling deeply in agony.

“Laqad darabtah!” The gunman shouted.

Picking up the rifle once more with my left hand, I swung the weapon to face his general direction and held down the trigger, emptying the cartridge at him; the recoil alone almost broke my wrist, certainly spraining it, but I was lucky enough to catch him with a single bullet, hitting his knee and bringing him down to a similar state I was in.

“Abn aleahira!” He screamed, evidentially having a much weaker pain tolerance than I.

Dropping the gun and weakly getting to my feet, I gawked at the golf-ball-sized hole in my upper torso and groaned as I saw fragments of shattered bone amongst the flesh and blood.

“I hate guns…”

Withdrawing Vitra ‘Aku with my left hand, I closed my eyes and squeezed the handle tightly, mentally commanding the blade to heal me. Amazingly, the sheer act of willing the relic to do my bidding was all it took, as the cooling sensation of pure mana seeped into my body, blurring and whitening my vision as the substance flooded throughout my entire being and overstimulated my senses; the coldness then spread to my most severe injury, almost instantly undoing the damage that had been done.
My vision returned to normal and the sensation faded, leaving my collar practically good as new, with only a minor rip in the skin from where the consumed soul wasn’t large enough to completely heal me.

“Huh…” I murmured.

Before I could properly take in the spectacle which had just occurred, I heard footsteps rapidly approaching me; whipping around, I found the last remaining enemy rapidly advancing towards me, his hooked blade held up above his head and ready to strike me down. Although I had raised my sword in preparation to engage him, no further combat took place as a bullet whizzed past my head and struck him in the left hand, completely obliterating it and causing his fingers to promptly depart in all directions. Screaming in agony, the man instantly dropped the blade and grasped his bloody and mangled stump of a wrist, completely forgetting my presence.

“Did I get him, darling?” Rarity called from afar.

Slicing upward into the man, I quickly ended him and took his soul in the process. I then turned back to whence I’d been and quickly spotted the pearly-white unicorn trotting towards me, the piercing shot rifle floating beside her.

“You nearly took my bloody head off!” I hollered playfully.

“I was aiming for his hand!” She responded sheepishly.

“That’s exactly what you hit, but you almost blew my head up!”

“Oh, so I did get him?”

“Ugh, yes! Now stop shouting and get over here!” I commanded.

Turning away from her, I used the newly absorbed soul to finish healing and then proceeded to hunt down the gunman, who had attempted to crawl away.

“You know it’s easier to escape when you’re not leaving a trail of blood, right?” I asked, reaching him.

“La taqtalni…” He whimpered.

“Sorry mate, I don’t speak your tongue, and even if I did, I most likely wouldn’t give a shit.” I spoke dryly.

Planting Vitra ‘Aku into his thorax and twisting the blade, his dying cry softened and then stopped altogether, and my third soul was claimed, which I chose to store within the sword for another time. Rarity finally emerged from around the corner and stopped beside me, momentarily glancing at the body and grimacing.

“Ghastly business.”

“Quite.” I replied, wiping the blood from my blade.

Sighing, Rarity released her telekinesis and the rifle happily dangled in its harness, which was now tightened to better fit her equine body.

“I think it’s safe to say I’m comfortable using this weapon, it’s amazing how simple it is.”

“Glad you like it, I however am definitely sticking to the sword, it just saved my life.” I hummed.

“What do you mean?”

“I got shot right before you turned up, took a bullet to the collar bone and was bleeding pretty badly, but I used the sword to absorb a soul from one of these blokes to heal it up!”

“Goodness, that’s insane!”

“Yeah, utterly mental.”

“So, what now?”

Humming in thought, I went to inspect the weapon crates and found them to be full of guns, ammunition and rocket propelled grenades, along with various wires and metal parts.

“An arms deal perhaps?” I murmured to myself.

“What was that, darling?”

“I’m thinking these three were about to initiate an arms deal or something, perhaps more people will show up soon to collect this stuff, and we can ambush them. Who knows, they might have a vehicle.”

“Well, if you think that’s for the best, I’m in no hurry to get back into that scorching desert, let’s stay put and hope you’re right.” She agreed.

Opening up the crates again, I took one of the rocket propelled grenades, along with a launcher, sometimes going loud was best. Rarity and I hid the bodies and relocated some rocks to make bunkers either side of the canyon to use as cover. From there, we simply had to play the waiting game…

Soon enough, after nearly two hours of waiting, our patience had paid off as we heard the rumble of an engine in the distance, possibly two engines by the sounds of it.

“Well, talk about perfect.” Rarity whispered over to me.

“Heh, too right.” I chuckled back, loading the grenade into my launcher.

The transport came into sight, not one, but two Land Rover Defenders, not too dissimilar from my brother’s one back in England, a true all-terrain jeep, capable of just about anything; it was the perfect vehicle for us.

The first jeep pulled up beside all the crates, presumably to be loaded up; this theory was confirmed by the rear jeep slowing down and coming to a halt much further back, with men clambering out of the back.

“Don’t damage the vehicles.” I ordered before they were in earshot.

“Well, duh!” Hissed Rarity in response, rolling her eyes.

Focusing on the group of men, I counted eight of them, all of them armed with smaller assault rifles than the first men I’d killed, (I presumed they were the AK-Seventy-Four-u variant). Rarity slowly raised her own rifle, I couldn’t help but smirk at the determination on her face, she showed no fear, only readiness and commitment to our cause.

It became quite clear that something was wrong, the men were on high alert and had their weapons drawn, most likely due to their dealers being missing, but there was no way I could have taken their place in disguise as I couldn’t speak a word of Arabic, opposed to the infamous ‘Allahu ackbar’ aphorism. Still, the men continued their operation and approached the boxes, opening them up and nodding to one another, a few of them chuckling menacingly in response to their new arsenal.

“Aintazar, 'urid aikhtibarah awlaan.” One of them spoke, presumably the leader.

Picking up a rocket launcher and one of the grenades, I assumed he was testing out the merchandise, the only alarming thing was that he was now aiming the launcher in my direction; remaining calm, I awaited his next move and gave Rarity a signal to hold her fire.

That’s when the most unanticipated thing happened, the man simply detonated on the spot, sending sparks and scorching shrapnel in all directions, hitting the crates and setting off a chain reaction as the whole lot exploded. Three additional men were killed in the blast and the entire right front of the Land Rover was obliterated, both of the front tyres also being punctured from the shrapnel.
Needless to say, the remaining men instantly retreated in fear, sprinting to their other jeep in attempt to turn it around and drive away, I broke from my cover and tried to reach them.

“Shoot the driver! Don’t let them get away!”

Rarity did her best to keep up, but by the time she’d moved around the burning crates and lined up a shot, the men were already driving away at top speed and there was no hope in hitting the driver, let alone without possibly damaging the jeep.

“Drat.”

“Drat indeed.” I sighed.

“What in the name of Celestia just happened?”

There was only one thing that came to mind, the ammunition was spiced.
Spicing ammunition was an unorthodox tactic of warfare, in which certain batches of supplies were sabotaged by their own creators and intentionally left in compromising locations for enemies to steal; guns would almost always jam, explosives would go off early, and artillery would always fall short of its destination. While many people didn’t know this type of military tactic still existed in the modern world, my childhood fascination with the military had brought me to unearth many interesting facts.

“My best bet is that this batch of weaponry was spiced, this whole ordeal was a trap. Can you put out that fire? There’s still unburnt fuel in that Land Rover and I’d like to save it.”

Nodding, Rarity summoned some sort of thick mist around the flickering flames, dousing them into submission; the vehicle itself was in no hope of repair, but if we could track down the other Defender, we’d have another load of fuel to get us further.

“I presume we’re going after the other one?”

“Read my mind, Rare.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I went back for the podium dust then.”

Responding with a light huff, I took one of the AK-Seventy-Fours and the magazines from the bodies.

“I thought you wanted to use the sword?” Rarity teased.

“Well yeah, but not for long range combat, you numpty!”

Laughing, the both of us left the canyon side by side, pursuing the tyre tracks across the sun scorched sands of the desolate Sahara…