They Call Me Easy

Geronimo!

Grogar sat, his red eyes were burning furnaces that fueled the spell allowing his soul to leave his body. He flew high over the spirit world and looked down on his realm. It was a task he performed daily. Sending out his life force looking for troublemakers, dissenters, and rebellion. Whenever he found any hint of these, he had them hunted down and viciously suppressed.

This was his Empire, under his will, and things would be done his way. Those under his rule had no choice. They could choose to follow his rule, or they could choose death. The problem was that here and in his realm, he WAS death. Death did not release you, It was no escape. The vast numbers of undead were living proof of that.

Grogars ear twitched as the alarm of the alert wards reached him, snapping his soul back into his body. He moved over to the viewing pool and took in the report. The door wards to the high-energy magic labs had tripped. Grogars impressive brows furrowed.

“Frau Bestatter, are there any tests scheduled for the High Energy Labs today?” He asked his personal secretary, a thin severe looking mare with a tight bun.

She looked over her notes, straightened her monocle, and shook her head.

“No, lord Grogar, Nothing till Friday.”

Grogar smiled. It wasn't a pleasant smile.

“Oh really?”

The door flew open and the frantic quartet ran into the room. They all stopped and quickly took in their surroundings. They found themselves in a huge room the dimensions of a warehouse. It was an empty space with scientific equipment dotted randomly around the room. Dusks eyes were drawn to a complex summoning ring that seemed to take up the majority of the center of the floor. He moved over to it and carefully looked over the complex glyphs that made up its glowing pattern and began to form conclusions.

Behind him, Barb and the others were spreading out and moving the heaviest equipment they could see. While Dusk's attention moved from the circle to the tarp-covered mirror at its center, the others began franticly using the large machines to barricade the door. Easy Comforts claws flashed with a quick spell to reinforce the barricade and the group stepped back to examine their work.

Barb glanced at Easy.

“How long do you think that will hold them?”

“Not very long.” was his reply as he moved over to the frantically working Dusk.

“So magic colt, can you open the portal?”

Dusk was so focused on working that he almost didn’t hear the question.

“I think I can, but the problem is that this mirror doesn’t have a destination. It’s different than ours. Ours is single destination, or at least it was before I modified it. This one has to have the destination keyed in.”

Saying that, Dusk looked up worried.

“It's not as simple as I hoped.”

“Why, what's wrong?” Asked Easy, now getting worried.

“I have to find our world first, then verify the frequency, then I have to key it in.” Dusk ran his hoof through his mane in exasperation, his eyes studying the enchantment. He looked at the demon. “Once the world is in focus, opening the portal will be the easy part.”

Their conversation was cut short as a loud hammering came from the door.

Barb grit her teeth.

“Well, they found us.”

Dusk looked at his friends.

“Try to hold the barricade while I find our world!”

With that said, the group flew into motion. Each of the friends ran to their particular job. Barb and Butterscotch put their shoulders into the barricade while Dusk began focusing a complex web of spells.

Easy pulled off his backpack and began fishing through it. His mind was racing. He had a surprise that he had to set up and not much time to do it in. He pulled out what he needed and tossed the items to the floor. Then he looked around and made a quick plan, double-checking to make sure that his idea would work. On looking it over, he found a snag in his idea.

‘Dammit, I can’t get that high. I need wings.’ He thought frantically, looking around for a solution. He glanced over to Butterscotch and his eyes fell on the quiet ponies wings. He smiled. ‘Well, I can’t go to Equestria looking like this.’ He thought, glancing at his digitigrade legs and at his nimble fingers. ‘and I do need wings.’ His smile widened and he ran up to Butterscotch.

“Hey Scotch.” He said quickly. “Got a minute?”

As Scotch looked his way, Easy grabbed his head and pulled the surprised stallion into a deep passionate kiss. As he kissed the stunned colt, the demon pulled in the ponies energies and forced his own body to morph. In less than a minute he was a gold and rust-maned Pegasus.

“Thanks Scotchie.”

He grinned and flew up and into the ceiling supports.

The loud booms and the shuddering of the barricade soon brought the red-faced and stunned Butterscotch back to their perilous situation. The shocked Pegasus put his entire weight against the equipment adding his strength to Barbs as the door slowly began to work its way open.

In a panic, Barb shouted.

“Dusk, we don’t have much time. We have to MOVE!”

Dusk, for his part, was having trouble.

“There are thousands of worlds. I can’t find ours. There are several that are almost at our magic frequency, but all the ones I try are still, I don’t know, off somehow!”

He looked at the buckling door in exasperation. “All I can find is close. Worlds that are similar, but still the frequency isn’t ours. I have it narrowed down to the four most similar ones, but they are still not right!”

At that, the door completely buckled and weapons could be seen hacking away at the barricade. Spellfire flew through whatever gaps the attackers could find.

The demon flew to Dusk and grabbed the mage with his hooves.

“Close will have to do. We are out of time!”

With that statement, the barricade blew apart and the two friends tumbled to a stop next to the others.

“I-I don’t know!” cried a flustered Dusk.

“PICK ONE!” The demon shouted, glancing to the barricade.

The Demon was just in time to see the large shadowy form of Grogar approaching through the smoke.

To Grogar, time seemed to slow. He was just in time to see the quartet disappear through the portal as he shattered the barricade. He watched dispassionately as the portal closed and his long-dead eyes focused on the destination address. The necromancer smiled. They would run, but they would never escape. He had the address. All he had to do was simply reopen the portal and follow. He formed a wicked smile as the flicker of a dying spell caught his attention.

The tyrant looked up, just in time to see a small spell fizzle out, dropping a rope and kettlebell from the rafters. He watched in confusion as the heavy weight swung in a pendulum arc and crashed through the glass mirror. The impact sent hundreds of shards of glass raining to the ground.

Grogar Screamed.

The Canterlot gardens were beautiful and Celestia Solar, monarch of Equestria was smiling. She sipped her tea and looked across the weathered table at her two guests. Sitting across from her was Twilight Sparkle and her little brother Spike.

Twilight was nose deep in a book and her hoof was blindly feeling around for the tray of cookies at the center of the table. While her hoof was patting the table in search of the elusive cookies, Spike was silently sliding the tray around, keeping it playfully out of reach. Celestia giggled as the purple unicorn peeked out from her book in search of the elusive snacks. Seeing what the little dragon was doing, she puffed her cheeks in irritation.

“Spike! That isn’t funny!"

“It is a little funny, Twilight.” Said Celestia smiling. “You know, the whole point in inviting you to tea was so that we could spend time together.”

The young drake nodded to this. “She has a point Twi, you can’t spend time with us if you’re muzzles in that book.” With that, Spike chomped down on another cookie.

Twilight blushed in embarrassment.

“Sorry Princess, I’ve just been caught up in my research.”

“And just what are you researching this time Twilight?”

“I’m looking into an old prophecy I found in the Canterlot archives. It talks about another Alicorn, just like you!”

The siblings at the table missed the slight narrowing of Celestia’s eyes.

“Is that so?”

Twilight clutched the book to her chest and bounced in her seat with excitement.

“Just Imagine Princess, if the myth is true, that means that there might be a third Alicorn out there somewhere! Just imagine all the unknown spells she must know. If the prophecy is real, she could advance unicorn magic by decades!”

Celestia’s eyes softened as she dawned her carefully schooled mask.

“And you got all this from reading the complete prophesy you pulled out of an old book?”

Twilight's face took on a guilty expression.

“Well, not the complete prophesy. It's written in an odd dialect of ancient Minoan and it's taking me a while to translate.” Twilight seemed a bit happier. “But I've gotten over half of the original text translated already, so the rest shouldn’t take me more than a few weeks.”

Celestia stirred her tea in thought.

“Twilight, don’t you think that maybe you're chasing your tail on this one? Don't you think that I would know if there were another Alicorn?”

Spike shook a cookie at Twilight.

“She’s right Twilight, If there were another Alicorn, the princess would definitely know.”

Twilight refused to be deterred by her companions and grinned.

“Spike, you only learn by studying, and my research should be done in the next month. Then I’ll know if it's true or not and we can plan from there.”

Spike shook another cookie at his sister as he answered.

“That's going to be cutting it pretty close to the festival. I don’t want to miss the summer sun celebration like we did last year.” He huffed and smoke curled from his nose in agitation. “I don't want to be stuck in those dusty archives again, while everypony else is out there having fun.”

Celestia’s train of thought derailed as she felt a disturbance in harmony. She stood and glanced down at the sound of the tea cups quietly rattling. By this time her whole group was on their hooves and looking around in alarm.

Startled, Spike tugged on Twilight's mane.

“Twilight, was that statue always looking in that direction?”

Celestial spun and looked at the nearest statue and her face paled. Spike had been right, the stone form of Discord was indeed looking in a different direction. His petrified form was now looking motionlessly behind her. She could see that his old expression of surprise had morphed into one of absolute glee. The princess followed his gaze and watched in surprise as a dark portal formed in the gardens. As the portal began to close, several figures tumbled out of it and quickly got to their hooves.

The princess stealthily prepared several spells as a precaution and moved regally toward the newcomers. As she approached, she began to see details. There were only four of them. Three of them were stallions and the last was a teenaged dragoness.

Celestia spoke.

“Welcome to Canterlot castle my little ponies. Which of you would like to explain to me what just happened?”

The quartette turned on hearing her voice and froze in surprise at what they saw, while Celestia, Spike, and Twilight stared back.

Spike tugged on the monarch's leg.

“Um, Princess, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Celestia didn't respond, her ancient mind was busy examining each newcomer. One was the spitting image of her student, only male. He was tall and thinly built with the complexion of somepony who spent all his time indoors. His cutie mark was a perfect replica of Twilights. He had sharp eyes that took in everything around him as he analyzed his situation.

Her eyes moved to the dragoness. She looked like Spike only older, but that's where the similarity ended. Her scales gleamed in a way that Spikes never had. But what set Celestia on edge were her eyes. While Spikes were quiet, polite, and uncertain, this dragon's eyes were keen, steady, and disdainful. They were eyes that didn't shy from conflict.

Next, Celestia looked at the yellow stallion who was timidly shifting from hoof to hoof, his face a beat red and taking furtive glances at Twilight. She saw the butterfly cutie mark and wondered at his talent.

Out of the small group of newcomers, it was the last stallion that put her on edge. The only thing normal about him was the fact that he was a stallion. He was young for a stallion, petite, and somewhat feminine. His colors were off, the gold of his coat was too gold and the copper of his mane was too copper. His eyes were slitted and although he had the wings of a Pegasus he also had two small black horns. But to Celestia, it was his tail that gave him away. His tail was thin and whip-like with a heart-shaped point on its end. The princess's eyes narrowed. She may have been uncertain what the others were, but she knew exactly what this last pony was, and she was not happy.

No, she was not happy at all.