My Life on a Cassette Tape

Železna Raka wiped an arm across his forehead as he stood in the arcane forge's blistering heat. Grabbing the hammer once more, he slammed it into the piece of still glowing metal that rested on his anvil. Each blow echoed through the chamber, ringing in his ears like a bell, while the Ednorog Tirek continued to pump is arcane powers into Železna's project with startling effect. Satisfied with the shape, the king grabbed his runic tools and set to work, tapping them forcefully into the surface, imprinting the lines of power in the form of his language into the steel.

The last letter branded upon the metallic surface, Železna brought out a steel stylus tipped with a gem. This was the worst part. His hand a hair's breadth away from the scorching metal, he etched out the ley lines, he knew by heart. His hand hurt, but he couldn't stop, he needed to drawn all the lines onto the surface now, or this piece of metal would be doomed to remain so.

His magnum opus thus far, the binding of the Royal Record to him, was far easier compared to this. Parchment only had to be soaked in liquid mana to allow the user to alter its arcane properties. Sure, liquid mana would do a number on any living creature if they were exposed for too long, but altering a few lines of script didn't take too long on parchment. But metal? Metal had to be quenched from burning heat with liquid mana in order to gain the effect a user wanted. Once quenched, he'd have to heat it in the heart of a dying star to alter it once more, and so he had to take advantage of this Tirek's ability to aid him by pumping his own arcane power to ensure the steel did not lose its heat, while it was also imbued with certain underlying properties before it was even quenched.

This would be the start of something new. This would be the beginning to his ascension. He'd go beyond an Ednorog; he'd even ascend past godhood. He'd become. There was no truer way to describe it. And that was why, even as the hairs on his hand withered away in the heat, even as his flesh began to burn, he continued to work his own magic. He would have what he wanted. He wouldn't stop here either; after all, this was only the first step on a journey of a thousand paces.

"And that's what we've been up against recently." I finished explaining. Button sat there, looking at the floor, contemplating everything I had just told him. Either that or looking at a glob of splooge that had been missed during clean up, I couldn't really tell.

"That's... that's a lot to take in." Button said finally. My stupid brain still suggested he might be looking at some spunk on the floor. "And you think they'll come back?"

"I know they will." I replied morosely. "I was promised a visit by a 'Collector'. It may be figurative, but I have a feeling they might just have ponies - or otherwise - set up as collection units who get artifacts back. I technically do have two now, so that likely sets me a few notches up on their priority list." I said, holding up the notepad that I got from Silver and the recorder. "They also lost one of their ponies. That may or may not be a blow on them that they can't take, or it might be a minor inconvenience. Either way, it is a problem for us."

"And since I have one that paints a nice big target on me." Button muttered. "I've been lucky to have not agroed them yet, though I have mostly been hiding away as best as possible. Not as well as needed apparently, but well enough that you are the first who approached me."

"Well, it's better that I found you, if how Silver and Gunther treated me and these ponies serves as any indication." I said, looking over the mares, some of whom still had minor bruises or hickies from their treatment. Besides the twisted form Starlight now had, Applejack would've been the worst among them, I knew, but she was with her family, so she wasn't a ready example at the moment.

"tHeSe pONieS aNd I." Rainbow said in a mocking imitation of Twilight. I looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. "Sorry, with her not here, somepony has to pick up the slack in correcting everypony's grammar." I nodded slowly, not really seeing why Rainbow thought it would have to be her to do it, but not pressing the issue either.

"So what do you want from me?" Button asked. "You wouldn't have brought me here and treated me so... kindly without a reason."

"Well, I wanted to make sure you knew I'm not the enemy. I'm in much the same boat as you at this point." I began.

"Jury's still out on that one." Button interjected. "No offense, but really, with all the power you clearly have from these artifacts, your word is only so good, as is the word of these other ponies. For all I know you've got them on puppet strings and are manipulating them to do what you want... besides the sex part."

"Including the sex part." Berry provided, unhelpfully. "Parts, really."

"Not what I meant, but either way, my point is that I have no reason to completely trust you. That isn't to say I think you're evil. You don't feel evil, but then again, I'm not sure if I know evil if it kissed me on the mouth."

"How about if it fucked you?" Berry asked teasingly. I wanted to kick her for that, but seeing as she was across the room, and I wasn't as sure in my aim with my shoe as some mothers.

"N-not that either." Button admitted, the mare's frustrating sexiness getting him in a tizzy. "What I'm trying to say is," He forced through, cutting past all of Berry's antics for the moment, "is that I'll trust you for now, but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not you're good. I've played too many video games to accept allegiances on face value. For all I know, the Empire is something you made up and these ponies after you are just a special police unit."

"A special police unit that controls ponies and has brainwashed Starlight Glimmer into a sex crazed maniac that we are currently unsure how to cure." I said, pointing out a minor flaw in his argument, even as I agreed with it. He was right, this all might be a ploy to get him on my side so that we could do our own nefarious thing together, whether he'd be a partner or a subordinate having yet to have been seen.

"Oh, right, haven't told you guys yet." Rainbow butted in. "Yeah, so Twilight did some prelimanema- prelimana- she did the first search for stuff that might help Starlight. She did a scan for magical effects and says that she only found the magical signature you leave on things." She said, pointing at me as she went on. "Any how, she says that it might be that they didn't use their artifacts at all to control her. She's real scared they might've done some sort of thing with her head. Either that or their magical signature is really well hidden in this mess or your magic completely wiped out any trace of it - though Twilight said that isn't too likely since she still acts the way she did since coming back after being abducted."

"I was kind of scared of that - the use of methods that aren't his artifact." I muttered. "Gunther's power... it doesn't seem very viable for actively controlling ponies, and yet he does. Plus, he brought that brief case that you all said had some syringes in it that he wanted to stick you with." I sighed as I mulled it over. "She might be under the influence of some drug or another, or, worse yet, have been subjected to some sort of treatment to alter her personality."

"He must be a fast operator if he did it without using an artifact that takes away a pony's will. He had from evening to afternoon, which really doesn't leave much time to get it done." Periwinkle noted. "We'll have to keep our guards up unless he takes more ponies. At that rate of operations he could have all of Ponyville in a few weeks, a month tops."

"Fortunately he is kind of out of operations in some regards." I pointed out. "He'll need to recover before he can move to taking anypony."

"He was able to get out of sight before we could notice, if you recall." Berry said, surprising me with her serious tone that lacked any sort of sexual note to it. "I don't think we can count him out quite yet."

"Well, you ponies can keep talking, I need to head back to Twlight's. I've been gone long enough as it is." Rainbow stated. "Thanks for the fun, Peri, you're great!" With that she shot forward, planted a kiss on the mare before darting out the door in a blue blur.

"Between her and Berry," Raven whispered in my ear, "I'm not sure who is more of the disaster lesbian in this group."

"I mean..." I paused, thinking it over, "I think they're both bi, not sure if 'disaster lesbian' is a title anypony we have here can take on. As far as I can tell, the two of them would fuck anything with anything resembling sexual equipment."

"Suppose you're right." Raven shrugged, nestling into my shoulder.

"So what are we going to do?" Button asked, clearing the atmosphere of any awkwardness that lingered. "As I said, I'm not so sure if or not you are evil, but for now, I'm going to have to work with you, mostly 'cuz I'm gonna need to level up a tad before I can take you on." I chuckled.

"Boy, I think you're over estimating my capabilities a tad." Even though I said that, I couldn't also help thinking he might be right. I possessed what might be the single most powerful artifact in all of Equestria - barring the Elements of Harmony which hadn't been seen in years - its limits so ill defined in my mind that it was likely that if I was devoid of my moral compunctions that I might have simply ended all opposition before it even rose up. I could have any mare I wanted - I could have every mare. There wouldn't be a thing I couldn't do. But that was a dangerous thought.

"As for what we're gonna do," I began, putting my thoughts in order, "We're going to have to find where Gunther is - Rarity might be able to help with that when she swings by tomorrow with her news from the guard post - and whether or not he's gotten reinforcements." Button nodded.

"Anything in particular you'd like me to try?" He asked, pulling out an old Joy Boy.

"I don't have any particular thoughts right now, but I might think of something later. For now, you should head home and get some rest. We might see each other again tomorrow. Would you like an escort?"

"I mean... kind of?" Button admitted. "With all this talk of ponies out there willing to do me wrong, I think it would be smart to have somepony to take me home."

"Good, I would've sent a pony to tail you either way, so it's nice you agreed." I said with a chuckle. "Like you said, we are at risk, even if one of us doesn't like the idea of having others around us, we're going to have to get used to it. Berry, Spry, could you accompany him?"

"Why both of them? One should be enough." Button asked, already looking a tad flush.

"They are also at risk. That, and they'll have to walk back home. Whoever takes you will need their own escort to ensure their safety. Plus, safety in numbers." I said. "Fair warning though, the recording has them slated to become ponies in the eyes of others by sundown, which gives you about an hour before ponies are going to wonder why two ponies are crawling around naked."

"You could give them some clothes?" Button asked.

"I never liked ponies who put clothes on doggies." Berry said, lowering herself to all fours. "Come on, give us a walk."

Button waved at the two ponies as they left him at the doorstep. The two ponies nodded in acknowledgement, and then began the crawl home with enough time to spare so that they wouldn't be caught outside naked. He wasn't sure how he felt about this whole situation. In honesty, he was still processing it all. A new world had opened up to him, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

Opening the door, he found the lights off. Looking over at the clock, he wondered if his mom had gone to bed early, she did have work in the morning. Flicking on the switch for the living room lights, he paused, noting that the lights didn't come on.

"Odd, power must be off..." He muttered to himself. "Mom! I'm home!" He called out, turning from the light switch. Suddenly a hand slapped across his face and sent him to the floor, making him bang his head against the door. Blinking and shaking his head, he looked up and saw a pony in doctor's attire standing in the vague trickle of light that filtered in through the drawn curtains. Button tried to scream, but found his mouth wouldn't open!

Panicking, he raised a hand to his face, but found no mouth. The doctor smiled underneath his surgical mask, slowly turning his one uncovered hand towards Button. On his palm was a set of lips, which slowly curled into a smile - a smile that Button felt was horrifyingly familiar.