Rex's House

"Nopony in sight." A guard said as him and many other's fawned out in the yard of Rex's now abandoned house. Both Celestia and Luna scanned the landscape for any noticeable clues that they could find. Surprisingly, there was nothing there that indicated that Twilight or Starlight were even there, but they hadn't checked everything.

"The house." Celestia said, pointing a hoof towards it. "Search it. This place looks quite barren and destroyed."

"Yes Princess." A guard had said, immediately gathering a few others to search the house before Celestia and Luna stepped foot inside. It was a precaution. It's better to have someone get the jump on them, instead of the Princess'. However, Luna didn't like that very much.

"We're capable on our own, Celestia. We don't need the guards to protect us from every little thing."

"You say that now, but until you are faced into a position where you need the guards, you won't know."

Luna groaned, immediately following the guards inside the house. The insides seemed beat up and destroyed, especially dirty. Well, that was true for the main room. Down the hallway, it got cleaner and nicer, as if the scuffle was only present in the living room. Luna looked down at the dirt that was inside, where small footprints were able to be spotted. They looked like a mix of hoof-like prints and... well, she couldn't identify it.

It wasn't enough to go off of.

"Wow. A bit of this room certainly went alight. Still though, a lot of equipment scattered around." A guard said to another, which had peaked Luna's ears. She followed the voices into the storage room, where an entire corner of the room was ash and burnt. The entire room was filled with random items and equipment, some that she had never seen before. She could definitely make out clothes though.

While the guards continued to search through the room, Luna became interested in a desk that was placed in the corner opposite of the burnt one. She hesitantly stepped towards it, before realizing there was nothing to be afraid of. There were multiple papers scattered all over with writing.

She read them

Although Rex seems to despise the idea of a Nutrient Paste Dispenser, it might just be what we need. It'll cut down food cost, and definitely save us from trouble later on. Sure, it might not be the most appetizing thing in the world, but sometimes survival doesn't need to be pretty.

The only problem with the idea is that after careful reading of the blueprint, there seems to be a part missing. Specifically, the part where it actually takes the nutrients from the food and pours it into paste-like form. This would be easy to do with magic, but mine is limited at the moment, and I don't exactly know how to do that mechanically.

Still, I'll be continuing this research. It's impressive what these humans have come up with. Advanced weaponry I've never seen before, advanced technology in the highest degree, and an understanding for complicated science. Although they might not be the nicest of people, they still aren't non-intelligent apes.

~~Stil~~

Note: Don't let Starlight touch my pen while I'm writing.

Edit: Starlight did nothing wrong, Twilight is just being rude.

~~Note: Don't let Starlight touch my notes.~~

Note: Kick Starlight out of the room for the day.

"Celestia!" Luna yelled.

"Don't yell, Sister. I'm right here."

"Read this." Luna said, grabbing the paper in her magic before floating it over in front of Celestia. Celestia gazed over the paper, reading it intensely and quickly. A grin formed on her face.

"So she is alive. This is definitely her writing, and even Starlight's."

Luna nodded. "It seems so. They must have lived with somepony else named 'Rex.' An interesting name. Although a certain quote from this paper does not make me feel so delighted as the news that she is alive."

Celestia nodded her head. "She stated that the creatures here aren't exactly nice. However, we don't know when this was written. This could be just from her innocence of not dealing with heavier threats. She has saved Equestria multiple times, sure, but the older days of Equestria were much more bloody. She is still known to have anxiety."

Luna disagreed. "Something tells me this wasn't written far long ago, and dear Sister, hasn't her writing changed? She doesn't seem the same as we once knew her-" Both Luna's and Celestia's ears perked to the sound of a commotion going on outside. The guards inside the room immediately went out to check it out, followed by the Princess'.

As soon as they stepped outside, multiple bipedal creatures were standing in a line in front of the house. There were atleast twenty or so of them. Luna gave a look of uncertainty to Celestia, but Celestia seemed calm, and severely intrigued. Despite her earlier comment about 'safety,' she seemed to be intent on not regarding them as potentially dangerous.

"Well well well, I didn't expect this in the slightest." A bipedal creature said, standing in front of the rest in what seemed to a tuxedo. His purple eye's scanned their guards and themselves. "I must say, this is quite the surprise. Especially at this house, of all places."

"I am Princess Celestia, and this is Princess Luna and our guard." Celestia stated, giving a smile. "Would you be able to provide your assistance in a most dire matter?"

"It depends on the matter. We are also in a dire situation ourselves."

"We are looking for somepony." That word seemed to have an odd effect on the creature. "A purple alicorn that goes by the name Twilight Sparkle. As well as, a lilac colored unicorn, that goes by the name of Starlight. Do you perhaps know the location of either of them?"

A smile formed on the creatures face, before what seemed to be a fake frown was presented. Atleast, that's what Luna thought.

"We are in the same situation then. A murderous and psychotic man named Rex had taken the both of them. After we stumbled across this house here, we had a scuffle with them. We took Starlight and Twilight into our care, but Rex had free'd himself and taken them once again. We had thought to come here looking for clues."

"That doesn't-"

Luna was cut off by Celestia. "Are they hurt?"

"Poor Twilight has a scar on her face because of the encounter, and dear Starlight was used in ways that could only be done by the most psychotic and disturbed individual. Rex, is that individual. However, I don't think he intends to kill either of them, or significantly maim them in any way. However, time is of the essence."

"Celesti-"

"What is you name, Sir?"

"Tarbo." Tarbo said with a smile. "I will be glad to help. However, it seems that your associate beside you has something on her mind. I'm willing to listen."

Celestia looked at Luna, before Luna spoke. "None of what you say makes sense. Why would Twilight and Starlight write a paper and mention Rex in it without any ill will? It doesn't seem like an unfriendly encounter to me in the slightest. And you had very little to no security if this was indeed true, allowing him to escape and grab the both of them."

"That is what we plan to fix this time around." Tarbo said with a nod. "We intend to put him down without a second thought. When the chance presents itself, we will take the shot, and end the murderous rampage that he has gone on. In fact, with your help, we know that we'll be almost unstoppable. He is alone, from what we know."

Luna shook her head. "And I am supposed to believe that Twilight and Starlight, both ponies that I have seen perform wondrously in combat encounters, were not able to fight back or atleast attempt an escape?"

"Both of their magic reserves were limited. We don't know why, but it is what it is. I believe it may be the same for you."

Celestia shook her head. "No. We are unaffected."

"Demonstrate, please?"

Celestia nodded before tilting her head forward, allowing a beam of light to be shot through the sky, parting the clouds above with a thunderous sound. She then resumed her pose with a smile, happy that she was able to demonstrate her immense power to an unknowing individual.

"Impressive. You will definitely be helpful. However, it would be the best if all of you were on the same page. I don't feel that your associate is onboard with helping us. If that is so, we will simply be on our way and leave the problem up to you. We can't risk any interference with the operation."

Celestia nodded before giving a glare at Luna. "Luna, what do you say?"

"I say this is a bad idea, Sister. I don't trust them."

She nodded, before turning to Tarbo. "We accept."

"What? Sister, I-"

Within seconds, Luna completely seized up and fell to the ground, a feint gold glow surrounding her body. Tarbo didn't seem phased by it in the slightest, and simply looked at Luna as she fell to the ground. With a tilt of his head, he looked back to Celestia. "What was the reason?"

"I intended to come alone to solve this problem. I will do it alone with my guard if it is required. I put a paralysis spell on her, disabling all body function and magic function. I'll release her once we are done." Celestia looked down to Luna. "I am deeply sorry for this, Sister. But if your interference risks the life of my student and her friend, then I won't allow it."

"You're acting insane, Sister! This is not who you are in the slightest!" Luna thought, her eyes staring wide at Celestia. She really couldn't move, just as Celestia had said, and her horn lightly sparked whenever she tried to use any magic. She was, as said, paralyzed.

"Move her into the house, please." Celestia told the guards, to which they all hesitantly nodded. Despite Luna having 'equal' power in Equestria, her return still was met with hesitant arms. The majority of Equestria's loyalty was towards Celestia. Some didn't even know Luna existed.

"I will station four of my men here in the house with her. They will ensure her safety. We are, after all, the most powerful empire on the planet, with the strongest and most advanced technology, both in typical, and military sense. Your sister will be safe."

"Good." Celestia said with a nod. "Now, tell me.."

"Who is this 'Rex?'"

"It's almost night now. We should really, really find a place to stop." I said with a groan, shuffling my feet mindlessly in the same direction as we had been travelling in for the past seven or so hours now. Twilight looked back at me with a sympathetic look.

"..Alright, but we seriously need to find someone we can get more of those pills from."

"Twilight, I've already told you. Luciferium is one of the rarest drugs on the Rim. The possibi-"

"Don't say that!" Twilight yelled, staring a hole into me. "I don't care what you told me. We are finding more of it for you, and that's not a debate. I will find a way."

I sighed, knowing that there would be no reason in arguing with her. I scanned around the desolate landscape, looking for anywhere that we could possibly stay at. There was another cave that seemed decently shallow. I pointed in its direction. "Hey, there's a cave over there. It looks decent enough to sleep in for tonight. I cannot stand the feeling of being out in the open, and definitely not if I'm going to be sleeping."

Starlight nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I'd never get any sleep."

In the past few hours, Starlight had actually been quite talkative. She had broken out of whatever shell she was in before, which was nice. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love talking with Twilight, but the dialogue between us seemed awkward with a third member that wasn't willing to speak. Now, it was way less awkward.

"Alright." Twilight said, shifting her direction towards the cave, which both Starlight and I did the same. We approached the cave cautiously, which moments later Twilight shot some sort of beam into the cave that illuminated it. It was shallow as I predicted, and there was nothing in it.

Twilight and Starlight immediately took refuge in the deepest part of the cave. When they noticed that I wasn't coming with, they gave me odd looks. I shook their thoughts away with a dismissive hand. "Don't worry. I'll be keeping watch for a little bit before I go to sleep as well, don't worry about me. Besides, I want to go see something outside for a bit."

"Al..right..?" Twilight said, a hint of suspicion in her voice. I simply gave her a cheeky smile before disappearing outside.

Once I thought I was far away enough from the cave, I began to talk outloud. "Alright, where are you?"

"Oh, me?" The red-outlined me said, appearing out of thin air itself. It gave me a smile. "Wow, what do I owe the occasion? You seem to not want to talk to me at all, so why now?"

"As long as you don't bother me in front of the others again, I won't have a problem. It's hard to talk to someone when you have two others that cant see who you're talking to. They'd think I'm fucking insane."

"Are you?"

"Don't you fucking.. ugh." I groaned, kicking a rock in the dirt angrily.

"Alright alright, I'll let off. What's up?" It asked casually, lifting its feet up into a criss-cross sitting position while floating in the air idly in front of me. I knew questioning it would do absolutely nothing, so I shook my head and went to continue what I came for.

"Look, I need to know something."

"Oh? I can't tell you everything, but we'll see."

I sighed. "Is there a good.. I don't know, ending for those two?"

It stared at me. "I can't tell you if there is a good ending for you, Re-"

"Not me. Them." I said, pointing at the cave. "I don't care what happens to me. Lord know's i'm probably going to die. I don't have much time left without those pills, and the only thing I want to know is if they'll be okay. If I die, I won't ever get to see it. I just want to know if they will be okay after I go."

It smirked at me. "That's quite selfless of you. You do care about them deeply, don't you?"

There would've been a day that I would say no. "I do."

"Well, Rex. I can't tell you anything right now, but you know what I can promise?"

"What?"

It got up close to me. "When you are on your deathbed, I will reveal everything to you. But I can't do so a moment earlier than that. It's all in the name of cosmic intervention, I assure you. Not because I don't like you. I mean, I am you, so why would I not like you?"

"I don't like myself."

"And why is that?" It asked, floating a bit away to give me room. "I can feel the hate you feel for yourself. Why? I don't think you've given ample reason for such a thing."

"You know what I did, you claim to be there. I murdered my father, I made my own mother disown me, I hurt a lot of people on the Rim, and I couldn't save some others. There's your summary."

It got back onto its feet. "The day you murdered your father was the day you sent a demon back to hell, with a sting from a holy light. I know you don't, but I loved that day. I loved it so very much, in fact, that I felt the need to scream from your own body. You protected your family when you did that, despite what your mother did. You were forced into situations where you needed to kill, and forced into others where you couldn't save them. Such as, the trader that you found, with that one Luciferium pill, hm?"

I looked away from it.

"He told you of the dangers before he passed. Do you blame yourself for something like that? Tell me this, Rex, if you weren't here, would you be able to help Twilight and Starlight?"

"Well, no, but someone else coul-"

"No." It said sternly. "No one else could've. In fact, I think that might be the reason why you survived. You were meant to be here. What that entails, I do not know. But if you weren't here, the both of them would've ended up on this Rim without anyone. They would've died, been eaten, or even raped. Worse than what happened at Tarbo's place, and you know it. So don't give me none of that bullshit no more."

I folded my arms. "And you just know that, huh?"

It nodded. "I do."

"How?"

"I've seen it."

I paused. "What do you mean, seen it?"

"Exactly what I said. I've seen it already happen. This is a special occasion. I prefer this."

I wanted to question, but I didn't. I knew that it would possibly result in me learning about something that I didn't want to know to begin with. If it's seen it, then I will simply believe it. I really can't prove it wrong, can I? "Well.. Alright. Just, go away now, I need to get to sleep."

"Alright, but you've got a visitor." It said, pointing a finger behind me before disappearing. I turned around, only to be met with purple eyes.

"What..?" She asked.

Author's Note

Ahehm.

Oh oh oh, guess what, I have another idea for a story! Perhaps I'll start that one too and-

just kidding, I won't start that until atleast one of my stories is already completed. Too much on my plate right now.

Ciao.