Depressed in Equis

by Jason Monroe

Rating: mature
Tags: Suicide / Self Harm, Tragedy, Profanity, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Sad, Main 6, Nightmare Moon, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Non-consensual
Length: 8980

A man with depression that lives simply for the sake of living appears in Equestria on the planet Equis. Can the land's colorful inhabitants help him find value in his life or will he continue to be apathetic when it comes to himself?

Joseph Swafford is a 6'2", 144 pound 17 year old with glasses, a scraggly dark brown beard and messy, neck-length dark brown hair. He suffers from ADHD, OCD, Aspergers, social anxiety and he has a vitamin D deficiency though he never lets it get to him. He plays video games, watches YouTube videos, occasionally streams on Twitch, goes to school and writes poetry and fanfiction. His life is okay, though he doesn't truly care anymore as he suffers from depression. It has stayed with him for three years and, while he has gotten past the self harm and suicidal thoughts, he no longer sees value in his life, only living for the sake of living as he refuses to commit suicide. He is in a permanent state of apathy towards himself and will go as far as to even give up his own life for the lives of others, saying that they're worth more than him. When he suddenly gets transported to Equestria on the planet Equis, can the colorful inhabitants of the land help him find value in life or will he continue to live carelessly and throw his life away?

The main character is based on me and because of the subject of the story I don't expect it to do well, but I wanted to make it since it was an idea that I didn't want to forget about and I thought that it might be appreciated by some, even if it was poorly received by most. After all I purposely based the character off of myself so that they would be more relatable.

Published 2020-01-23 12:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2020-04-06 06:13:07 UTC

Prologue(edited)

Author's Note

The main character is based off of me IRL. In order to maintain secrecy some things may or may not be changed from real life. This story was just a spur of the moment idea that I didn't want to lose. It might end prematurely, though I hope I can keep it alive instead of having it die off.

Prologue(edited)

Depression is a hard thing to deal with. No I’m not saying that because of the sadness or the lack of self worth or the self-harm and suicidal thoughts. I’m saying that because if someone gets past the self-harm and suicidal thoughts without getting rid of their depression, they eventually spiral down into a constant state of apathy. Eventually they start subconsciously changing their eating habits by either eating more or less every single day. As this is happening they’ll start sleeping more and more; refusing to get out of bed until they don't have any other choice. They’ll also stop caring about how they look entirely and think that it wouldn't matter if they died or not.

These are the people that go through depression for years but refuse to commit suicide. These people all have their reasons for not doing it, but mine was the fact that I saw it as the easy way out. It wasn't until someone rear-ended my school bus that I gained a greater appreciation for life, though at that point in time I had already succumbed to apathy. Why am I telling you all this? Well, I guess it’s to better explain myself before I tell you the story of how I ended up in one of the happiest places in the Multiverse and how everything the inhabitants knew was changed by my views on everything.

354 Altin Fridge Loop Davenport, Florida: January 22nd, 2020

I sat in my room working on my online class so I could graduate this year. I sighed before switching over to a google docs tab and working on one of my fanfictions so I would have plenty to give to my readers when I came back from break. I hated going on break after having taken at least a month to publish a new chapter for both of my stories. I felt like I was cheating them out of more chapters just because I wanted to have more free time, so I asked them to comment if they wanted another story and gave them four options. I thought that wasn't good enough so I started making a stockpile of chapters that I could publish after my break as a sort of apology.

It was definitely difficult since I wanted to get as much correct as I possibly could, but I had stopped watching My Little Pony Friendship is Magic at one point because I didn't have a phone or a computer to watch it on and my father monopolized the T.V. This meant that I had to constantly do research on it which got increasingly difficult as pages on certain characters had links to pages on other things which in turn had links to other characters. I could've said fuck it and just ignored the preexisting story, which I did occasionally, but I wanted to give readers something that they could truly enjoy and feel that effort was put into it just by reading it.

As I sat there typing I yawned before looking at the time and noticing that it was only five in the afternoon. I shrugged and saved what I had before logging out of my computer and taking a small nap so I could wake up with an hour or two for me to sit there and think after I woke up. I hadn’t known what was going to happen when I woke up, though saying that I was unprepared would be wrong.

“....think….princess….waking up.” I heard as I groaned before opening my eyes and sitting up to see something that I never thought I would actually see. I was in a hospital. Though the shocking thing was what was in front of me. Standing just past the foot of the bed that I barely fit in were six ponies that I knew as the Main Six. Internally my mind was screaming in excitement since I was in a situation I had always dreamed of being in. Externally I just looked around the room with a neutral look on my face.

'This is rather interesting. I guess miracles can happen if you're lucky enough. That or some divine being finally realized that they owed me big time for all of the shit they put me through.' Were my thoughts as I looked around before I finally focused on the ponies in the room.

“Huh. So the multiverse is real. Cool. Would you six mind telling me why I’m in this hospital? If you do then that’s fine. I’m just curious about how I got to Equestria and if I’m here then I was either hurt upon my arrival or you just brought me here because you didn’t know what to do with the strange six foot two, one hundred and forty-four pound creature that most likely appeared out of nowhere. Though I guess there is the possibility of a spell gone wrong, but that would be too cliche.” I said leaving all but two of them with shocked expressions on their faces. The two that weren’t shocked were Twilight and Pinkie Pie, both of which had excited looks on their faces. Pinkie, unsurprisingly, just let out a huge gasp before running off while Twilight pulled a quill and a notepad out of nowhere.

“I have so many questions! What are you? Do you have a name? What do you eat? Why do you where such strange clothing? How old are you? Why do you only have hair on your head and face?” Twilight asked without taking a breath while the others just gave me a look of pity, causing me to smirk as I stroked the small, messy, dark brown beard that connected to what little of a moustache I had that was on my face. My hair was no better than my beard. It was the same dark brown and was messy as well as short. In all honesty I looked a bit like a bum, with the exception of having clothes that were in mostly good condition.

“I will answer your questions in the order that you asked them. I am a human. My name is Joseph Miles Swafford. My species are omnivorous, though we can survive without meat so long as we eat certain plants that contain the same nutrients as meat. I’m wearing my grey, black striped, long sleeve shirt and Star Wars pajama pants because I had gone to sleep and to cover my body, more specifically my genitals. I’m seventeen almost eighteen. The hair on the top of my head is just there, I don’t know the scientific reason behind it. Also my body is actually covered in millions of hairs, though a few are easier to see than others.” I answered while still smirking as I saw the others with shocked expressions on their faces before they thought about my answers. As I waited on them I saw Rainbow Dash’s expression change as she realized something.

“Earlier you said that you weigh one hundred and forty-four pounds despite being six foot two. Doesn’t that mean that you’re underweight?” Rainbow asked causing the others to look surprised while I just smirked. Rainbow saw the looks on the others faces before she explained herself.

“I’m an athlete. I need to know that kind of thing so I can stay healthy.” Rainbow said while shrugging. I chuckled before giving her an answer.

“You're right on the dot there Skittles. I’m underweight since I don't workout much, don't go outside and barely eat even if I remember to eat. If you wanted to you could feel my ribs just by softly touching my upper torso. Thankfully I’m still rather flexible thanks to my dance class and rather fast thanks to me practicing parkour and Capoeira, but if I don’t gain some weight my body will most likely start cannibalizing itself in order to keep me alive until I die due to me no longer having the strength to move because my muscles have been eaten away by my body.” I explained while still smiling as if I hadn't just talked about my own death. The others looked shocked to say the least.

“Now hold on one gosh darn minute! If you know all this then why aren't ya eatin’ more?” Applejack asked causing me to chuckle before opening my mouth to answer, only for Twilight to answer for me.

“Muscle actually weighs more than fat which is what would be generated by him eating more. What he needs to do is work out or perform physical activities in order to gain muscle faster which would in turn mean that he would have to eat more to have the energy to sustain it, though I am curious about this parkour and Capoeira that Joseph mentioned.” Twilight said while holding her quill and notepad, waiting for an answer.

“Well parkour is also called free running because it involves running freely through cities by running on rails, walls and even roof tops. It's very dangerous and can end with you getting seriously hurt or killed if you aren't careful, but I know what I’m doing so that's never been much of a problem. Capoeira is also called Brazilian jujitsu and breakdance fighting, since it is commonly used while music is playing in order to keep your rhythm. It specializes in making sure you’re always moving in unpredictable ways and are capable of either attacking without getting hit or dodging or blocking and then quickly countering before you're enemy can react. I always found it as one of the finer fighting styles since it relies more on stamina and speed than it does pure strength, though being strong definitely helps.” I explained in as much detail as I could remember since my memory wasn't the best because of my ADHD and Aspergers, which is a mild form of autism. I just smiled while the others had mixed expressions on their faces. Rainbow was looking at me as if I was one of the coolest people in the multiverse while Applejack looked slightly impressed. Fluttershy seemed to be afraid of me for knowing how to fight as well as afraid for me because of how dangerous parkour is. Rarity was mostly focusing on my looks instead of what I had said while Twilight seemed shocked that I would knowingly endanger my own life to the point that she had stopped writing.

“If this parkour thing is so dangerous, why do you do it?” Twilight asked causing me to smirk and let out another chuckle.

“It’s quite simple. I enjoy the feeling of adrenaline and don't see any reason to not live life like I could die at any second. Not to mention the fact that I don't see much value in my life.” I said while still smirking as everybody, or I guess everypony in this case, gasped upon hearing that I didn't value my own life.

Chapter 1: A Warm Welcome(edited)

“What?!” Everybody except for Fluttershy shouted, causing me to flinch and cover my ears.

“Ow. That was extremely loud. Why are you shouting?” I asked without realizing that I had just told the happiest, most peace-loving beings in the multiverse that I didn't value my own life. They all looked concerned about my mental health, though it was obvious that Rainbow Dash was more than a little pissed off and Applejack was slightly angry as well.

“How can you not value life?! That's insane!” Rainbow Dash said in a raised tone while flying over to me so we were face to face.

“I never said that I don't value life. I just don't value my own life. If my death meant that someone else would live, I would gladly give up my life. At least I would be remembered for something rather than being forgotten and left behind as an unimportant speck in the sands of time.” I said while cracking my neck and getting out of the bed, allowing our size difference to really set in as they only reached my waist while standing on the ground normally. Dash still seemed rather angry but Applejack intervened before she could say anything else.

“That's enough Rainbow. Joseph don’t seem like the type that listens to words.” Applejack said before pulling Dash away from me by her tail. I just chuckled before running a hand through my hair.

“If we’re quite done talking about my unstable mental state, can we get out of here? I’d like to move around a bit before you have me talk to whoever runs your government. And I’m just assuming that that's what you plan to do since that's what some people would do back where I come from.” I said before looking out of the hospital room window and grinning as I saw as small ledge just underneath the window that would be perfect for me to parkour off of. Twilight snapped out of her concern and smiled.

“Yes. Nurse Redheart says that you're good to go, though we shou-” Twilight was saying before I opened the window, stepped onto the ledge and hopped down before landing with a roll so it would hurt less. I could hear worried shouts from behind me and chuckled before leaning against the wall. Dash had been the first one outside since she could fly while Twilight and the others ran outside. They weren't too happy about me jumping out of a window, but I just shrugged it off. I can do what I want with my life so what they thought about my way of living didn't matter to me.

Twilight had me go back inside and properly sign out with Nurse Redheart before we started making our way to Twilight's house since, surprise surprise, she summoned me while trying a summoning spell that she read in a book and it apparently brought my bed as well. When I heard that my bed came with me a grin spread across my face, since they most likely hadn't discovered my duffel bags that I had actually hidden inside of my bed frame in case I ever needed to quickly leave my house. Thank you past me for being prepared for anything that you thought could happen.

When we arrived at Twilight's house, we entered to find that the lights were off causing me to smirk as Twilight turned the lights on only for us to be greeted by everypony in Ponyville. Pinkie quickly hopped up to me while smiling.

“So Joseph were ya surprised? Huh? Were ya? Were ya?” Pinkie asked excitedly as I grinned before leaning forward so my face was closer to hers.

“Nope! I know about a being similar to you when it comes to inexplicable abilities, so I kinda expected it when ya ran off. Not to mention the fact that I’m always thinking about all of the possibilities for what could happen.” I said while booping Pinkie on her nose and standing up straight again. Everybody, except for Pinkie, went rigid when I said that I wasn't surprised. Pinkie instead just giggled when I booped her nose.

“I know that! We both know the script after all!” Pinkie said happily before hopping away leaving me laughing as she broke the fourth wall, confirming that the possibility of me being in a story was true. I always did wonder how others would react to my odd behavior if they were to read a biography of my life. Everybody else joined in on my laughter when Pinkie had shown that she was okay. Obviously I had quite a few ponies to talk to including the fan favorites Lyra Heartstrings, Bon Bon AKA Sweetie Drops, Derpy and Time Turner AKA Doctor Whooves.

All in all I enjoyed the party to an extent and I was even able to impress some ponies with my voice impressions and accents. Pinkie loved my Joker impression, which I had based off of Mark Hamill's Joker. Rarity loved my French accent, especially when I threw in some actual French words just to be fancier. Applejack liked my southern accent which I based off of a combination of stereotypes and actual southern accents. Fluttershy quite enjoyed my ability to change how my voice sounds especially when I made myself sound like a girl, though it was rather difficult since my voice isn't anywhere near that high anymore. Twilight was obviously more interested in asking me questions about where I'm from and what my universe is like. During the party I kept being drawn to the unicorns using magic and several questions slowly began to fester in my head.

'If I'm in a world of magic does that mean I could learn magic? How did humans know about magic and these fantastical creatures if magic doesn't exist in my universe? Did it exist at one point and end up running out?'

I couldn't get these thoughts out of my head, so I decided to go downstairs to the basement where Twilight said my bed was. I checked the bedframe to make sure that my three duffel bags were still there, and sure enough they were. I grinned before covering the hole back up with my mattress and laying on my bed.

Today had been very unexpected at first, but it turned out rather well despite the townsponies wasting their precious time just to welcome me to Ponyville. They're much too caring for their own good.

Author's Note

No Joseph cannot see past the 4th wall, he simply knows that it exists. He doesn't know what will happen he just thinks of everything that could happen and tries his best to plan around those possibilities. He's a very paranoid person and is the kind of person that would have a zombie apocalypse plan just because there is a 0.001% chance of it actually happening.

This chapter may get a rewrite in the future, but for now it will do.

Chapter 2: Royal Meetings and Goodbyes

Joseph's POV

I quickly got out of my bed and got ready for school before going to the bus stop. As I was waiting for the bus I sat on my phone reading some fanfictions that had been updated recently. As I sat there I saw a blue flash out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see Luna looking around at everything in my dream with curiosity.

“Well hello there. I wasn't expecting any guests in my dreams tonight though you're certainly welcome to look around.” I said while smiling and putting my phone away, causing Luna to jump as she probably wasn't expecting me to notice her. Ever since I was ten my dreams consisted of me going through my everyday life, so it was very easy to tell when something was wrong.

“How did thou notice us strange creature and what are these magical contraptions that thou dreams of?” Luna asked while examining a red Ford Escape. I chuckled before walking over to the vehicle and opening the passenger door for her.

“Simple. My dreams are the same every single night. I always dream about going throughout my everyday life. So when I saw a blue flash out of the corner of my eye, it wasn't too difficult for me to notice you. And these machines that you are examining are called vehicles. Think a carriage that doesn't require anypony to pull it, just a living being in the driver's seat that can properly use everything. I don't exactly know how to drive perfectly but my brother showed me once, so I would be delighted to take you on a small trip through the dream version of where I come from.” I said while still holding the door for her and gesturing for her to get in. She smiled before on getting into the car.

I closed the door behind her before getting into the driver's seat and turning it on without the key, thanks to the power of dreams. Once the car was on, a song started to play that was very fitting with how gentlemanly I was acting. Luna seemed to enjoy it as I pulled out of the parking lot and started driving around the city.

“This is very entertaining! To think that Equestria has come so far in a thousand years!” Luna said while laughing happily before I butted in.

“Equestria hasn't. This is from my universe. Ya see, Twilight accidentally summoned me from my universe while she was testing a spell that she found in her library. Everything you're seein’ is from my universe. Oh and here's a little secret.” I said before leaning in close to Luna’s ear.

“I know parts of the future.” I said while smirking at Luna’s shocked expression before I punched myself in the face, causing me to wake up.

As I quickly sat up I could tell that it was still early in the morning, before sunrise, because of the lack of noise coming from upstairs. I smiled before getting out of bed and moving my mattress so I could get my duffel bags. I opened the green one and took out a bunch clothes. Once I had an outfit picked out I changed into the green combat pants, brown combat boots, green shirt, black jacket and black fingerless gloves before putting my pajamas in the bag and zipping it up. I opened the blue duffel bag, which was filled with MREs and other kinds of food that I could eat on the go as well as medical supplies, and took out a pair of black, full tang 'ninja' swords that I had gotten off of Amazon. Despite where I had gotten them from, they were really good swords. I used the strap for the sheath that came with them to strap them to my lower back, in order to maintain my flexibility.

I also had my peacekeeper revolver in the bag, though it would only work as a club since it was simply a very realistic replica. I closed the bag and moved on to the brown one, which had all of my books in it as well as my kindle and my second phone. I took out all of the books as well as a pen that I kept in there before writing out a note for Twilight telling her to keep the books and for her to try and recreate some of the things in the books, specifically the ways to generate electricity. After that I closed the brown bag while leaving my kindle and phone inside before hiding the brown bag in the hole in my bed.

Once that was done, I strapped the blue and green duffel bags to my back before walking upstairs and heading outside of the library. I smiled before turning and sprinting towards the Everfree Forest.

Twilight's POV

I woke up and smiled as I quickly went downstairs to see Spike cooking breakfast as per usual. There was a cup of coffee that I quickly downed after adding some milk and sugar. Spike brought the rest of the breakfast before sitting down with his plate of food. He was about to bite into his food when I realized that Joseph wasn't up yet.

"Hey Spike? Could you go get Joseph? He should be sleeping downstairs in his bed." I said causing Spike to stop and set his food down before going downstairs to get Joseph. I continued to eat my breakfast in peace until I heard Spike shout.

"Twilight! You might want to see this!" Spike had shouted causing me to quickly stand up and trot downstairs, only to see that Joseph was gone and there was instead a pile of books that I had never seen before with a note on the top. I levitated the note over to myself and started reading it. I got really excited when it got to the parts about Joseph giving me these books and even encouraging me to recreate some of his universe's technology. Unfortunately all of my excitement drained away when I got to the end of the note.

"HE DID WHAT?!"

Author's Note

Not sure if you'll like the perspective change, but I thought that it would be fitting considering the situation. If you see any grammatical errors please point them out as I wrote this chapter at around midnight.

The --- will symbolize a shift in realms, AKA dream realm to the real world and stuff like that.

Chapter 3: Problems and Information(edited)

3rd person POV

After freaking out about where Joseph had gone, Twilight quickly went to Rainbow's house and had had her get the rest of the main six. Once they were all gathered in the Golden Oaks Library, Twilight took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself down.

"So what was so important that you needed to get all of us here?" Rainbow asked while yawning, since Twilight had woken her up so early in the morning.

"Joseph ran off into the Everfree forest while me and Spike were asleep." Twilight said while still breathing a bit faster than she should. Everyone in the room, except for Spike and Twilight, gasped upon hearing this. Twilight then levitated the note up for them to see before turning to Spike.

"Spike I need you to write a letter to the Princesses explaining the current conundrum." Twilight said causing Spike to look confused at the word conundrum.

"Problem." Twilight said while sighing a little before turning back to the others as Spike started writing a letter explaining what had happened. Twilight was trying her best to stay calm and failing. Princess Celestia had tasked her with keeping an eye on Joseph and she had already failed. She had tuned out the conversation that the others were having as she had started muttering to herself about how she had failed Princess Celestia.

"You aright there Twi?" Applejack asked while putting a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, causing her to snap back to reality.

"Not really. The Princess had tasked me with keeping an eye on Joseph and I already lost him." Twilight said before getting an idea.

"Why don't we go into the Everfree and find Joseph?" Twilight and Rainbow said at the same time, causing them to look at eachother before Rainbow shrugged. Twilight looked at everyone as they all nodded, including Fluttershy.

Joseph's POV

I'd been traveling for a while until I finally reached my destination, the castle of the two sisters. I had decided to go there to see if I could find any books on magic that I could read in order to test a theory I had. My early thoughts during the party and the internal questions that followed caused me to form a theory that humans were capable of using magic but our world ran out of mana at some point, thus preventing us from using it. My only real evidence to support this theory was the existence of magical creatures and magic in human mythology. I felt like we had gotten the idea from somewhere and that maybe the gods that were described in the different mythology's were just people that could use magic. Of course it was a bit of a stretch but if my theory was true I would be able to use magic thus giving me another weapon to add to my fighting style.

"Bout damn time. I was about to walk back to Ponyville. At least I got to practice against some of the monsters here while I was trying to find this place. That cockatrice was so fucking scared when I looked it right in the eyes and smirked!" I said while laughing a bit as I thought about the fights that I had been in on my way to the castle. The cockatrice was my personal favorite, though I was sure that Dash would love the one where I snapped a manticore's neck using a tree and its own tail. Damn thing underestimated me and I ended up cutting off its stinger and wrapping what was left of its tail around its neck before pinning it to a tree with my swords and kicking it in the head until its neck finally snapped. I ended up leaving its body hanging in a tree because it was too damn heavy to take with me and I wanted to get a nice coat made out of it. That or a hooded cloak.

I walked across the old rope bridge and smiled as I walked into the ruins of the old castle. My mind was filled with ideas involving me repairing the old castle and turning into a type of bunker with some help from Twilight and the others. That train of thought excited me as it would mean teaching them about some very helpful information that could advance them technologically. Of course I would try my best to avoid teaching them how to make guns, but my thoughts ran into a problem with that one. I didn't want them to know how to make guns, but I wanted to eventually ask a blacksmith to first turn my peacekeeper revolver into a working gun before asking them to make a weapon that I had wanted to have ever since I first discovered it. I wanted a working version of Lance's gun blade from Epic Battle Fantasy 3. It was a perfect weapon due to its long range capabilities, revolver style reloading and the fact that the barrel of the gun was also a sword.

I frowned while trying to think of a way to get the weapon made without them mass producing them. I sighed before shaking my head and going back to exploring the decrepit old castle. I eventually found what seemed to be an old study that looked like it had been quickly and haphazardly packed. It felt like someone had been trying to run from something or more specifically someone. Based on what I knew I guessed that whoever the room had belonged to had been in a hurry to escape Nightmare Moon. I shrugged before going over to one of the books on the floor and picking it up.

After a closer inspection I found that it was a book on dark magic, specifically demon summoning. I shrugged before opening one of my duffel bags and shoving the book inside. The next book I picked up was a guide to sorcery, magic that involves will, rhyme and music. I kept this one out as it interested me a bit more than the summoning of demons. The last book, if you could call it that, was torn and faded, though it was still somewhat readable.

From what I could read it was a book on the most basic types of magic that every living thing should be capable of using; healing magic and augmentation magic. That second one threw me through a loop until I thought about what it would entail. Augmentation magic was magic that either positively or negatively affected the target based on the spell. It turns out that healing magic and augmentation magic are mostly based on emotions, desire and will. Healing magic heavily focuses on the desire and will portion while augmentation magic focuses on emotions and desire.

I couldn't get much more than that from the book as it seemed that whatever magic had been used to preserve the other books hadn't been used on this one. Thankfully I had enough information to put together a few bits of information and it actually had a couple of intact spell pages for both healing spells and augmentation spells. It seemed that, for augmentation magic, if you combined an emotion with a desire for something to happen to a specific target you could cast different augmentation spells such as a spell to make living beings attack everything around them by using anger and the desire for your target to attack. Healing magic seemed a bit trickier than augmentation magic since it required will and desire. The basic healing spell, which was unoriginally named light heal, only seemed to require the desire to heal others while more advanced ones required the caster to have enough will to beat the world itself in a battle of wills.

It made more sense to me the more I thought about it. After all an advanced spell like regrow, which could regrow limbs, or revive, which could bring the dead back to life without the use of necromancy, would go against the laws of nature and the circle of life.

Once I finished thinking I walked back into the ruins of the throne room before sitting down and attempting some of the augmentation magic in order to test my theory. I started with the one that was listed in the book instead of trying to experiment with possibly dangerous magic. The spell was called Serpent Sight and it relied on feeling nervous with a desire to see more.

I had no idea what I was doing so I just closed my eyes and focused on my feeling of nervousness about being around living beings as well as a desire to see more. Upon opening my eyes it seemed that I either couldn't use magic or that I just didn't know how to use my magic properly.

Author's Note

Yes, Joseph might be getting some magic. No he will not be an idiot that uses it all of the time if he does get magic, especially since his mana/magic reserves would be rather small from being in a universe that was devoid of magic.

Chapter 4: A New Friend

Joseph's POV

I sighed and put the books in my green duffel bag before noticing a purplish blue equine figure that soon disappeared, causing me to stop what I was doing. I opened my mouth again, since that was the only thing that had changed since I had cast Serpent Sight, and sure enough the figure appeared. That was when I figured out what should've been obvious from the beginning.

'Serpent Sight requires me to use my tongue to sense heat signatures. That should've been obvious.' I thought as I facepalmed before walking towards the figure. The figure seemed to be an alicorn, though it didn't move as I approached it. At least it didn't until I tried to touch it.

As I reached out to touch it, it seemed to recoil in shock before coming closer to me. I thought nothing of it until I closed my mouth, causing the figure to vanish. I opened my mouth again to see the alicorn directly in front of me. I reached out, expecting to touch an invisible being, only for my hand to pass through them.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The figure seemed to be just as shocked as I was. My mind was going a million miles a minute because of all the questions I had.

'Is this thing what I think it is? If so why does Serpent Sight let me see it? Can snakes see beings made of magic in this universe? If that's true then what else is different?' I thought before noticing that the figure's mouth seemed to be moving.

I quickly set my duffel bag down and took the book on augmentation magic back out before carefully flipping through the pages and eventually finding one that I believed would help. It was called Moth Hearing. It took me a bit to figure out why it was called that, but I eventually realized that it was because moths have the best hearing in the entire animal kingdom. To cast the spell I needed to once again combine a feeling of nervousness with desire, only this time it was a desire to hear more.

"Moth Hearing." I said with a bit of shakiness in my voice. As soon as I cast the spell I turned to the figure, who seemed to be surprised that I could use magic, and smiled.

"If I am correct, you are the being made of dark magic that is known as Nightmare Moon. Or have I confused you with another being that was defeated in this castle?" I said with a cocky smile on my face. At least I did until I saw the figure look down at the ground.

"What thou says is true. We are the monster thou speaks of. Truthfully we just wanted a body that we could reside in, but our desire to help our host caused us to commit a mistake that caused our host much pain. We are sorry for this, but we are now seen as nothing more than an evil spirit." Nightmare Moon said in a wispy voice that carried a sorrowful tone.

"Ah. Well that's a cliche that I'm not a big fan of, though it does make sense. After all the darkness is neither good nor evil, it just is. Its only want is to exist, and in that way it is no different than any other living being. But enough of my ramblings, how would you like it if I agreed to be your host?" I said as my cocky smile returned and I held out my left hand.

Nightmare was.....excited to say the least, though that would be expected when a being freely offers to be your host despite knowing what you've done in the past. Nightmare tried to grab my hand but phased through it. She then walked into me and entered my body just as she realized that I was either insane or used to keeping myself in control.

"Thou knows what we have done, yet thou let's us inside thine's body. Why?" Nightmare asked from inside my head, as I could no longer see her.

"It's quite simple really. I already call myself the most sane insane person in my universe, due to the fact that I have full conversations with myself and constantly have to keep myself in check lest I go on a rampage. My mind is more messed up than Discord's and he is the so called lord of chaos. Honestly that title belongs to any human in the multiverse due to the fact that we constantly cause things to change because we want to. Oh and apologies ahead of time Nightie. You're very likely going to see all of my life, including the memories that I wish I could forget." I said out loud while smiling as I heard Nightie let out a gasp, letting me know that she had reached the first of my traumatic memories.

"How can thine's own family be so cruel? Celestia may not have paid much attention to our previous host, but that is nothing compared to what thine's older cousin did whilest thou was a child." Nightie said as she continued to look through my memories.

"Simple. Some humans are despicable creatures that only care about satisfying their basest desires, even if it means molesting their own kin." I said while still smiling. After all it's not like crying would do me any good. This went on for hours as Nightie saw all of my memories, each of which were just as bad as the last. At the end she was in tears and was apologizing to me for all of the pain I had gone through. It was rather shocking to hear how compassionate this former villain was.

"We are so sorry thou had to go through that much betrayal and pain!" Nightie said between sobs as I heard the sounds of hooves coming closer and quickly shushed her in case they could hear her. I looked at the door and put the old book back in my green duffel bag as the mane six came in with Celestia, Luna and a group of guards behind them. Of course I decided to do what I do best and immediately tried to piss them off.

"Well look who it is! We got miss I-eat-so-much-cake-that-my-ass-is-a-pillow and miss I'm-beautiful-but-nopony-notices-me-because-of-who-I-am." I said with a shit eating grin as I pointed at the two princesses.

Author's Note

Sorry that this took so long, but the good news is that I should be able to do more chapters faster. On a side note, I've become a published poet! Or well I will be. A poem I made was selected for a book that gets published yearly called Anthology of Poetry. But enough of real life. I hope you enjoyed the chapter even if I personally think that I could do better, but that's just me putting myself down as per usual.

Chapter 5: Some Ponies Don't Learn

As expected I was immediately surrounded by the guards, who all pointed their weapons at me. I could see that the main six were shocked at how crass I was while Celestia and Luna were both blushing for different reasons.

"Can you two tell your guards to calm down? I really don't want to have to injure them." I said while putting my hands on my swords. I had a smirk on my face the entire time that screamed confidence. This smirk actually caused two of the guards to back up a little in fear just as Celestia and Luna regained their composure.

"Stand down. This being is not hostile to us at the moment and I would like to keep it that way." Celestia said while keeping her stoic demeanor, causing me to groan as the guards went back to protecting the princesses.

"You know you can just act like a normal pony while you're around me, right? I'm gonna treat you the same way that I would treat anyone else. Mainly because I don't care about who you are. How I treat you is going to depend on your personality and your actions." I said while stroking my beard and thinking that it could use a trim.

Celestia and Luna looked surprised that I would treat them like a normal pony, while the others looked both shocked and angry that I wasn't going to treat the princesses like my betters. Of course Rainbow was the first to act as she immediately flew up into my face.

"I get that you're cool and all, but why are you disrespecting the princesses?" Rainbow asked angrily before I just laughed causing her to look shocked, as I was laughing like a maniac. The others looked concerned until I calmed down.

"Oh that was a great joke Rainbow. Ya see I was being respectful to Tia and Lulu. I just refuse to treat them differently because of who they are or what they are. If I know of a mistake that they made, which they have made plenty, then I will tell them that they have made a mistake. The biggest one that I can think of is that they didn't kill Tirek. I mean they can't reform him and all he wants is to take all of the magic on Equis, yet they just locked him up in Tartarus. That is a huge mistake because he will escape at some point in time. Now of course I won't fuck up the timeline by saying when. If I did everything could go wrong and nothing would happen the way it's supposed to. But enough of that. I met someone while I was here that you all might be familiar with." I said while smirking as they were a mixture of anger and confusion as well as curiosity.

"Who is this pony that we would be familiar with?" Celestia asked calmly as my smile grew. Everyone was starting to get slightly worried at how I was smiling as I took several steps away from them.

"I call her Nighty, but you all probably know her as Nightmare Moon." I said before dodging to the left as two beams of magic had been fired at my head. I just smirked as I saw that everyone was now either afraid of me or pissed at me.

"How dare thee talk to that vile demon?! We will imprison thee in the dungeon for that!" Luna shouted as I held my hands up.

"First of all that attack would've killed me, second of all you're idiots for how you treated Nighty and third of all you really need to understand that the dark is neither good nor evil. This is another mistake that was made by the infallible princesses. They don't think as much as they should. They leap headfirst into situations before thinking things through and their go to solution is to just throw the elements at whatever the problem is. Nighty just wanted to help Luna and she admits that she went about it the wrong way. She just wanted to help her host in whatever way she could. That is why I am her new host. She needed a host and she can no doubt help increase my magical power and the amount of magic that can be stored inside my body, so it's a mutual relationship. Oh and she sobbed and apologized to me upon seeing my memories. That should tell you something. Of course if you want to imprison me then go ahead. I'll just wait for one of the big enemies that can rival both Lulu and Tia to show up and then escape during all of the chaos. Speaking of chaos I need to have a little chat with Discord. You still have him in the Canterlot Gardens, right?" I said while casually fighting back against the guards that had started to attack me when I revealed that I was hosting Nighty.

"Why should I tell you anything?" Celestia asked with a snarl on her face as her and Luna were charging up a spell.

"I mean I was going to make a deal with Discord that he couldn't win, so that when he escapes he can't look into my mind and figure out how the elements will beat him. After all that could be disastrous. I'm trying to think about all of Equis here as well as how to keep all of Equis safe. It's a full time job that I wish I didn't have to do, but if I don't you'll just wait for the problem to become a problem to Equestria before you actually see it as a problem. Now can we please stop fighting? I would much rather not become a criminal because I killed a group of guards in self defense." I said before finally getting annoyed by the guards and bashing them each in the head with the hilt of one of my swords, thus rendering them unconscious as I relaxed a little.

Celestia and Luna looked both hesitant and worried about the fact that I openly admitted to being Night's host. The main six were a combination of scared, angry and shocked. Applejack was the one that was shocked, since I hadn't lied in my entire tirade. Of course I took advantage of this.

"Hey AJ. Go ahead and tell them the real kicker about what I just said." I said with a smirk as Applejack shakily nodded her head.

"He...he ain't lying y'all. He ain't said nothing but the truth." Applejack said with a bit of fear in her voice as everyone, including the princesses, looked shocked while I smirked before leaning against the wall.

"Check and mate." I said while making the motion of moving a chess piece.

Chapter 6: Let's Relax

Pinkie Pie laughed at my chess reference as I just continued to smile before running my left hand through my hair. The others were still standing there in shock at the bombs that I had just dropped, the rest of the mane six being shocked by the fact that Celestia and Luna would ignore a worldwide problem until it affected Equestria while the princesses were shocked that I truly wanted to help the entire world and not just Equestria. Of course I felt like breaking the tension in the air so I did the only thing that came to mind.

"Well that was fun! Who's for Neighnese?" I asked in my Joker voice as I clapped my hands together and looked around at the group of ponies as they finally snapped out of their shocked state.

"Ooh! Ooh! Memememememe!" Pinkie said while raising her hoof and jumping up and down in the back of the group. The others were just confused and looked hesitant before me and Pinkie just burst out laughing. Eventually everyone was either laughing or chuckling at the absurdity of it all. I stopped laughing and just picked up my duffel bags before putting them on my back and walking towards the exit of the ruins as the others followed while smiling, since they knew I could be trusted. Celestia and Luna were carrying their unconscious guards, since they still hadn't woken up.

"I was actually being serious abo-" I started to say before I stepped on something small and ended up falling face first into a nearby wall. Of course Rainbow and Pinkie were laughing while the others were concerned for my well being. After assuring them that I was fine, I went back over to where I fell in search of the object that I stepped on. As I searched a metallic glint caught my eye and I looked down to see a platinum coin wedged in between a crack in the stone. I chuckled to myself a bit before reaching down and pulling out the coin. As I did so I could hear a voice in my head that caused my body to shiver a little and caused Nighty to let out a small yelp.

"A coin of quarter size
One side smiles, while the other beguiles
A flip to see your fate
Be it doom or a trick of mind
Summon I, N̸̖̕o̸͕̍ẍ̷̡́ , but only when you have something to offer
Or be befouled by ĉ̷̖ů̴͚ŕ̴͎s̶̤͘e̷̻͝d̴͓̍ ̴̘̅l̸̛̫u̸̻̒c̵̻͗k."

I simply smirked upon realizing what I had found. I turned it around in my hands, carefully inspecting the two different sides of the coin. I smiled before putting it into my pocket and continuing to walk into the forest.

"As I was saying, I was serious about that Neighnese food. Oh and would one of you mind helping me with that manticore that I took down. I feel like a manticore's fur would make an excellent coat. I am also interested in trying some properly cooked manticore steak." I said causing the others to look a bit shocked, as they remembered seeing the manticore's corpse on their way to the ruins. Fluttershy was the first to speak up.

"B-but why w-would you kill that innocent animal?" She asked causing me to shake my head at her naivete.

"They wanted me dead for a meal and I wanted to live. I just did what I had to do to ensure my continued survival." I said calmly as we crossed the bridge and got to the body.

"Do not mistake me for a good man. The only thing that me and a good man have in common is that neither of us would throw the first punch. I gave this manticore a painful death, since I could not reliably give it a quick one. In my mind it does not matter whether or not someone dies painfully. In my mind all that matters is survival." I said before motioning for Applejack and Rainbow to help me with the body. They all looked either shocked or terrified at my thought process, save for Applejack, Rainbow and the princesses. Their faces held only pity for me. I chuckled upon seeing that they felt bad for me as the three of us lifted up the body.

"Don't feel bad for me. My mindset is what drove me to learn survival skills. I would most likely be dead if it wasn't for my way of thinking." I said before starting to walk in the direction of Ponyville.

Twenty Minutes Later

We arrived back at Ponyville and went our separate ways, since the princesses had to go back to Canterlot with their, now conscious, guards. Applejack, Rainbow and I agreed to store my manticore in the Sweet Apple Acres' barn until the next day so I could skin it and have Rarity turn it into a nice outfit. Afterwards me and Twilight discussed fixing the spell book that I had found on our way back to the treebrary. Once we arrived I quickly went into the basement that had become my room. I put all of my duffel bags in the secret compartment before taking out the platinum coin and smirking.

"Well it looks like I get to meet a character that's purely fiction in my universe. Nox the Unfortunate, I would like to make a deal."

Author's Note

Neighnese is meant to be Chinese just like Neighpone is Japan and Neighponese is Japanese. This chapter might be edited in the future in order to make it longer, since I could've made it longer but felt that I had reached a good stopping point. If I do I'll probably just add more in the middle and reveal more of Joseph's/my life. To find out what happens next, check out this story right here👇 https://www.fimfiction.net/story/443430/cursed-reliquary