Location: Skies above Equestria

Meruem's POV

It feels great flying again after all this time. I got to admit that what all those pegasi servants said in the past was right. "Nothing beats the feeling of wind pushing against you face as you fly at high speed."
Despite all the Hatsu I've created before and during my time in Tartarus, Metamorphosis and Body Reconstruction remains two of my best abilities. Simply sprouting wings and taking to the skies is the very definition of freedom.

Looking down and taking in the landscape of my beautiful home, I see many things that remained the same and what's changed through the centuries. Like railways going through many town and villages, so many new places were there once was nothing but land. I also discovered that apparently Tartarus is located far to the east of the Everfree, because of course it would be there.
I stop midflight as my eyes lock onto what remains of my old home in the Everfree, it's nothing more than ruins now. I guess Celestia and Luna must have abandon it after the Great Feast. Though to be fair, I've been in Tartarus for a long time, so there's definitely a lot that I've missed through out the centuries and millenia.

"Well, I'll fly back here another time. For now I need to continue flying south-west."

Location: Ponyville

Rainbow Dash POV

Ah, nothing beats a nice afternoon nap after a hard day of work. It's the least that the coolest and fastest flyer in Equestria deserves. Just me, this perfectly fluffy cloud and no other cloud or pegasus in the sky. Yep, perfect, nothing can ruin this moment.
...
... ...
... ... ...
"Huh, I thought I jinxed myself there for a mom-" my sentence is cut short as a loud sound of thunder acompanied with a powerful gust of wind flies past me. Causing me to lose balance and hang by the edge of my cloud.

"Ya a'right up there Dash?!" Applejack shouts from the ground, "Dat was a might' powerful gust ah wind!"

"Yeah I'm just fine!" I shout back as I get back up the cloud.
"What the hay was that?"

Back to Meruem

That was close, I almost hit that pegasus. Seems like there is a nice and not so little town now outside the Everfree, maybe I should visit sometime in the future.
Oh right, I almost forgot!

"Seir (Lord of Eyes)"

I spread out my arms and direct my palms towards the ground. Out of the glowing palms of my hands, small white sparks in the shape of winged big eyed ants begin to fall.
This is a Hatsu I created for the simple purpose of keeping watch. Seir is a colony of nen-beasts that are a combination of driver ants from Zebrica and Parasprites. Through them I can see what happens all over Equestria, they'll populate on they're own and spread out fast, giving me a world wide view. They aren't made for combat and they're not durable. They do however possess a stinger and powerful jaws from the driver ant part. Other than that, they appear as normal ants.

"I need to make sure to get some of them down the villages and towns bellow," I thought to myself, "that way I can have them spread out by jumping onto wagons of traveling merchants and what not."

After finishing my snowfall of little nightmares, I fly over what I believe was called the Ghastly Gorge. Seems like they've built a bridge there now. Passing the Ghastly Gorge and what seems to be a town with a Rock Farm, I finally begin to see the desert in the distance. Personally I've never understood how anyone can live in a desert, sure if you don't have a choise then I can understand. But willingly?
... ... ... Why am I even thinking about this? I have a friend to retrieve.

I stopped above a cloud to use as a platform and proceed to use my En in order to sense the auras of nearby lifeforms.
En is an advanced application of Ten and Ren. In Ren, aura usually envelops only a small amount of space around the user's body. En is when one extends their Ren so that their aura extends further than normal, then uses Ten at the same time to contain and give shape to that aura, normally a sphere. Someone using En can feel the shape and movement of anything within the area covered by their aura, with the degree of awareness and finesse depending on their level of skill. The downside to this technique is that it is extremely tiring and draining for the Nen user to constantly deploy so much aura.
I see many small signs of life within the desert; insects, rodents, plants and even the birds in the sky. Seems like my En has gotten way stronger during my time in Tartarus. In the past I could sense the auras in a 200 meter radius, but now I can sense them from nearly 2 kilometers away, I even sense the auras from the forest and townsponies right before the desert. I pick up a large gathering in the center of the desert and begin heading towards it.

"Well, it's better than nothing. Still, it's pretty weird that I can't sense her. Then again, chaos magic has always been pretty wonky."

Location: Town in San Palomino Desert

3rd person POV

The desert of San Palomino, while not as bad as the Bone Dry Desert or the Badlands, a desert is still a desert. Here they have the classical cactus fruits and camel milk, but also a large variety of tropical fruits like bananas, pineapples, coconuts and Dragon fruits. The reason why is because unlike the other two deserts, San Palomino Desert is located right next to the South Lunar Ocean, which have numerous vacation resorts.

Located in the middle of the desert is the village of Somnambula, named after the brave pegasus mare that saved it over a millenia ago. Thanks to the hard work of both earth ponies and pegasi, the village has prosper and grown greenery surrounding the village, unlike in the past when this place was nothing more than a barely livable desert. The villagers consisted of ponies from all three tribes, but the majority of tourists that visited were pegasi and other winged races, this is because they had the easiest time traveling since they flew over the burning sands of the desert. The towns primary tourist attraction is of course the towns supply of glowpaz and the Sphinx Pyramid, were there once lived a wish granting goddess; who possessed power that nearly rivaled that of the Lord of Chaos himself.
There was an old ruin gate as the entrance for the town, it's one of the few thing that was left almost completely untouched and unchanged through the millenia in order to keep some of the history of the town.

In the distance, the two guards stationed at the entrance, along with some of the villagers could hear what sounded like thunder, yet there were no rainclouds to be seen. Suddenly in the distance, several white clouds split apart with perfectly circular holes and a sparkling blur crashed down right at the entrance of the village of Somnambula. The two guards immediatelly went into defensive positions and pointed their spears at the dustcloud, were they could see the outline of a figure.

"Halt! Identify yourself or we will... we will- uh..." the pegasus stallions voice dies in his throat as he stares slackjawed and his partner, a pegasus mare, goes crimson and her winged fold out erect.

Out of the dust cloud walked a young muscular lime green pegasus stallion, a wild purple mane with dark green streaks and a long oddly snake looking tail that dragged in the sand. The stallion was quite short, looking more like a colt standing at 1.69 meters, while the avarage stallion stand at about 1.8 - 2.2 meters. His wings were large, covering his entire back side with feathers that mixed between dark green and purple while the base of his wings were lime green like his fur. In other words, he was a beautiful, well built and exotic looking stallion; who was walking through the streets wearing nothing more than a black-blue vest and nothing else. Leaving several crimson faced mares and many jealous stallions staring at the mysterious stranger that fell from heaven, both figuratively and literally. Despite being so short, he was not small at all down south.

"I feel her presence in this village, but where could she be?" *looks forward and sees the pyramid in the distance* "Nevermind, stupid question." Meruem sighs loudly to himself.

With the combined help of Metamorphosis and Body Reconstruction, Meruem possesses an extremely useful shapeshifting ability. The former transforms and reshapes his muscles and skeletal structur, while the latter changes his outer appearance; skin and hair. The only requirement for Meruem's transformations is that he has to have eaten the creature he transforms into at least once in his life. After the Great Feast, that is no longer a problem and Meruem now has a disguise of nearly every race in Equestria.

"Strange, why is everypony looking at me?" Meruem wondered in his mind.
"Is there something wrong with my disguise?"

It doesn't take Meruem long to realise what's wrong as he looks down on his body. It does however take him some time to take action, as he couldn't help but feel embarrassed at his own stupidity.

"Right, ponies don't have an exo-skeleton to hide their privates." Meruem said with a sigh, he looks towards his left to see an earth pony mare with a stall filled with different coloured cloth.

"You." Meruem said with a voice of authority as he made eye contact with the mare.
"How much for a full outfit?"

"I-If y-you buy e-everything as-s one," the mare stammered, her face completely red as she's trying to keep eye contact with her customer, but can't stop herself from taking a couple of quick peaks.
"35 bits s-sir."

Meruem reaches into the left chest pocket of his vest and brings out a wallet that he had "borrowed" from a friend earlier.

Location: Outside the edge of the Everfree Forest

"OH THAT SONUVA BUG!" Sheer Force yelled to the heavens.

"What is it sir?" Meyeri asked with concern.

"That overgrown ant stole my wallet!"

Back with Meruem

"Hope he's not too mad." Meruem thought as he got dressed in a changing booth.
Meruem now wore clothing that both made him blend in and made him quite the looker.

While not drawing as much attention as he did before, he was still quite the eye candy for the villagers, especially the mares who were practically drooling. Meruem was not unaware that his pony forms were quite attractive, there was barely any difference between his unicorn, pegasus, earth pony and alicorn forms. It isn't because he couldn't make variations between them, but because it wasn't necessary. His variations could easily pass as relatives to eachother, so if someone had seen more than one of them it wouldn't cause bigger comments than "They look similar". Because of this Meruem only made one alias for his pony forms.

Light Shine

Since the name Meruem means "The Light that Shines above all" it wasn't that odd of a choise for a pony name.

Continuing with his walk towards the pyramid, Meruem spent some time simply enjoying the views, passing off as any other tourist visiting the village. Though half his mind was also kept in the past since this isn't the first time he visited this village. In the past, Meruem had come here as a prince of Equestria in order to solve a political problem that involved the Pharaoh that ruled this town before the sphinx. The pharaoh was apparently close friends with Solaris and Faust knew that he would be a problem in the future if something wasn't done.

Finally he was at the entrance of the pyramid, but it was not only heavily guarded, but apparently sealed off with ancient runes.

"I wonder why it's sealed?" Meruem asked out loud.

"I'd be happy to tell you about it." an earth pony mare said suddenly behind Meruem. Judging by he clothing she seems to be a guide for tourists.

"I'm listening," Meruem answer with a monotone voice.
"Though I'm guessing it's not for free."

"For a handsome stallion like you? Free of charge."

"The benefit of being handsome I guess." Meruem thought to himself while giving the mare a deadpan expression.

"Long ago, this village fell prey toward an evil Sphinx, who demanded most of their crops. Like her fellow villagers Somnambula didn't have much, but she used what she had to keep others from giving up hope. The son of the Pharaoh, Prince Hisan was so moved by her compassion that he decreed no pony would go hungry again. But when Hisan stood up to the Sphinx, the beast captured him, telling the Pharaoh the only way to get his son back, was to solve her riddle. No pony would volunteer to save the prince, no pony except Somnambula.

The Sphinx gave her the riddle, 'I shined brightest in the dark, I am there but cannot be seen, to have me cost you nothing, to be without me costs you everything'. There Somnambula thought of the hardship she and he fellow villagers had experienced, she instantly knew the answer. 'Hope' she shouted and the Sphinx was so enraged it seemed she might still refuse to release the prince. So Somnambula asked her for one more challange, but if she accomplished it, the Sphinx would leave from the kingdom forever. The Sphinx quickly agreed asking only that Somnambula walk to the bridge across a deep chasm blindfolded. Further, the Sphinx had cast a powerful spell that prevented Somnambula from flying.

But Somnambula never lost hope, she knew she'd need to make a leap of fate to save the prince. Guided by the sound of the prince's voice, she easily made it across. The Pharaoh asked how Somnambula had prevailed and she explained that she had always hoped that she could make things better for her people and that hope had carried her through. The prince replaced the pearl Somnambule gave up with a string of Lopez and around her neck they glowed bright enough to light the entire kingdom."

The guide ended the presentation dramaticly which resulted in a round of applause from ponies that had gathered around to listen to the story. Everyone was cheering and celebrating, talking about how brave Somnabula and the prince was, how evil and unfair the Sphinx was and how hope is the most important thing in the world.

"That story was quite something," Meruem said with a fake smile that quickly turned to a frown, "but many things don't add up in that story."

Meruem's word caused everypony to go silent, wondering what he was talking about.

"First off, why would a Sphinx ask for the villagers crops? From many legends regarding them, Sphinx are primarly carnivores. It would have made much more sense in the story if the Sphinx asked for ponies to devour instead of crops."

When Meruem finished his sentence, many unlookers had expression of horror and some even turned green from the mental image.

"Second, if the Sphinx was so cruel and evil, why was there a pyramid built specifically for her? Judging by the hieroglyphs over by that wall, I'd say that it's almost like the Sphinx was worshipped rather than feared."

This caused many to do a double take, the villagers and tourists started to mumbling amongs eachother, the archaeologists that were nearby started to rethink about the ruins around the entire town and the guards started to feel incredibly uneasy because of an unexplainable feeling of danger. The guide was about to say something but Meruem kept going.

"Third and what most likely is the biggest flaw in the story, the timeline doesn't add up because Prince Hisan was already crowned Pharaoh during the time Somnambula was an adult."

This was the comment that nearly threw all the villagers into a frenzy, while some were angry over his claims, other started to realise that he was right and felt like their minds had been blown. Until the tourist guide finally managed to speak.

"How would you even know that?!" the guide accused Meruem, "You didn't even know what the pyramid was, so how would you know so much about our history, if you didn't know about the Sphinx?"

"Who said I didn't know about the Sphinx?" Meruem said as his aura was slowly starting to flare, "Also, my fourth point, the story didn't answer my question. Somnambula's request was for the Sphinx to leave and never come back, so why would they seal the pyramid as if the Sphinx never left?"

The feeling that the guards felt before now skyrocket. Everypony started to shake in terror over a feeling that nearly caused them all to either run or pass out. The tour guide fell onto her flank as she stammered.

"I-I don't h-h-have the a-a-answer for t-that s-sir."

"If you don't have the answer then I'll find out myself." Meruem stated as he began walking towards the sealed entrance to the pyramid.

The guards nearby tried to stop him, but as two approached and placed their hands on Meruem's shoulders, Meruem grabbed both their arms in a bone crushing grip and proceeded to throw them over his shoulders, which resulted in both stallions to crash into the civilians behind him.
Meruem now stood infront of the entrance and pulled his right arm back. As he focused his nen into his arm, it started to swell up, becoming more muscular before he delivered a punch that appeared as nothing more than a blur for the unlookers. The barrier that was previously invisible was revealed in a blue light with spider web-like cracks covering it before it shattered like glas and the entrance collapsed into dust. Everypony was left speechless as Meruem kept going deeper into the pyramid.

Location: Pyramid of the Sphinx

After several twists and turns, Meruem finally reached the place that he remember from over a millenia ago. He took in the surroundings, seeing all dust and cobwebs that had gathered and covered the walls, pillar and statues. Meruem felt both nostalgic and sad for the state that the ruins were in. He remembered when he had walked into this very hall together with Starswirl and Pride Sentry for the first time. When his eyes landed on the stairway that lead up to the old throne of the cruel Pharaoh, were he would sit with Sphinx in chains behind him like a trophy, it made Meruem's blood boil.

"I should have taken my time when I killed that pig in pony clothing." Meruem muttered to himself.

1350 years ago

3rd person POV

"Flash Gem is pregnant!?" Meruem exclaimed with a smile.

"Yep!" Pride Sentry exclaimed equally happy.

"Do you know if it's gonna be a colt or a filly?" Starswirl asked with a smile.

"According to Queen Faust and Princess Celestia, it's gonna be a colt." Pride answered with a bright smile.

Meruem, Starswirl and Pride Sentry was right now in a newly made anti-gravity wagon that was being pulled by two pegasi Solar Guards. They were on their way to have a political discussion with the Pharaoh of San Palomino and hopefully convince him to not start anything after the news of Solaris passing arrives to him.
They left the wagon and began walking through the village, that was more like a small city during this time, towards the beautiful Sphinx Pyramid as it was called.

"How did Mr. Diamond Shard take these news?" Starswirl asked with a smirk.

"He was surprisingly happy for Flash Gem," Pride started and then shuddered, "but then he wispered into my ear that if I ever even got the idéa of abandoning her and the foal, then he would make me wish that he would just kill me."

"You know, I keep hearing about how scary Diamond Shard can be," Meruem said thoughtfully, "but I don't think I've ever seen him angry."

"Well that's the thing," Pride began shakily, "he said it all with a smile."

Just as a shudder ran down their spines, they heard a bit of commotion further ahead and saw a teenage filly being held roughly by a guard.

"You little brat!" the guard shouted.

"Let me go!" the filly yelled and pleaded.

"Oh no, you know the rules," the guard said as he put on a sinister smile and brought out a one handed axe, "you know what he do to those that steal."

The fillies eyes widen in fear as he brought her arms onto a nearby bench. He raised the axe high as the filly begged with tears in her eyes, but just when the axe was brought down towards her.

"What seems to be the problem?" a young sounding voice said as a green hand grabbed the guard by the wrist.

"What! Who are you to dare stop one of the Pharaoh's guard executing justice?" Guard asked as he struggled in the cloaked figures grip.

"Who I am?" The figure said just as he removed the cloak and let it fall onto the sand covered ground, revealing a beautiful young alicorn stallion with lime green fur and a purple and green mane, "I am Prince Meruem Alicore, youngest child of the Alicore family."

Every villager was left wide eye and shocked, some even began to kneel out of reflex of hearing the Alicore name. The filly stared in awe and the guard started shaking in fear and frustration.

"Your majesty, this brat stole-" the guard sentence was cut short as a fist collided with his muzzle, loud cracks could be heard from his body before he was sent flying down the street, through a wagon and into pillar, causing it to crack and leave a pony shaped crater on it. As the guard tried to stand up, his axe was thrown and planted right into the pillar next to the left side of his head, nearly chopping his left ear off.

"Next time, use the axe on someone that actuelly deserves it." Meruem yelled down the street as ponies were left in shock and Pride Sentry paid for the wagon that was destroyed.

"Thank you." a weak voice came from Meruems right.

"You're welcome." Meruem said with a smile.
"What's your name?"

"Somnambula...er-your majesty." the filly answered nervously.

"Does your special talent have something to do with sleep walking?"

"Eh... what?"

"Nevermind." Meruem said with a headshake. Meruem took quick notice that the filly looks quite malnourished, he didn't need to think to hard over what to do next.

"Let's get you something to eat." Meruem said with a smile.

After having spent about an hour or so eating food and talking with Somnambula, Meruem knew that it was time to leave and continue towards the pyramid. But before he left Meruem saw a wagon filled with necklaces.

"Wait here for a moment," Meruem said as he quickly stopped by the wagon and return with a pearl necklace.
"Here you go."

"Oh! I can't take this," she nervously replied, "my family is already struggling and there is no way I can repay you for what you've already done."

"Nonsense," Meruem replied with a shrug, "you don't need to repay me, I'm doing this cause I want to."

As Meruem placed the pearls around her neck he said "Never lose Hope." Little did Meruem know just how much those words would effect that filly's vew upon life.

Meruem, Starswirl and Pride Sentry finally arrived at the entrance of the pyramid. The pyramid wasn't actuelly the home for the Pharaoh despite popular belief. It was more like a Castle hall were there would be political discussions and debate, as well as a place were the civillians could come in and tell their pleads and wishes. Though rarely any of the wishes that was said were actuelly granted.

The lie that Meruem and Starswirl had been sent to perform was that Meruem was the youngest child of Solaris had come to form an alliance with the Pharaoh. However, the Pharaoh turned out to be just as God-crazy as Solaris and saw himself to be above everyone else. Word about Solaris passing had spread faster than they thought and they were immediately surrounded by his foot soldiers as they reached the middle of the throne room. As the Pharaoh was holding a speech about how he planned to take Queen Faust for himself and keep Celestia and Luna as concubines, Meruem was already starting to change into his true form as he snarled like a beast infront of everyone. But what made him snap was when he made eye contact with the Sphinx that sat just behind the throne in chains.

She was massive compare to the others in the throne room, standing at about 4.5 meters tall, he fur coat was a dark cerise colour and her mane was a mix with dark grayish indigo and grayish blue violet.
Meruem to this very day, still doesn't know what it was behind those beautiful brilliant gamboge yellow eyes that made him snap. Was it the look of hopelessness? The look of having no one? Or was it just the state that she was currently in that made Meruem so angry? While her fur covered up most of it, Meruem could clearly see outlines of scars all over her body. She had a rune covered orichalcum collar around her neck; that prevented her from using her magic without permission, and orichalcum chains on every limb of her body, including her wings and tail.

It didn't matter anymore what it was that Meruem was feeling right now. What did matter was that these freaks were gonna die, he would kill and eat them all.

Back to the present

Meruem was brought back to reality thanks to a cracking sound followed by a flashing light that came from his left towards the platform in the center of the hall. There in the middle of the platform was what appeared to be a crack in reality, there were sparks of electricity in form of pink and blue lightning being released from it. The inside of the crack was constantly changing as if it didn't know were it was suppose to lead too, but for a brief instance Meruem could have sworn that he saw the outline of a very familiar creature.

As he got closer, Meruem began to feel a strong pull in form of a vacuum that got stronger the closer he got to the crack. Not wanting to risk being swept of his feet, Meruem used Metamorphosis to change his hoofs into powerfull claws that dug into the stone of the platform. Taking slow and powerful stomping steps towards the crack, the pull started getting so strong that Meruem could feel his fur and feathers beginning to be ripped of his pegasus form, but that didn't slow him down.
He was now standing right infront of the crack and the pull was so strong that several patches of fur began to leave his body and get sucked into the crack. Realising just how dangerous this situation is for his body, Meruem covers his entire being with Ken

Ken is the advanced version of the basic Ren and Ten techniques. It is a primarily defensive technique where a Nen user maintains a state of Ren for a prolonged amount of time. The amount of aura surrounding the user's body during Ken is about 10 times higher than during Ten. Ken allows a Nen user to guard against attacks from any direction, but the large amount of aura produced makes it tiring to maintain. Ken is utilized when one wants to be cautious as some Nen users choose to expand its radius so as to sense incoming attacks they are unable to see, as a miniature En of sorts.

With the preparations done Meruem braces himself as he places both of his hands at the entrance of the crack and begins to pull it open.

"This is gonna hurt." Meruem says out loud as he rips the crack apart.

The effect is immediate as all of Meruem's cloths, fur and feathers are ripped of his body and into the crack. As Meruem begins to feel even his skin beginning to rip, he changes back into his true form to have his exoskeleton protect him. But even that is barely enough as Meruem feels his flesh and muscles beginning to tear and his bones crack, if a regular creature was standing in the force that Meruem was right now experiencing, they would be liquified on the spot.
Meruem eyes nearly pop out of their sockets, but he immediatelly shuts them tight and screams as the pain begins to become too much even for him. He let's go with his right hand and reaches out hoping that the one he's trying to reach will take it. Thankfully it didn't take long for the one he's been looking for to grab hold of his hand and allow themselves to be dragged out. Just as he manages to pull out, the crack immediatelly closes and releases a shockwave that causes the entire pyramid to shake and all the dust and sand inside to be pushed out to the outside as a powerful dust storm.

Feeling himself being lifted and embraced by something that is at least three times his size, Meruem weakly opens his eyes and makes eye contact with a friend that he has missed dearly. He gives her a weak smile as she returns with a tearful one.

"*sniff* I've missed you, Meruem." the Sphinx says with affection in her voice.

"And I've missed you... Asha..." Meruem smiles weakly as he closes his eyes and fall unconscious.

Author's Note

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter because I really enjoyed writing it.
I don't know what it is with me this week, but I just felt like I really wanted to write and get going. Which isn't actuelly that good since I have a project going on in University and I haven't even started yet.

If you have any tips on were I can improve in my writing, don't be afraid to leave a comment. But also leave a comment if you just want to point out a specific part that you liked, it always makes be happy to here.

Here's a more informative description for Seir (Lord of Eyes)
Nen-type: Emission, Transmutation and Manipulation
Spawns an ever growing colony of winged ants, they appear as pure white with big pitch black eyes. These ants are the result of combining the fast growning Zebrican (African) Driver Ants and the quick spreading Parasprites, resulting in a swarm of nen beasts that can quickly go from thousand to a million to a billion, given enough time. They'll grow and spread out so that they cover every corner of every village, town, city and kingdom. They serve as Meruem's eyes and ears and nothing more. If something of Meruem's interest is discovered, he'll be informed. They aren't more durable or stronger than any other ant species out there, they do possess big mandibles for biting and a stinger, but nothing lethal. Because of how fast they grow and spread, even if you kill thousands of them, there will always be more as long as two remains.

If you have more questions about Nen, then click here.

PS. Seir's appearance is like that of the Panda Ant, but with wings.

It's adorable.