Infamous

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Anti-Chapter 1
Chapter 9
Anti-Chapter 2
Chapter 10
Orders
Anti-Chapter 3
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Anti-Chapter 4
Author's Note: README.txt

Chapter 1

It was dark. Cold and dark. The gloom was all-encompassing. There was no escaping it. But in this gloom was a single mote of light. This mote, tried and tested time and time again, was no normal mote. It was Cole MacGrath. He was a conduit. A human blessed or cursed, depending on the view, with superhuman powers, waiting to be awakened by a Ray Sphere or something of it's magnitude. He had used one, quite on accident, and nearly caused the annihilation of the globe with a plague. He fixed it though, at the cost of his own life, and so many others.

Next to this mote, another blinked into existence. And then another. And following those, even more. Cole's mote then moved. It shifted slightly, but then blurred in a random direction. As the other motes remained still, they seemed to watch with respect as their former embarked on a journey. A journey to a new place, a place with need for him.

Cole mentally gasped as he regained consciousness. His first thought was utter and complete mental overload, as if every single nerve in his shocked body was firing, over and over again. He nearly blacked out again, but his mastery of electricity seemed to keep him awake. He felt a cool, wet substance on his face, and it tingled. He felt his clothes on his back, and even the comfortable weight of his silver amp on his back. He calmed himself, and then mentally checked over himself. He moved his toes, and then began moving up his body, checking each part for damage. Other than the utter confusion, he felt good, if not drained. There seemed to be no circuits around him, and as he tried to locate anything, there seemed to be a lack of artificial electricity in general. The only current he could sense was very, very weak. As if it were organisms. Finally, he put his right hand to the ground, and began to lift himself off the ground.

He rose to his knees, and then to his feet, and for the first time since awakening, looked around him. He seemed to be in a sort of forest. That explained the lack of high voltage electricity. The trees were a sort of bright green never seen in New Marais, or anywhere, for that matter. In fact, EVERYTHING seemed to be colorful. Too colorful. As he beheld his new environment, he felt a wave of weakness wash over him. Then, with a familiar tingle, his right hand lit up with a blue glow. He raised his arm, focused for a moment, and then pulsed his neurons. A bolt of blue lightning shot out of his hand, impacted a nearby tree, and dissipated into it, the only sign of it being there at all was a small scorch where the bolt had hit. His brows furrowed for a moment in thought, then he walked up to the tree. Placing both his hands on it, he sent a tiny jolt of electricity through his right hand. It didn't reach his left.

He frowned for a moment, and then sighed. 'Like I have anything to lose...'. He tried to absorb electricity from the tree, and with a slight shock, ha actually was able to do so. It seemed the tree was grounded, and the ground had a huge store of energy...

His train of thought was broken by a shrill scream.

It was back like in Empire City or New Marais. He had options. Option one: ignore it. He was in a new land, a new place, with no knowledge of the inhabitants, animals, terrain, or anything for that matter, and, on top of that, he was weakened and without power. Option two: sneak over there. If he did, he may not be fast enough. If that was some sort of local screaming being attacked by some animal or something, then he may be shunned since he didn't help. Option three: get over there as soon as he could, try to help, and befriend the locals. If he did, then he may have a much easier time later, and may even be able to get back home.

Without a second thought, he took off towards the voice. He pumped his right arm into the air, and was pleased to be launched upwards by a spire of ice. As he took to the air, he focused on his arms, and they began propelling him slightly with waves of electricity. The cry sounded once more, and this time, it seemed like more than one. He dropped to the ground, gathering electricity as he did. At the bottom, instead of releasing it like he normally did, he held on to it. He felt his reserves increase, slightly, and took off again, pulling the amp out of its place on his back. That was new.

He broke into a clearing, and wasted no time getting to work. A group of seven wolf-like creatures had flanked and cornered a group of three, small, very-brightly off-colored, scared mini-horse things which seemed to be backed up against a wall. Two were in front of the third, which had a bright red streak on it's flank. The aggressors, and in this case predators, were were obvious. Whatever he did, he was going to have to deal with the wolves sooner or later. He picked sooner.

With a cry, he brought his amp down on the closest wolf-thing, and pulsed his electricity through it as he swung. Ever in motion, he flipped over it, whipped his amp forwards, and jabbed the next one. Only then did he notice the lack of blood or bone, but rather shards of bark and tree sap. Not that it mattered, anyways. He had seen worse.

The second wolf-tree thing yelped and jumped backwards to escape the electric touch of the amp. As it did so, the attention of the other five were drawn to him. One leaped at him, as the others circled around. He raised the amp up, catching it's bite on one of the prongs. He grabbed it's head with his left hand, and pulsed electricity through his right. With the sickly smell of burning logs, the tree-wolf seemed to go limp, and Cole dropped it. With a strong premonition, he dropped to the ground and jabbed upwards, just to send a wolf tumbling head-over-paws above him. He turned around, and brought the amp back. Two down, five to go.

The next wave came in a pair. Three seemed to stay back and watch, one of these more bulkier and hefty than the others. If these were like wolves, then that one must be the alpha. He was distracted by the dash of one wolf, going low, while the other went high. He swung his cocked amp with a swing that would make Babe Ruth proud, and bashed a wolf flying. Before he could get the second, though, it swung at his leg, and he felt a sharp pain as hot blood dribbled out of the slash. He caught it on it's way out, though. A quick precision shot to the back of the 'head', and that wolf was done. He turned, leg weak, back to the three. He met eyes with the big one, and it seemed to challenge him. If these WERE even slightly intelligent... back to the fight.

The 'alpha' growled once, and the other two seemed to stay back. Cole tensed, and readied himself for the inevitable pounce. As sure as night follows day, the pounce came. Cole brought his amp up, but the force of all the wood-like substance bearing down on him made him stumble. His injured leg caught a root, and he fell. As he fell, he felt the amp slip from his grasp, and the wolf landed on top of him, claws poking into his chest. He brought his hands up to catch the jaw of the biting wolf, and pushed. The wolf pushed back as he held it's jaws open and away. But he felt his strength draining, and the wolf began to press its advantage. The jaws moved closer and closer, and Cole knew it would come down to this. With a last bit of effort, he did what he had told himself he wouldn't. He leeched. He dug through the wolf's surprisingly complex neural systems, draining every last free electron from it's body, feeling the same electrons empower him and heal him. As the process came to an end, the blue conduits of energy connecting him with the wolf died out. He shrugged the body off him, and stood back up, preparing for the other two.

They were gone. Seems like they ran off after their 'alpha' died. Not much of a fight. Cole heard a squeak behind him, and turned. The three min-horse things were looking at him, a mix of emotions in their eyes. Were they intelligent?

He crouched down to their level, and the two uninjured ones recoiled from him. One was an off-white color with a wierd pink and purple mane, and the other was bright orange with a dark pink mane. Some colors... The third seemed delirious, and didn't acknowledge his presence. It was yellow with a red mane and had a... bow in it? It didn't matter, the horse-thing was injured. An old trick came to mind, and he put his hands together, electricity coursing between them. As he shuffled closer to the injured one, the other two seemed to grow more determined, and stood in front of it.

"Don't touch her!" The orange one yelled.

Cole recoiled instantly. What the hell? It SPOKE? It IS intelligent! Intelligent equines! How!?

DONE!
He wasn't on Earth anymore. Wherever he is, he was a LONG way from home...

Chapter 2

A/N: I am relatively good at science, and have all my theories and whatnot on how his powers work. You will see this bleed onto my descriptions of attacks/powers and his explanation that will come whenever.

EDIT MORE A/N: Thank you all for all the fav's! Please, comment on the quality and etc. If it seems to be slipping, by all means, scream it in my face. I guarantee I will take what you say into consideration (unless you leave 75 pages of comments) but I cannot guarantee you will see your suggestion in play. Always taking suggestions on how the story will go!

Cole stopped moving, his thoughts running faster than his electricity. He wasn't on Earth. There was no way he could still be on the same planet. Talking horses. TALKING, INTELLIGENT, HORSES! Then it hit him. It didn't matter. What mattered was that whatever universe he was in, however far from Earth he was, he still had a responsibility. He had always been told, since the comics of his childhood, that "with great power comes great responsibility". He had a power, time to use it for good.

"If you understand me, I am only going to help her. She will bleed to death if I don't." That may have been a stretch, but it seemed to make the horse back off a little.

"Whatever monster you are, you're not touching Applebloom!" The other one responded this time.

Two things went through Cole's head. One, the horse thing was called Applebloom. Two, he was just called a monster. Once more, he had two options. He could leave, and let the horse stay injured and maybe die if the wolf things came back. This would make him a monster, even more so than helping the horses. Two, he could heal the horse, maybe get attacked by two little horses than may or may not be able to hurt him, and hopefully get on their good side.

Once again, he choose. "Move over. I didn't just fight a bunch of wooden wolves to let her die." He spoke in a harsh, reprimanding tone, one that kids should be very familiar with. Then, he stepped forwards, the electricity coiling along his arms again. The two horses jumped aside, now scared of him, and watched in horror as he put his hands together. The electricity concentrated in his palms, and he placed them on the flank of the heavily breathing filly. Electricity coursed along her nerves, stimulating the nerves. Endorphins released, and behind them, a flood of platelets and hormones. The pain ceased, as did the bleeding, and, before the two speechless foals' very eyes, the skin and muscle began to repair itself. As Cole backed away, the once-injured filly's eyes fluttered open, and with shaky legs, stood back up.

Cole took another two steps back, and sat himself down on the ground. Surprisingly, that heal took more energy than it should have. It was almost like he was refilling a battery or something. He tried to absorb some energy from the ground, and, once again, he seemed to be able to siphon some electricity from the ground. The "Earth" really is the biggest capacitor.

"Applebloom!" The cries of the two other filly's interrupted his thoughts. The three hugged, seemingly oblivious to the Conduit in their presence. Cole sighed, a sigh of repressed nostalgia. The three fillies seemed to take notice of him, and the one they called "Applebloom" took a tentative step towards him.

Rule number one when dealing with animals: make no sudden movements. Cole looked up into it's eyes and smiled, a warm, bright, friendly smile. "I'm not going to hurt you. Not after I used the energy to heal you."

That seemed to calm her down. Applebloom stepped up to him, and behind her followed the orange one and the white one.

"Thanks, mister. I don't think we'd have gotten outta that one withoutcha." She stuck a hoof out, and Cole tentatively shook it. "I'm Applebloom, and these here are my friends. That's Scootaloo..." she pointed to the orange one... "and that's Sweetie Bell." She pointed to the white one. Strange names. Very different. "What's yours?"

"Oh, I'm Cole. It's nice to meet you."

"Coal? That's a weird name. What type of animal are you? You look kinda like a diamond dog, but you're not as hairy and you have those weird soft-claw things."

"Well, Applebloom, I'm what we call a human. These are called fingers." he held up his right hand and wiggled them. "They help us hold stuff."

"Oh. Well, have you seen Ponyville or Zecora's hut? We kinda got a lil lost when we got chased by the timberwolves."

So THAT'S what they were. Ha-ha. What a pun. Timber wolves?

"One second, stand back." The fillies took a few steps back each, and Cole pumped his right arm into the air. He flew upwards, propelled by the spire. As he reached the top of his jump, he turned around to survey his surroundings. To one side lay the edge of the forest, and to the other, more forest. However, there was a hut there. That must be Zecora's. As he fell back down to the ground, he began to think. The hut is closer, and it would be so much easier if i just went there. We may have to stay the night though, as it's getting dark. We could also just go to the town, and then get these fillies home. I may not be taken in well, as these fillies haven't ever seem a human before. The horses may be paranoid and shun me, or just attack me on sight.

He landed back on his spire. Hmm. That was less energy than it should have been. Maybe the ground had a charge? Or maybe it was full of some other energy.

"Applebloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Bell. I saw a hut over that way." He pointed to the side where the hut was. "Is that the right one?"

Scootaloo replied. "Mister, that was almost as awesome as Rainbow Dash! You were all like *whoosh*" she stuck her hoof into the air and imitated the jump. "That was really cool magic!"

Magic. They have magic here? That should be impossible! There's no such thing... but there is what I can do... are those WINGS on her side? What have I gotten into now? Well, best forget about it until we get somewhere safe.

"Thanks, but is that the right way?"

"Ah think so, Mister Cole. Alright girls, lets get moving!" Applebloom seemed to want to hurry. It WAS getting dark, after all.

"Let's go." Cole responded, as he herded the fillies around him and began the trek to the ever-nearer hut.

The trek was uneventful. They had made it to the hut with little difficulty, but it ended up with Cole carrying the three fillies just as the sun finished setting. The group of four entered the clearing, and Cole was intrigued. There were masks mounted in the ground and the hut seemed to remind him of Nix's home. He slowly made his way to the front door, and the three jumped out of his arms. Applebloom hopped forwards, and she knocked on the door.

"Hey Zecora, it's me, Applebloom." Moments later, the door opened, revealing a zebra with a mohawk and rings around her neck.

"Hello, my dear friends, welcome inside..." Her eyes widened at the sight of Cole. "I just hope that your friend is on our side."

Rhymes. Oh goodie.

"I ensure you, dear zebra, that I have no ill will." What rhyme's with 'will'? Memories of the timberwolves flashed through his mind. "I'm no predator, I don't mean to kill."

The zebra cringed at his obviously dark and somewhat off-tempo rhyme, but instantly lightened up as she understood his statement.

"Well then welcome in and have a snack, you'll find that hospitality, I do not lack."

Chapter 3

A/N again. I love y'all. Thanks! Keep faving/thumb upping me and I'll keep writing this story and I'll try to do it well. YAY! Page 2 of 'What's hot?' ALMOST THERE!

Cole had long since given up rhyming. That took too much time, and the zebra didn't seem to mind. However, he did learn that the proper term for the horses was 'pony'. After a quick meal, the zebra, named Zecora, had offered her home to the group for the night, and in the morning, they would head out to the town, 'Ponyville' to reunite the fillies with their families and introduce Cole to the locals. This seemed like the best option, and hopefully he wouldn't be seen as a monster. For a paragon who fought for the people, it would hurt him to be seen as a monster, although it really wouldn't change him.

Cole lay awake, having forsaken the hut for the tree next to it. He lay on his back, on a branch, staring into the depths of space and the beautiful night sky above. A cool breeze washed over him, and he shifted slightly to a more comfortable position. He contemplated the unfamiliar night sky, and the one place he left behind. He didn't regret activating the Ray Field Inhibitor. It needed to be done. He had ended the threat of world destruction, and saved the lives of billions, at the cost of thousands. It was his hardest choice. He had to choose between the good of the many or the good of the few. He had saved the humans, but killed off the conduits. He had ended the plague, and saved billions, but he had killed Nix and Kuo, and Bertrand, and Alden, and Sasha. Even though they may have been enemies at once, he had never intended to kill those who deserved a second chance. But what about those who were good? What about all the conduits who used their powers, latent or not, to help people. What about them?

Cole shook his head, and cleared his thoughts. He was in a new place now. Whatever he left behind, there was no going back. Now, he needed to stick to his morals, start a new life, and enjoy, as best as he could.

"I can see your mind in motion, new friend Cole, but are you really thinking of the world as a whole?" A voice interrupted his thoughts. It was Zecora.

"I don't know. I really don't. But what happened in the past is done, I need to focus on what happens next."

"I must agree, that you do. It seems as the fighter is also wise, too."

"Well, thanks, I guess. I'll probably hit the sack. We may very well have a long day ahead of us." His mind turned to New Marais, where the locals weren't so open to Conduits before he came around and changed their view.

"Good night then, sleep well in your tree, I must admit, my bed in more comfortable to me."

Cole's thoughts went once again back to Empire City, hanging out with Zeke on the top of their building, enjoying life. He shook his head again, and closed his eyes. As the cool wind blew on, he slowly fell into the deep pit of contented slumber.

The morning sun woke him up. It had just begun to make its way over the horizon, and Cole sat up on his branch. Underneath him, a tantalizing smell wafted forth from the chimney of the hut. He dropped down from the tree, and did his new 'Static Drop and gather' from the tree, refreshed as a wave of electricity replenished him slightly. He approached the front door, and opened it to see Zecora cooking something in a bubbling cauldron.

"What's that?"

"This is our breakfast, my dear. Trust me, there is nothing that you can't eat here. I noticed your teeth, and saw the canines, so in this brew, there are no flowers or vines."

"You made a different breakfast for me?"

"As I said, hospitality I don't lack, but the rabbit for the stew was hard to track. Although I also love the animals here, I understand that you eat animals, however dear."

"Oh no, I don't eat dogs or cats or any other pets, but thanks, I guess you are all herbivores, right?"

Zecora nodded. "Yes, we are, but there's a certain pony here... Don't say you ate a bunny, it'll spook Fluttershy dear.

"Alright, don't tell 'Fluttershy'. But it's okay for me to eat only vegetables, my species has adapted to be able to survive on just plants, although I would prefer to eat meat also."

The two sat down, and began to eat. Cole took a scoop of the stew and put it in a bowl, and Zecora began munching on some recently gathered flowers. As Cole slurped up the last few drops of the surprisingly good stew, he heard a trio of hoofsteps, and, anticipating the three 'Cutie Mark Crusaders', he tossed the bowl in the nearby sink and sat back down. He didn't want to spook the kids, either.

Breakfast was uneventful, and after that, the five preceded to head back to 'Ponyville'. According to the zebra, she should go first, with the fillies, so that no one would get spooked. Then, she would come back and get Cole, so the other ponies wouldn't be scared out of their minds at the lone biped. As they reached the end of their walk along a path that Cole hadn't noticed before, Cole hung back a little, and let the zebra take the other three towards the town.

Cole sat down, once again, and looked forwards. To his right, there lay a small cottage on a hill. Past that was an enormous apple orchard, covered in trees with bulging apples. 'Not natural', he thought, as he continued surveying. The path ran forwards, and curved slightly to the left about a quarter of a mile down to end in a quaint little town. There seemed to be a sort of market in the center, with stalls, just like the ones back home in the more rural towns. Using his precision-based zoom, he sighted the four and watched as they headed towards the town.

He sighed and sat back down, his head hung, as he relaxed. He went back over the events of the previous days, fighting the timber-wolves and saving the fillies. Meeting the zebra, Zecora, and rhyming with her. And then the previous night's nostalgia.

His thought process was interrupted by a quiet "Eeep!" 'God dammit, can't I have a simple moment to freaking think?!" He turned to look at the disturbance. A butter-yellow winged-pony, or pegasus, as Scootaloo had called them, had frozen in shock at the sight or him.

Options ran through his head. Introduce himself, and look friendly, and hopefully get more on the local's side. Good choice. Or, he could scare the living daylight out of her (he assumed, since the pink mane) and have a laugh.

"Oh you poor thing! What happened to you! Your clothes are all torn and your all scratched up. Here, let Fluttershy help you over to her cottage and she'll fix you up."

'Oh god. This was Fluttershy.' For all intents and purposes, Cole didn't eat meat. Well, option two was out the window. Maybe he could pretend to be an animal...? Nah.

"Hi Flutterhy, I'm Cole."

"Eeep!" Fluttershy sprung backwards at his voice, surprised by it. "You can... talk?"

"Yes. I met Zecora and she told me about you." And how easy it is to scare you. "I'm not going to hurt you, don't worry." Cole shifted to his knees and knee-walked over to her. He stuck out a hand.

Fluttershy tentatively reached her hoof forwards, anticipating the biped to flip her over and eat her or something, but he just shook it. "Nice to meet you", it said.

"Well... I still think I should patch you up... if its okay with you...okay?"

'Wow she's really as scared and nice, i guess, as Zecora said she was.' "Okay."

Chapter 4

Cole had followed the butter yellow "pegasus" towards her cottage. It wasn't a far trip, as she apparently lived very close to the edge of the forest, but it was done in silence. Fluttershy didn't seem to be in the mood to talk, although than may just have been nervousness, and Cole was reminiscing again.

He hadn't taken a walk for so long. Not since before the blast, on one of his off days with Trish or something. After he got his powers, it was mission after mission after mission to first fight the Reapers and Dust Men and First Sons, and then the Militia in New Marais and worst of all, Bertrand. He had corrupted so many people, and became the very thing he was trying to prevent.

As they neared the cottage, Cole got his first glimpse of it. It looked like it should have been in a Renaissance fair or something. The thatched roof was made of straw, and the entire thing looked as if it was made of wood. Fluttershy approached the door, and as she opened it, a white blur shot out.

Cole was hit in the face by said white blur, and as he attempted to swat it off, he tripped backwards. Charging up a hand, he swung again, hitting it, and it was flung off him.

"ANGEL BUNNY!" The pegasus interrupted his follow-up. "That's NO way to greet a GUEST! Say sorry, and you're not getting dinner tonight!" Cole was confused. What the hell just happened? The 'blur' got back up onto it's feet, and approached Cole. The bunny took a hop forwards and made a few gestures with its hand.

"It's okay, really. It wasn't going to hurt me." Cole hurriedly replied. "There's no need to worry."

"But look at you, you're already so scratched up. He could have hurt you even more."

'He? Really? 'Angel Bunny' is probably her pet or something. "No, honestly. All I really need is some electricity."

"Huh?" Fluttershy looked slightly confused. "We don't use electricity in Ponyville. You might find some it Manehatten or Stalliongrad. How about I go and ask Twilight about it? She'll probably know how to help you."

There's this 'Twilight' again. Maybe they're some sort of professor or intellectual or something? And the names. MANEhatten. STALLIONgrad. Wow. More pony puns.

"Okay, let's go and see her. I had told the Zebra that I'd meet her at the edge of the forest, how about we meet her there first?"

"Umm... okay... but the forest... is kinda scary..."

"We'll be fine. Trust me."

Trixie was lost. Again. After being run out of multiple towns, she had ended up in Ponyville, where she had outperformed all of the challengers, and not to mention the 'Elements of Harmony'. But then those two stupid little colts had to go off and summon an Ursa Minor. SO close. Well, it didn't matter. The Great and Powerful Trixie was now stuck in the middle of some swamp in the Everfree forest. She had gone off the path, and, whadda-ya-know? Lost. This bog was annoying.

A frog hopped out of the murky water, and landed smack dab on her head. And then it sat there.

"Leave, stupid creature, the Great and Powerful Trixie demands it!"

"Ribbit."

"NOW!"

The frog hopped up, landed hard on her head, and hopped off, back into the water. Trixie was getting mad.

A certain creature was sleeping under the mud. It was all peaceful and dreaming dreams of more mud, when suddenly it awoke. A tapping on it's leftmost head alerted it to a simple little frog. It rumbled a question in the ancient swamp-speak, and the frog pointed. It put a flipper in front of it's head and waved it around.

The creature shifted, and awoke the other two of it's brethren beside it.

Cole and Fluttershy had met up with Zecora on the edge of the area known as "Froggy Bottom Bog". It was home to many frogs, and even a hydra or two. The huge one had left recently, unhappy with it's home, but nopony knew for sure.

Cole sat back on the ground, drained. The lack of running current really did get to him. But there was something else. Probably the magic, or something, as Fluttershy had described. Instead of the lines of current in wires and whatnot, with the hum of their electromagnetic fields, it felt... different. Like a cloud of energy, as if he was in the middle of a solenoid with a running current. He could feel literal 'lines' of energy running through the surface of the planet, and even through the air. It was like rural parts of Earth, he could feel the planet's magnetic field, but very slightly. Here, it was far more evident. It was as if his senses had been pumped up, but the life forces of the ponies were 'normal'. They were as the people had been on Earth. Something was... off. WAY off. Maybe...

Cole shifted his weight onto his knees and rose. He drew his amp, and with a flick and a lunge, buried it into the ground as far as he could.

"What was tha-"

"Watch. And please stand back a little." Cole gripped the handle, and focused his mental eye on the lines of energy in the ground. Perfect, they were bending around the metal as if they were magnetic and the metal had a current. He pushed against the lines and to his pleasure, they shifted and contacted the amp.

"RAAARGH!" With a jolt of energy, the lines connected with Cole. His body sucked it in, and he grunted in pain, his back arched. Then, as soon as it happened, it was over. Cole let go of the amp, his arms going limp. He fell to the ground, body smoking and twitching, to the shock of Fluttershy and Zecora.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! We need to help him!"

"Calm down, Fluttershy dear, we can't help him here. Let's go to your cottage, it will have supplies. It will also muffle his cries."

"Okay... Let's go."

Chapter 5

Trixie was annoyed. The mud was really, REALLY annoying. It annoyed her so much, the brat of a unicorn who drove her out of town was like an extra leaf in her sandwich annoyed. With a frustrated growl, she shot a blast of heat magic at the ground to dry the water out of the mud. The blast hit, and was absorbed. Nothing happened.

Suddenly, a bubble of air coalesced, right where the blast had hit. *Pop*. Nothing. Nothing. At. All. Trixie scowled and kept trudging forwards, almost at the edge. She muttered under her breath about the "cursed mud" and the "brat of a suck-up" and... she didn't notice the curled head rise up behind her. And rose another, and a third. The center one looked down on the mumbling, bumbling pony, and laughed a silent, cold-hearted laugh of a predator in front of helpless prey. Well, mostly silent. A snicker passed out of it's throat, and into the ears of the unicorn.

Trixie froze. Snicker. That meant... oh Celestia. She turned her head, slowly, to look behind her. As her eyes met those of the creature, she gasped. "Oh Sweet Celestia's pure white FLANK!" She took off, pumping her weary legs as fast as she could, her horn's magic parting the mud like the waters of a river. Of course the best spells come NOW...

She sneaked a glance behind her, and saw the weird... creature right behind her. She cast a firework spell behind herself, and kept running.

The creature behind her's left head followed the firework to the left, but it was pulled back by the center, and the chase slightly interrupted by the insignificant distraction. Trixie had gained a few yards, but that may not be enough. She looked back ahead, and saw a slope in the ground, the edge of the bog. She pushed forwards as hard as she could, and broke past the edge moments before her pursuer.

She finally worked up the mindset to do the only thing a mare would do when being chased by a monster. She screamed.

Cole woke with a start, a scream filling his head. He felt fine. More than fine, actually. He felt rejuvenated and even powerful. As he opened his eyes, he woke up to Fluttershy and Zecora standing over him, heads cocked towards what he believed to be the source of the noise. He hopped up to his feet, and followed their fear-stricken eyes. And he froze. Some sort of armored green three-headed lizard thing was chasing after a light blue horned-mare with a wizard hat. If it wasn't real, he would've laughed, but, sadly, it was real.

He had options... as per every situation. He could grab the unicorn and run away with the other two, not having to fight an unknown enemy, and get help from the others. This may just cause it to chase them into town and more ponies. He could also just run away with the others and hope the thing would stop, but that wouldn't really work, as with the previous. He also could let the thing take the unicorn as bait, giving him time to effectively end it, at the potential cost of the unicorn's life, depending on her skill. This may also make the two next to him attack, ruining the plan, or draw their enmity...

And that left one good plan, a win for all the "civilians".

He hurled a freezing ball of ionized gas at the monster thing, and threw a lightning tether at the unicorn.

"Get out of here, NOW!" He shouted at the two shocked (God dammit. PUNS. Frozen, shocked... I'm a failure...) mares. "I'll take it from here, just get away a little!"

The blue mare had been pulled to him and the other, just as the monster was hit by the freezing rocket. It was shocked for a moment, and as the ice encrusted parts of it's body and one of it's heads, the three mares began scurrying away.

Cole took advantage of the lapse in momentum of the creature, and tossed a ball of condensed energy in an arc over his head. As the ball impacted, it froze more over the partly-moving beast, and covered it's middle and left heads in a layer of ice. It roared in pain as the ice dug into it's flesh and super-cooled it, and began straining the two of it's frozen heads against the ice, chipping away at it with the third. Cole didn't let it have the opportunity. Closing in rapidly, he brought his amp down on the unfrozen head, bashing it aside. He placed both hands on the stunned head, and calling old powers to bear, arched bands of electricity around it, restraining it. He flipped backwards, off the thing, and back to the ground.

The monster was trembling with rage. With a roar, it shattered the ice around it's center head, and glared at Cole. It's eyes filled with burning hatred, it charged, moving it's bulk at a surprisingly high speed. Cole twirled out of the way of the attack, slapping it once more with his amp, and turned to face it again. It learned it's lesson, and, with the aid of it's center head, shattered the ice on it's left. It's right head hung limply, tethered to the body, and it's entire body was covered in cryo burns. It began advancing, slowly, wary of Cole's next move.

Cole lowered himself into a ready stance and opened his mind's eye to the world around him. He saw the pulsing of the creatures' brain waves, and, strangely enough, it had a major, nearly sentient-looking brain in it's center head, while the other two simply had a large nerve cluster, more akin to beasts than men. He saw the leylines of the world bending around him and the other creature, and he noticed one more thing. Similar to how when one touches a plasma globe, the lines attract to the fingers, the strange lines in the ground seemed to be attracted to the feet of both combatants. Cole had an idea. He had enough energy for three more rockets or five more grenades, or, as he planned, two rockets and two grenades, then one more attack...

Cole looked towards the monster, now only fifteen feet away. Perfect. He hurled one frost grenade at it, moving as he threw it. As expected, the three-headed creature strafed to the side, avoiding the scalding ice. Cole had anticipated that. The ground underneath the creature froze with a burst, another frost grenade ready for it. Cole quickly unleashed his remaining energy, in the form of freezing balls of ionized gas. They impacted the creature, and, freezing quickly in two layers, held it restrained once again. Now for the finale.

Cole reached his influence of energy back towards the ground. He pulled up at the lines connecting the creature to the ground, and to his pleasure, they shifted to do his bidding. He bunched them up at the surface, and then tried to move them upwards. Nothing.

The creature cracked through the first layer of ice, it's left head breaking through, roaring in anger. Cole strained harder, pulling the lines like a horse pulling a cart (heh). With a final tug, he felt a portion of his energy drained from him, and another replaced. In his shocked eyes, the 'magical' energy burst forth from the ground. To him, they flared a bright blue, a very, very familiar blue, and wrapped themselves onto the creature, pulling it downwards against the earth. Cole manipulated the current of energy like a musician tuning his strings. The coils of energy flattened out, thickening and spreading, into a prison of ice. The energy didn't stop there, though. It seemed to coalesce even more, building upon itself, and intertwining with the air lines. The Lines of the Earth flowed freely through it, showing the real power of this icy prison, and the Lines of the Sky seemed to contain it. With a flash and expulsion of extra energy, the Lines seemed to stabilize, or at least as much as volatile energy lines waiting to be tapped into can.

To the naked eye, it was a frozen monster. To Cole, it was a glowing masterpiece of magical energy, bioelectric cryogenics, and the near-literal fabric of the universe. And then Cole blacked out.

A/N : Sorry for the wait, but TOTAL WAR WEEKEND, BL2, LOADOUT! but I just had an idea. Cole can't use GUNS, but I have a very clever way of making one he can... (Gauss gun incoming, maybe)

Chapter 6

A/N I'm going to start naming his new abilities. It needs to be done. Comments for names will be accepted, as the name will come in the A/N of the next chapter. I'll suggest a name... but it's really up to you guys.

Cole slowly made his way back to the world of waking. As his thoughts began to recollect, he noticed a dark, yellowish light through his eyelids. His eyelids fluttered, and he blinked again. He was in some sort of... barn, maybe? He felt the thing he was laying on top of, and discovered it to be hay. Yep. A barn. Blinking to clear his vision, Cole examined the now-identified barn. There were a variety of tools in a corner, and a wagon and yoke next to it. The smell of must drifted through his nostrils, and the scratchy hay lay underneath him. There seemed to be a peaceful quietness, but the heat implied that the sun was up.

Cole picked himself up, shaking the hay off his back, and walked over to the door. He pushed. Nothing happened. He tried pushing harder. The wooden doors creaked under his weight, but they held firm. Then he noticed the hinges. He pulled, and the doors swung quietly on well-oiled hinges.

As he stepped out into the sunlight, he tried to identify his location. He saw a relatively large house nearby, probably the owners of the barn, and decided to go and talk to them. He began walking towards the house, and thought of the past few days. Not even a week ago, he had ended the Beast and the plague in one fell swoop, but also killed off every single conduit in existence. And then, he had woken up in this weird, pony-filled land, met a few, learned how to access the energy within a freaking planet. Not bad, more productive than he had ever been in Empire or New Marais. There was just one thing missing...

Cole knocked on the door, and waited for a moment. The door opened just a crack, and a pink mane peeked through it, followed by a single eye.

"OH! Cole! You're up!" The door was flung open, and the butter-yellow pegasus behind it was revealed. She led him into the house, towards a table. At the table sat Zecora, the blue mare he had rescued earlier, a new orange mare, and a much larger red stallion. Both the newcomers had apples on their flanks, signs of some apple related skill. And they lived in a barn, meaning farm. And they were the "earth pony" type. Definitely apple farmers. Cole approached the table, and upon reaching it, he sat down across from the orange farm pony.

"Applejack, this is Cole. Cole, this is Applejack." The normally shy pegasus seemed to be a little enthusiastic, for some reason. Maybe because she wanted to thank him for saving her? Cole looked across the table at "Applejack", and held out his right arm. She flinched at his sudden movement, then raised a tentative hoof towards it. They shook eachothers' limbs (for lack of a better term), and Cole leaned back into the chair. Applejack seemed to be more calm, reassured by his non-aggressiveness.

"So..."

Cole had gotten to know Applejack relatively well, she lived on the farm with her sister, brother, and grandmother. She grew the best apples in Equestria, etc. Anyways, after they had spoke for a while, her grandmother, "Granny Smith", had brought out some apple pies for them. As they had arrived, the mere aroma of baked apples with a sprinkle of cinnamon had made Cole's mouth start watering.

There was just one thing off... The blue mare hadn't spoke two words since the beginning of the conversation. She had seemed to be traumatized after what she witnessed. After being asked her name, the blue mare, Trixie, hadn't even spoken again. After voicing this thought, even Applejack and Fluttershy had agreed with him, after the last time the mare had been in town. And she still seemed not to notice. After Applejack decided to pity her and offer her a room to stay in, Trixie had just seemed to drag herself over to the bed and hit the hay.

After discussing for a few more moments, the mares had decided upon a plan of action. Zecora would head back to her place, "Big Mac", the red stallion, would stay at home, and the other two mares would head to town with Cole, so that he could meet the rest of the bearers of the "Elements of Harmony", a concept he still didn't quite understand.

Cole needed to use the restroom. After nearly a full day of action, inaction, or something in the limbo between, it was hard for any normal human not to. Even though Cole wasn't by any means normal, he still retained a pair of working kidneys. They were now nearing the huge tree that apparently was the library, aptly named "Books and Branches", where Twilight lived and worked.

"Umm... hey girls..."

"Yea?" Applejack answered for them as they both looked at him.

"I need to... ya know, use the John."

"What...?"

"Umm... use the restroom..."

"Oh. OH. Well, I ain't sure if Twilight's gonna be okay with ya doin' that, so I think ya should go round back or somethin', the tree won't mind."

"Uhh... okay. That works."

"We'll head on in while you... do yur business."

Cole broke off to the side while the other two went to the door, and went about with his business...

Fluttershy and Applejack were greeted by a smiling Twilight, who seemed to be excited due to the visit from her friends. They entered the library, and sat down at a table, Twilight facing the other two, and the door. Fluttershy began to speak.

"Hey, Twilight, we wanted to introduce you to our new friend, if it's okay with you. He'll... be here in a few moments, he had some... business to take care of."

"Okay, well, what's his name?"

"Oh, it's Cole, and you are really going to enjoy meeting him." Fluttershy finished with a bright smile, happy for her friend.

"Oh, I can guarantee that, he sure is... interesting..." Applejack put in.

"Cole? Is he some sort of-"

"Twilight! The Princess just sent me a letter!" Spike scurried into the room, a scroll in one of his claws.

"Oh..." Twilight grabbed the scroll out of his hand with her magical grasp, and read it out loud.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, my most trusted student. I have been alerted of a strange not-entirely-magical presence. It first came about in the Everfree forest, someplace inside of it. I ignored the first, assuming it to be one of the normal flares of energy that happen from there, every once in a while. However, I also sensed it again on the outskirts of Ponyville."

As she was reading, Cole entered, quietly, as to not interrupt the mares.

"Please keep alert for any sort of powerful creature, or anything not seen before. This creature could potentially be highly dangerous, so, please be careful. The Elements are on their way, and in case of any emergency, I want you to be ready. Your mentor, Princess Celestia."

Cole was too busy closing the door quietly to pay attention to the mare reading out loud. Besides, it was a library, there was too much white noise from an assortment of rowdy, teenage, hormonal ponies running around shouting at the top of their lungs for him to be able to hear anything.

Twilight looked up from the letter, and her face instantly morphed. The approaching creature seemed to be far different from anything she had ever read about, and she had read the Encyclopedia Equestria.

Cole looked at the purple, or more accurately, lavender mare in front of him. And then his inner eye was blinded by a surge of energy.

Twilight had sprung to her hooves, charging a bolt of pure magic as she did. With a slight adjustment, she set it to stun, but not in any particular way. She let it loose.

Time seemed to slow for Cole, as a bolt of energy left the horn of the scared lavender mare. He brought up his arms, in a defensive gesture, and felt his right palm brush the tip of the bolt. Pain coursed through his accelerated nerves, and time seemed to slow even further. The bolt seemed to pierce through his hand, and as it continued, his left hand found itself in the way of the bolt. Pain. Again. Cole couldn't even scream, the pain was so much, and the things around him seemed to have stopped moving entirely, the sands of time slowed to a trickle. Cole fell to his knees, but caught himself before he hit the ground.

The pain was constant, burning, and complete agony for Cole, but he began to fight it. His natural energy began to purge himself of the painful foreign energy, and the pain began to subside. But there was something else. Some other store of energy, like his ionic powers, but different. It felt more like a battery than charges. The energy inside of him began to convert, to mutate into something better. The energy seemed to flow more freely throughout him, as if he had gained another nervous-like system of energy conduits. He could feel the very trickle of time past him with his mental eye. And he pulled.

Something in him snapped. Some energy reservoir, some metal capacitor, something. He began to feel years of pent up rage building, building, and nearly bursting forth from the dam he had built around it. Time's passing seemed to fall under his control, and he altered the trickle, letting it grow larger. The world around him seemed to speed up, enough for him to watch Fluttershy and Applejack yelp in surprise and begin turning. Twilight seemed to understand full well what she just did, and what just happened.

His bursting ire focused itself on one target. The unicorn who hurt him. Two balls of energy pooled into his palms, and he closed them on each-other, allowing a small ball of it to form. He lowered his stance and brought it back to his right hip, then, watched as Twilight's already wide eyes grew even wider. He smiled a sickly, hateful smile and hurled the energy ball forwards, mimicking the effects of Twilight's previous attack. He pushed against the time stream, and pulled at a small bit.

Twilight could now think as fast as him, but could not move, at all. A shine seemed to emerge from her horn, and a sheen of light seemed to cover her as the energy closed the shortening distance between them.

Impact. The sheen seemed to ripple with power as more and more energy from Twilight was poured into the spell. But it was in vain. The ball tore through the barrier after a moment, overcoming the defensive layer Twilight had erected. Blue electricity lanced over her, and she yelped in pain.

Cole fell to his knees for the second time in seconds. The rage was suddenly gone, all evil thoughts purged from his mind, as how the foreign energy was. He held up his hands. The right was covered with glowing blue swirls, some sort of ancient, subconscious symbol Cole completely understood. It seemed to converge itself into a shield, a sight of the protector, the guardian, the one who takes pain for those who can't. The left, however, was different. The sharpness and staccato-ness of the left design seemed to contrast directly with that of the right. It seemed to have a completely different meaning, one of righteous anger, pain. Like that of the avenger, he who deals judgement unto others for the misdeeds which they have done to the innocent.

Cole looked for a moment longer, and began to understand. He had once made the choice, to be a hero, or to be a villain. He had made his decision, to put himself in front of other, to fight for the greater good. Now, he had one more choice: he could go to the next level. He could become the defender, the guardian, the protector. Or he could become the judge, the arbiter, the avenger. It was, once again, a choice to make to determine his fate.

And then he looked up at the two fear-stricken mares moving towards the twitching one in the corner.

A/N again. That was surprisingly fun to write. I think it's pretty good. Now, I want comments. Guardian or Avenger. Also, he now can slow and speed up time, to a certain degree, as he was over-charged when he was hit. Think Reaper Conduit style from the first Infamous.

Vote: Guardian or Avenger? You have until I start writing the next chapter...

I'll take what you say into consideration, but I may just have you guys vote per scenario.

Chapter 7

A/N : Always will have one...

Cole is going the path of the guardian, nearly unanimous. Now, to develop characters and villians (maybe...) ... I mean, what would an inFamous be without a good "cult" of villians...

Reapers, dust men, first sons, militia, swamp monsters, and ice men?

Cole looked up at the three mares. Twilight's lavender body was writhing on the ground, sparks coursing over her body. Her eyes were scrunched shut, and her back was arched in invisible agony. Her mouth lay open, in a silent scream, while her forelimbs arched and bent as nerves were stimulated and muscles spasmed. Applejack and Fluttershy were standing beside her, one gravely silent, the other shaking in empathetic fear.

The former turned her covered head, towards him, slowly. As she gazed upon his face, her eyes filled with concern, she searched him for a sign or response.

Cole stared blankly. His kneeling body seemed to slouch even further, and his glowing hands fell. His eyes were empty, searching himself for his repressed evil. He noticed Applejack turn to him, but did nothing to acknowledge it. He just seemed to stare.

Applejack turned back to Fluttershy and whispered something into her ear. Fluttershy stopped shaking, then turned to face the kneeling conduit.

The smell of ozone and burnt hairs floated into Cole's nostrils. He broke from his trance, reminded of his past life. he brushed it away, and rose to his feet. Almost mechanically, he stepped towards the three, and his right hand's symbols began to glow. Electricity began to spark, and then course along his arm. The energy began to freely pass along the symbols, as electrons through ionized gas. Applejack stepped backwards, scared of the human, and bumped against the wall.

Fluttershy's expression darkened, and she jumped up into the air, held aloft by her wings. Her eyes took on a certain sort of magic, one of righteous fury, and radiated a sort of power that had intimidated a dragon and withstood the gaze of a cockatrice. She Stared into the cool blue eyes of Cole, daring him to take another step.

Cole faltered, energy shifting from right hand to left. The originally blue tattoo-like symbols on his hands lost their color, turning a bright, flat white. The symbols on the left lit, as the right had.

Cole's mind began to run, and it's original goodness began to take over. His human nature began to drive him. He raised his uncharged right hand to Fluttershy's cheek, and stroked it once, like that of a friend to another after tragic event. He lightly pushed her aside, and Fluttershy dropped to the ground, jaw open in shock, watching the apparent invincibility of the human.

Cole stepped to Twilight, and rubbed his hands together. The static buildup seemed far more than it should have been, a positive charge building rapidly. He kneeled, closed his eyes, and placed his hands on her each side of her head.

He didn't regret it. Thousands of amps rocked his body, drawn into the positive charge of his hands. His back arched, taking on far more energy than any being should ever have to, and his nerves began to fire rapidly, all through his body, as he took away the pain from the injured, and provided her respite.

The pain seemed to dull, ever so slightly, and Cole rose back to his feet. With a glance, he confirmed that Twilight was simply unconscious, in deep slumber, and not in pain. He reached behind him, with difficulty, and placed one hand on his now ice-cold amp. With a quick, efficient motion, he flipped it over his shoulder. Another wave of overcharged pain wracked his body, and he fell to his knees, hand locked on the amp.

Fluttershy and Applejack stared, in awe and shock, at the being who did so much to the poor pony and then took it back to himself. Cole brought the amp up, prongs facing the ground, and drove it down. It buried into the wooden floor, and Cole released.

Through his mental eye, he watched as energy flew through the conduit of his amp. It siphoned out of him, and into the tree. A line of energy seemed to pass through it, infinitely thin, directly towards the biggest capacitor known to man : The Earth. His overcharged body seemed to deflate, losing it's brightness to his eye, and returning to it's original form. The lines of energy he noticed before flared, once, and the flare seemed to carry it in what he assumed to be a southern direction. Magnetic south, he noted.

Energy spent, he fell to the ground, black spots appearing in his vision. He fought the unconsciousness, and it seemed to fade away with his excess energy. His vision returned to normal, and he looked back up at the unconscious mare, ignoring the other two. He walked on his knees towards her, and placed a hand upon her chest. Her heartbeat, with it's biomagnetic pulses, were strong and regular. Cole sighed in relief, and rose back to his feet, bracing himself on his stationary amp. He wrenched it out of the ground, replaced it on his back, and turned to the two mares.

"What in tarnation was THAT?!"

Cole almost laughed out loud at the expression of Applejack, who had moved around him to Fluttershy when he was discharging.

"Whai'd you blast Twailight?! And then do somethin' to her! If I had half a mind, I'd-"

"Let me explain." Cole interrupted her.

And he explained.

"Oh. So you really didn't have control over yerself when ya blasted her?"

"Eeyup." Applejack chuckled.

"Well... I guess that's okay... if Twilight's okay... and everypony else is okay... if you're okay with that..."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to harm anypony, if I can help it."

"Okay."

"So ladies... what's next?"

"Ai think we should put Twailight in her bed, and stay her until she wakes up, and then stop her from freakin' out."

"Agreed."

"Okay... but what about Spike?"

"We could just send the little guy off ta' Rarity's..."

"Sure?"

"Okay... if that's okay with him..."

"And what do we tell Twilight when she wakes up, I'd hate to have her attacking me again..."

"The truth."

"Okay. What do you think, Fluttershy."

"I think that's best... but of course whatever is fine with you is okay."

Fluttershy broke away from the conversation, to speak with the baby dragon currently making tea for the guests and tell him about the situation. Cole approached Twilight's limp body, and gently lifted her to his chest as a woman would carry her young child. He chuckled slightly as the asleep Twilight subconsciously moved her head to his warm chest and comforting heartbeat, and nuzzled it. A smile played upon her features, and she seemed to fall into a much more relaxed sleep. Cole followed Applejack towards the stairs, and then up them, to leave the sleeping mare in her own room.

A/N : I hope you guys know who's saying what... Otherwise, I suck at getting down slang/speech patterns...

FEATURED! FUCK YEA!!!!! Have a more-than-one-yay:

Chapter 8

Cole couldn't sleep. After replacing the sleeping purple mare in her bed, Fluttershy had bid her leave, saying something about "feeding Angel" and him being "mad" if he didn't get what he wanted. She had promised to be back there the next morning, and to bring along the rest of her close friends, as to introduce Cole to them, and slowly integrate him with the population. Applejack had elected to stay, to make sure that Twilight was okay when she woke up, and then sent Cole to stay in one of the guest rooms.

Cole lay on his back, head facing the ceiling. A pattern of soft, white, luminescent stars and moons and celestial objects adorned the milky black ceiling. His eyes seemed to unfocus slightly, as memories of events long since passed began to flash before him...

With his new powers, he had a choice. He could scare away all these people, and take the entire supply drop for himself, Zeke, and Trish, and stay stocked for much longer. Or, he could share it with these downtrodden, beat up, oppressed people. Taking so much away from so many, there was no way he would ever, after having so much taken away from him...

The bridge, and the people there. This riot was about to break into a fight. He could shock a policeman from inside the crowd, and initiate a fight between the aggressive factions. Or, he could go forwards, and take the beating for himself. He couldn't let those people, those innocent bystanders, get hurt or even killed because of his mistake, with the Ray Sphere...

The tar barrels. They needed to go. He could overload the pumps, pushing the deadly, sickening black tar down even faster, contaminating the water supply. Or he could blast them off the pipes. This would get all the toxic, sickly sludge all over himself. It needed to be done, one way or another, but he was the only one who would certainly live. If he pushed that tar in, how many people would die, how many people would choke on the very water they were drinking? He was the only one who wouldn't be affected...

And then, Trish. Oh how he despised himself for what he had done. He could have saved Trish, or he could have saved the six doctors. The love of his life, one of the only two people who had stayed with him, all the way, or half a dozen other doctors. In this city, those doctors could save so many. He couldn't let those six, innocent people die, but what about Trish? The greater good. It was more important. The lives of the many over the life of one. He couldn't save her, no matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he wanted her to live. She had died, and with her, a part of him did too...

The Ray Sphere, the second time. Activate it, and gain so much more, or destroy it, and end the threat. Sacrifice the few lives in the city to be able to better fight the Beast, in the incoming storm. No. He would train, get stronger, and defeat the Beast without another Ray Sphere. Destroying it was the only way. To bad it took John with it...

And then, after the Beast invaded and he had fled to New Marais, the gate. Overcharge it, blow it up, and kill everyone in the villiage, civilians and enemies, or lower it, and fight his way through. The choice was nearly second nature, even with reduced abilities, he could wipe out his enemies without hurting bystanders. And he needed to try out the amp too...

Rescuing Kuo from the Militia. How would he enter the compound? He could load a streetcar with explosives and ram it into the gate, killing most of the opposition and clearing the place, at the cost of civilian lives. Or, he could free the local cops, work with them, and assault the base. One freed prisoners who were really good men, the other killed most of the enemies and a few civilians on the side. Those civilian lives weren't worth it, and the firepower would come in handy later...

The Blast Shard Bomber, taking that explosion for himself. Whew that one was a doozy. He could have shot him, there and then, and blown him up with one of his own weapons, and killed the hostages he had taken. Or he could have absorbed the bomb's energy, taking the full force of the explosion for himself, protecting the civilians. He couldn't let them die because of a maniacal terrorist murderer. He would survive, they wouldn't...

And finally, the last thing he ever did on Earth. Activating the RFI. He could have left humanity to die, by plague or by his own hand. Or, he could save every human on Earth, destroying the plague. But there was a cost. He could activate the powers of every conduit in existence, bring on the next human, and kill off all the rest. Or, he could end the conduits, Kuo, Nix, and himself included, stop the Beast, eradicate the plague, and bring humanity back up from its knees. The lives of the many, or the lives of the few? There was only ever one choice...

Sorry, Kuo.

Cole's mind then stopped for a moment, focusing on a single memory...

"You made the right choice...Hell, even Nix made the right choice. I was...I am scared."

"I am too..."

"Do it....Do it."

Cole let out a sigh, and with it, so much more. His confusion, his fear, his sadness. He had a new purpose now, in a new place. That was a lifetime ago, literally. It's time he let go, and let himself move on. Yes, he had killed so many. Yes, he had brought death, misery, and hopelessness to so many. But he had saved so many more. For every gang member he killed, he had saved ten more. For every conduit he had slain, he had saved a thousand more. He had done his part. Now, in a new place, he still had a part to play. He was in the same position, with new powers, with a better ability to protect. He had one clear path, and he was going to take it. No place, no matter how peaceful it appeared, was devoid of danger. It was his job, his duty, his responsibility, to defend those who couldn't protect themselves. He had a place, once again, in a world God only knows how far from home.

Cole sighed again, with new purpose. His body relaxed, and his eyes drooped lower. He allowed them to close, and his mind began to drift off to the realm of the subconscious. His muscles relaxed, and his heart slowed its beating, slowing to a stead rhythm inside his chest, calming him, driving his worn out body to sleep. He seemed to hear a familiar voice echo through his head as he fell into the soft, dark realm of dreams...

"Cole. I'm... so p-proud of y-you and what you've be-become, h-helping people with your p-powers. I-I-I l-love you, and don't e-ever sst-stop. G-goodbye.

A/N : I am having a serious case of writer's block. If you didn't notice, this was kinda a filler was written so you guys could begin to understand Cole's feelings and allow him to become a full sized character, not just a meh.

Anti-Chapter 1

It was still dark. Still dark, still cold, and still silent. The gloom remained all-encompassing; there was no escaping. But one had, one had left. Millions of motes, like stars in the night sky, floated in the void. In this void, one of these millions, one single mote, was different. He was the last. He was Keth, the Life-Drinker. He had survived the RFI, his powers allowed him to. But the cost was life. He couldn't eat, he couldn't drink, he could only absorb. It was no surprise he had died soon after. He couldn't allow himself to keep killing to remain alive, and so, he had allowed himself to die.

This mote was not like the others. Instead of the soft glow of a steady flame, it was the stacatto on and off flash of an underpowered florescent light. It's form belied instability, and it really wasn't. There was something... off about this mote.

It shifted. It blinked out of existence and then reappeared, nearly imperceptibly, next to where it was. And then it did it again. And again. With each jump, it moved a little more. The motes around it seemed to watch their newest member with interest, predicting what it would do next.

The mote stopped, suddenly, and began moving. Just floating, slowly, but moving nonetheless. As it moved, it began to pick up speed, faster, faster, faster it went! The mote seemed to elongate into an oval, and then it began to blur, shifting in and out of this plane. Then, it vanished.

A mote of unbearably white light seemed to float down to the ground. A barren stretch of desert lay around it, the hot sun beating upon it's sandy face. The mote seemed to shatter into countless shards, falling to the ground. Then the shards began to move together, to coalesce, and seemed to form a shape on the ground. The shape seemed to take the form of a strange, monkey-like biped, The form seemed to gain definition, and even clothes. As the light faded, a man, not even, a boy was left behind.

He barely seemed to be of seventeen, but his face gave a completely different story. This boy had faced more than most men do in an entire lifetime. His silver hair glistened in the sunlight, cut to medium length, and his face seemed to be in a state of peaceful slumber. His body was covered in a sleeveless white hoodie, and his arms were bandaged, covered from the world. His ashen gray skin blended in with the whitish sand, but his blue, denim pants and black boots did not.

His face twitched, and he regained consciousness, slowly, softly, like a waking cat. The red glare of the sun pushed through his eyelids, so he let them remain shut. He felt the ground, the hot sand, and grabbed a handful of it. He sat up, brought the white hood back over his head with his other hand, and opened his eyes.

Keth lay in the middle of what could only be described as a desert. It was a stereotypical, honest-to-God, desert. He brought his handful of sand before him, and opened his palm. As he watched the sand flow through his open fingers, his mind began to think. What type of hell was he in? Was he cursed to wander this dusty, desolate plate for all eternity? Is this the price he paid for eating the very life-force out of people?

No. He wouldn't wander. He would wait. He would wait for whatever put him here to come and get him, to come and give him real punishment. For what he had done, he deserved worse, and he knew it.

He brought his left arm up in front of him, carefully examining the bandages around it. With his right, he began to unravel the white cloth, sighing in relief as the pressure released. The bandage fell to the ground, hanging off of his left wrist, secured there. He looked at his bare arm.

It was hideous. The scars were still there. When he had become a conduit, it had hurt. His arms were nearly burnt off, held on by pure energy, and his chest had been scarred. Atleast he had his face.

The Beast had brought his powers to the surface. Albeit with a fireball. He had tried to block the heat with his arms, but the flame just burnt through. It had made him stronger, though, and let him do so much to help the world, for the two weeks he was a conduit.

His arm was a mess. The twisted and wrinkly flesh was still a pale white, devoid of pigment, and hairless. The soft, white skin pulsed with blood vessels, nearly transparent, and virtually exposed the muscle underneath. But it was not weak. These arms had been burnt by the flames of war, of hate, of deception. These arms were not weak. They were not helpless. They contained the powers of a conduit. The Last Conduit. He re-wrapped the bandage.

Keth crossed his legs. He was not going to go anywhere. He was going to wait, however long it took him, for the thing that had put him here. His energy would sustain him. And besides, wherever he was, there seemed to be many more times the amount of energy than there was on Earth. That just proved the fact he was put here by something powerful.

He closed his eyes, and began to meditate on the surrounding area. He could feel the energy of the land pulsing beneath him, the heartbeat of the earth, so to speak. He could feel the buzz of energy in the air, as if the land could break out into storm at any moment. He could even sense the bright points of lights, the living creatures, sleeping under the soil, hiding away from the hot sun and waiting for the cool night.

Keth did not move when he sensed something approaching him. It was more concentrated than anything else in the nearby area, and it was moving towards him. He opened his eyes, and looked up at the incoming creature.

It seemed to be some sort of insectoid equine, with four legs, ending in hooves, a pair of wings, and a horn. However, it seemed as it there were holes, empty holes, along its legs and horn. It was as if someone had taken a compass, drew perfect circles on its body, and drilled through them.

As it came closer, it appear to be about as tall as he was, standing up. The clop of its hooves were muffled by the sand, which seemed to support it the same way as solid granite would.

As it closed the ten foot mark, he stood up. The creature stopped, watching his legs unfold to take on the weight of his body. It looked at his hands resting half in and half out of the pockets on his jeans, and the bandages wrapped around his arms. It's gaze rose to his chest, his white hoodie, and finally came to rest on his head, hidden in the contrast of the shadow of his hood and the bright sun behind him.

It spoke in a murmur, examining him. "What in all of the Changeling Wastes are you?"

He stepped back, shocked. It just spoke. In ENGLISH. This must be the thing who brought him here, but it didn't seem to know what he was. What was IT? And what were the Changeling Wastes? Probably this desert.

"I am Keth."

They stood for a moment, both regarding the other as a treat or danger of some sort.

"Do you mean any harm to us?"

"No. I have no idea where I am or why I am here. I only have myself, the clothes on my back, and my memories."

The tension seemed to lessen from the bug-horse-bird-rhino.

"Then if you wish to remove yourself from this heat, follow me, and I will help you, traveler."

Sure, what could go wrong? He was a life-sucking, hell-beating, honest-to-God conduit. He could handle himself just fine.

A/N: For better or for worse, I got past my writers' block. With the help of a friend, whom I will tell you of in a second. I will try to update atleast once a week, but here, have a Halloween update.

The idea for this antagonist was given to me by I am Memorial, so be sure to say thanks and check out his stories! We've been chatting on the antagonist for a bit, and Memorial, don't you dare spoil it!

Also, if you believe me, I have no editor, and don't actually want one. if you offer....

As I must tell the story of our antagonist, Anti-Chapters will be released whenever I feel the focus should be on Keth, not Cole. I'll try to update twice as fast, to keep the story going. I also promise not to make it a giant story arch like Griffin or something, since I have more ideas and want this to be good, not long as fuck.

Chapter 9

Cole awoke to a harsh red glare on his eyelids. Reflexively flicking open his eyes, he immediately shut them as he was blinded by the morning sun. Recalling the previous day's events, from the accidental conflict to the reminiscence of his old life, he swung his legs over to the floor, and sat up on the bed. Sighing, he stood up.

As he reached the door to the bedroom, a knock sounded from it, and it opened slightly. A stetson poked it's way around the door, followed by Applejack's head.

"You awake in there, pardner?"

*yawn* "Yea, I just got up. Let's start the day, shall we?"

"Alright. Twilight's already up, and I told her what happened and that you're friendly."

"That's good. Let's go."

Cole followed Applejack out of the room and down to the library itself. At a table in a corner near the kitchen, a lavender unicorn, Twilight, Cole noted, was floating a fork in front of her face, along with a book, and eating what appeared to be a pancake. More plates and a stack of pancakes sat next to it, on the table, as if prepared for more people.

"Twailight," Applejack called to the eating unicorn. Her eyes flicked up once, noting the presence of the two, back to her book, and then back up to Cole as her brain registered what she had just seen. Her eyes widened as she dropped the fork and book, the latter falling safely onto the table.

"Whoa, whoa. Easy now. I'm not going to hurt you if I can help it..." Cole held up his arms in what he hoped appeared as a non-threatening gesture. He slowly approached the table, avoiding sudden movements as to not frighten the apprehensive librarian. He sat down slowly at the table, across from Twilight, as Applejack approached and sat between them, on the third side of the square table.

Twilight's apprehension seemed to leave her, and be replaced by a sort of fascination. She watched the movements of the conduit as he picked up a plate with his finger, maneuvered a pancake onto it, and snagged a fork to begin eating with, while also noting his facial and body structures.

Cole looked up from the pancake on his plate, meeting eyes with the lavender unicorn, who quickly looked back at her pancakes. He was about to speak when Applejack interrupted him.

"Ya'll can handle yerselves, right? I need ta git back to the farm an' git to work. Apple ain't gonna buck themselves now, are they?" She looked at the two at the table, waiting for an answer or confirmation.

"Yea sure, go ahead Applejack." Cole spoke for the two.

As Applejack exited the house, the two locked eyes again. The tension seemed to be palpable, as neither looked away. Then the smell of the pancakes hit him. Cole's stomach rumbled, and Twilight giggled. Cole's chuckle soon followed, and in moments, both were laughing. In a few moments, the laughter died down, and the two continued staring at each other, a slight curl upwards on both of their lips.

"Well... let's try this again, shall we?" Cole began, trying to hold back another laugh. "I'm Cole, Cole MacGrath, human, conduit, and apparently the patron saint of New Marais on Earth. Nice to meet you, and thanks for the bed and pancakes."

"You're welcome. I'm Twilight, Element of Magic, co-savior of Luna, and personal student to Princess Celestia." Cole's brow furrowed for a split second, and then returned to its original position. There were those Princesses again. Who exactly were they? Was the place a monarchy or something? And if they were Princesses, who was the King?

"Speaking of whom, she had sent me a letter yesterday..." Twilight continued, "saying that there was some sort of possibly dangerous new creature here. I assume that's you?"

"Ahh, yea, I think so. But I'm not going to hurt anyone. You don't have to worry."

"Alright, I guess..?"

The two had spoken a bit over breakfast, and Cole had gotten to know a little more about the land of Equestria as a whole, the government, military, and whatnot, while also telling Twilight of his misadventures in the Everfree forest with the three little ones and the zebra, Zecora. As for the letter and meeting the Princesses, Cole determined that he really didn't have a choice at it, as not doing so would only alienate the ruler of the land and maybe even her subjects and may even cause conflicts. Even though Twilight seemed to speak very highly of her, North Koreans did the same with their leader, Kim-Jong-Il, even though he really wasn't that great. Frankly, he could be dealing with a huge bias here, but he had decided to go and atleast meet her. If all else failed, he still remembered how to shoot a frost rocket.

They had agreed to take a train to 'Canterlot', the capital, and meet the Princesses there. Twilight would send note of this development directly to the Princess, apparently she had a means of communication not involving radio or phone that was instantaneous and direct.

The two had ended breakfast, and Twilight had called for the little dragon, Spike, to "take a letter". She dictated the content of the letter to him, explaining how she had received her "earlier correspondence" and had found the creature, who was intelligent, and was also peaceful. Oh boy how much she had yet to know... She had then gone on to explain, in long and tedious language, constantly spelling out words for Spike, that she would like to "request an audience" with her and "present Cole MacGrath, the human conduit," and whatnot. As a "PS", she added that she had yet to send a "friendship report" for the week and that it may be delayed slightly.

Then, most strangely of all, the little dragon burnt the paper with green sparkly flames, the smoke of which seemed to float straight out the window. Maybe it was some sort of offering, like in some religions?

"Why'd you burn the letter?"

"Hmm? Oh, the fire will send it straight to the Princess."

"Oh." Yep, offerings.

An awkward silence sat in the air for a few moments, until Spike began to gag. His throat quivered, and he belched out a burst of green flame, which, on contact with the air, morphed into a scroll.

"'Dear Twilight Sparkle, yah-de-yah-de-yah... I advise you to take the noon train to Canterlot and speak with me as soon as possible.' Alright, I guess we're going to head to Canterlot today. Let me pack a quick overnight bag, and we'll head to the station to grab tickets, alright?"

What choice did he really have? "Okay." Let's hope this ends well.

A/N : Horribly sorry for the late update. Life + school + a cousins marriage got in the way. I'm gonna switch to Keth for a few chapters after this.

First world problem : downloads Skyrim graphics mods, lowers graphics to be able to run the mod.

I think the adventure tag may not be entirely applicable... but it will as the story progresses.

Add me on steam [KI] Ace Diamonds!

Gonna update faster if I can.

Anti-Chapter 2

A/N : Screw the double update as fast for the last week or three... weddings galore, tests, another story which you should check out to help me break writers' block.

Inspiration while writing : Renegade by the Qemists

Keth had followed the strange insectoid for nearly a mile before a strange outcrop of rock came into view. It was not much more than a boulder, just sitting in the sand. Upon closer inspection, it became evident that this was no normal boulder. It was covered in runic drawings and writings, telling of times long since passed. At the base of the boulder, there seemed to be a hole, barely large enough for a full grown man to slip through, which the creature pointed at as it spoke.

"This is the entrance to our home. It is not what it seems, so please do not be alarmed. For the sake of the hive, I can not show you the directions to our home, hunted as we are, but I can take you there by teleportation. Please, follow me."

Keth stopped for a second. Hunted? These must be some sort of refugee, then, with all the secrecy. And teleportation? That's new, but what else could one expect in a new world. New world, new rules, right?

He looked for a moment at the runes, examining, feeling a sort of freshly placed energy signature, something touched this recently with some sort of energy...

His gaze was drawn back to the creature as it bowed and crawled forwards towards the hole. The creature seemed to prod at the darkness, and, surprisingly, it rippled.

"Good, my brethren had set up the gate. In we go." The creature propelled itself forwards with a light flutter of it's wings and entered the dark rubbery barrier. It was pushed in for a moment, but then rebounded and engulfed the creature. What could go wrong?

Keth stepped forwards as he weighed his options. He could either go in the black shadow thing and follow that creature, or he could just stay put. He sighed. He never was one to stay in one place for too long...

He stepped forwards, and with a little hop, slid down into the crack. As his feet made contact, the barrier seemed to put up a little resistance, but soon collapsed, and he was sent feet-first into the darkness. He gasped as a cold shock passed upwards through his body, from his toes to his legs, upwards into his chest, and finally his head. His sense of gravity returned quickly, and he realized he was in mid-air. However, before he could do anything, his descent stopped rapidly as he impacted hard stone. With an instinctive roll, he flipped himself back up to his feet, arms up, ready for anything.

As his eyes adjusted, he realized there was nothing to be ready for. A slight buzz filled the air, and the scent of must and mold drifted through his nostrils. In front of him, the creature stood, apparently amused, to some extent, watching him.

"Ready to continue? There are some you should meet before we do anything else, allow me to take you to her."

Her? Well that means the place is probably run by a queen of some sorts, like ants. Keth lowered his guard and resumed walking behind the creature.

It began walking away from him, and as Keth's eyes adjusted, he realized that they were in some sort of cavern. Keth continued looking around him, searching for any signs of... well... anything. The smoothened walls showed that the tunnel had been there for a while, and that it was used... however, there was no sign of any life, other than the buzzing, which seemed to be getting louder as they move forwards. Seeing nothing worth concentrating at, Keth turned his mind inwards. His subconscious mind began to lead him, following the strange creature, and his mind began to calm. Falling into a sort of dream-state, his consciousness returned.

He seemed to 'wake up' in a park in a city, back on Earth. He turned around and surveyed his lucid dream, wondering what was in store for him. As he reached directly behind him, a rock caught his eyes. It wasn't just any, it was literally a boulder in the middle of a park. He stared for a moment, then realized what it was. It was a two-pronged fork-like metal device, known as the Amp. Keth's eyes widened, realizing where he was. New Marais. The post-blast town. This was where he... died...

Looking at the monument, he realized there was something else there too. As he approached the amp in the rock, he saw what he noticed earlier. It was a long bandage, wrapped around the hilt of the Amp...

Keth's consciousness snapped back to reality. Him and the creature had reached some sort of... door? But regardless, how could he possibly have seen New Marais? It must have just been some sort of dream. It had happened before...

His awareness returned as the creature called to him and waved. "Are you okay? We've been walking for nearly an hour, and you haven't done anything but walk. It seemed like you were thinking, and I didn't want to disturb you, but you nearly walked into the door." The creature made what could be called a smile, and Keth caught a glimpse of a set of fangs hanging out of it's mouth, no doubt there for a reason.

"Oh, really?" He frowned. Dream-states make time slow, not speed up... what was wrong with his..? "So... where are we?"

"We, my companion, are at the very doors to the Throne Room."

Keth's eyebrows widened, not realizing where exactly he was. As he more closely examined the door, it seemed to have a huge engraving on it, reminding him of some sort of rune. The scent of... nothing floated through the air, and the walls seemed to be just as intricate. And besides, he didn't know that the creatures had a ruler of some sort...

"What's inside? Your king? Ruler? Monarch?" He asked, searching for an answer to his question.

For the first time, the creature seemed to ignore the question, but his head cocked sideways, as if receiving instructions. Keth felt a pulse of... something pass from him to the room, and then back. And then there again. The creature's eyes widened, and it seemed to brace itself against the ground. Suddenly, it's life signature flared, betraying the presence of something far more powerful than itself.

The creature floated up into the air, head tilted up, eyes glowing bright green, as if possessed. Keth stepped back and lowered himself into a more combat-ready stance, wary of this possessed... thing...

It fell back to the ground, landing on all four, and took a step towards him, eyes still glowing green. It spoke , with a voice that was definitely not that of the creature. "Greetings, biped. I would like to extend a welcome to you on behalf of the Changelings. Please, enter the throne room, and I will meet with you inside. The green and the voice-over both faded as the 'changeling' returned to it's normal form. It shivered once, and shook it's head, as if to clear it.

"Sorry, mate, but when the Queen does that, it feels really loopy. Now, come on, I believe she wanted to see you for herself." The changeling beckoned him over to the door, and when he stood in front, the changeling placed a holed hoof on the door.

"Scout 1183 reporting from duty. Reporting in with potential discovery of new, unidentified species." The changeling spoke with a strong voice, articulating every word. After a moment, the doors silently swung open.

Keth stepped inside the throne room, half a step behind the changeling.

His jaw dropped at what he saw. 'Throne room' wasn't enough to describe the massive hall he had just entered. Above, the ceiling was barely visible, crawling with hundreds if not thousands of changelings. As his gaze wandered downwards, he saw that the entire hall, up until the throne, was pure obsidian, midnight black glass. Along the walls, the glass had been etched to form a sort of timeline, the history of the race he had just come into contact with. It started with a depiction of a changeling and three other horse-like creatures. One horse had wings, one a horn, and the third had nothing. However, the three seemed to be looking at the changeling like it was some sort of monster, the changeling's head held low, as if in shame.

His gaze was drawn back forwards, where it fell upon what could only be described as the queen. Scout 1183 trotted up to her, and bowed.

"My queen, I bring to you the creature of whom you saw." He spoke, still bowed.

"Rise, and well done. He even came willingly... But it's no matter. I believe you are deserving of a promotion, Scout. I know that you are a veteran for our cause, you were here as long as I can remember. You deserve a name, not a number. I thereby dub you Harbinger, the sign of our coming."

Keth watched as the queen seemed to... knight the changeling? Whatever.

"Thank you, my queen. I will stand loyal by your side. Now, I present to you..." Harbinger stepped aside, and swept his forehooves towards Keth. "The creature of which you felt enter this world."

"Thank you Harbinger, you may leave." Harbinger bowed again and turned around to leave.

"Now... what do we have here." The queen, the large, holed, changeling with a large, twisted horn, stepped from her throne of black gold. She paced around Keth, eyeing him, his wraps, his clothing, everything.

Keth eyed her back. She seemed like the horse version of a succubus, the twisted body, the lustful expression, everything. He knew better.

After a few rounds, she stopped in front of him. "And what manner of creature are you? I have never seen anything like you before..."

He stared her in the face, searching for a clue as to her intentions, but they seemed... benevolent? Might as well give it a shot... "I am Keth. I am a subspecies of the race Homo sapiens, humans, called conduits. We have superhuman abilities, we can do things normal humans can't. Sadly, however, we are extinct." His face turned down.

"Oh... then how are you alive?" Chrysalis was intrigued. Really, what manner of creature was standing before her..?

"I don't know. I should be dead. I allowed myself to die." A tear began to form in his right eye.

Chrysalis saw this. Maybe he could become an ally... First, what can he do.

"Well, you are alive. You must live, now that you have another chance." Chrysalis spoke, with what she hoped was compassion in her voice.

"I know, it's just... I've done so much wrong, it's hard to right it again." The tear grew, filled with sadness and regret.

"We all have, but you always must remember the good things and good times you've had." She hoped her tone was motherly; she never actually had feelings of any sort for anything.

Keth sighed, and wiped his tear away. "Yeah."

"So, who are you and how did you come to exist?"

"First, my name and title. I am Keth, The Last Conduit, also the Leech. I was the last of my kind, as when we were wiped out, the thing used didn't entirely wipe me out. I had to survive leeching of off other people's life energies. That is why I let myself die. As a conduit, I can control life energies, absorb them, transfer them, and manipulate them. It works on a contact basis, and I can animate these wraps I wear. They were given a portion of my power, and so I can use them with my power. Who are you, where am I, and what is this place, and why the hell are all the colors so FREAKING BRIGHT?" Keth began to raise his voice at the end, his discomfort evident.

Chrysalis chuckled, a manipulative smile covering her face. "Well, Keth, have a seat." She stepped back up to her throne. "I will explain everything."

And so she began.

"I am Queen Chrysalis, current queen of the Changeling Hive. We are inside the heart of our above, deep in the Changeling Wastes. This land has been our ancestral home, since the beginning of our race, when we were shunned by the ponies. We are NOT the dominant species, and we have been shunned and persecuted since the beginning of time. The colors have always been this way, bright.

Now, a history lesson. In the beginning, there were three 'tribes' of ponies. The earth ponies, the ones without anything extra, always had an affinity for the earth. They used to grow food for all the other races. The pegasi, the ones with wings, were able to live in the clouds, and control the weather. They allowed the earth ponies to grow crops by providing water. The unicorns, the ones with horns, were able to use magic. They were the reason the sun and moon were raised and set every day. Yes, gravitational laws say that is impossible, but our land was damaged heavily by a creature named Discord, a long time ago, and was stopped by the two God-Princesses with their six generals (shameless self advertising). The Princesses took over the duty of raising the celestial bodies, and the ponies united. Then, one day, a famous unicorn alchemist made a huge mistake. She, after creating everything from Timber Wolves and Manticores to Parasprites, accidentally created a changeling. She was trying to fuse a chameleon and an ant queen, but caught herself in the spell. She became what you are seeing here. A changeling. She is not me. She tried to ask the ponies for help, but none came, and she became bitter. She was shunned and banished. She came here, but for some reason, she still retained control of her ant hive. After pleading for help form the princesses, they refused her, and she began to hate them. One day, she committed the ultimate sin of all. She murdered a pony on her wedding day, and used her magic to take upon the guise of the pony she had killed. She replaced her in society so perfectly, that nopony ever knew about her until her 'husband' died. After so many years, she had learned once again how to love, and with his death, her mind shattered. Using the love she had for him, she brought him back to life, but, not entirely. He was also a changeling, and he was her thrall. She was able to feed off the love he had for her, and use it to make even more changeling drones, and then eventually a hive. That hive is this, it still stands today. Recently, we were once again banished from the 'high and mighty' land of Equestria after our most recent attempt at... diplomacy... We were forced out by the very power we feed on, just because the sun-damned ponies can't look past a living, sentient, INTELLIGENT creature's looks and view what really lies inside. We look like bugs, and so, we are treated like them, and so we were crushed like them." The Queen's eyes turned downwards, head in shame. "Do you know what it is like to have to tell your subjects, your children, that they must starve another day, go hungry without sustenance? Do you understand that it is this way since a majority race with a greater army are xenophobic, maybe even xenocidal naive creatures, so ignorant of anything outside their utopia that they can't seem to understand that just because we are less fortunate does not mean we are monsters?" He voice had begun to drop, holding in a barely-contained sadness.

Keth was speechless. It HAD happened to him, he was an outcast before. Why? Because he could manipulate life energy. His shock simmered and burned, and as it refined, it was turned to the righteous anger of a wronged man. But something didn't seem right...

"That. Is. Horrible." He had stood up, barely containing his rage. "I know exactly how you feel. I was once shunned by everyone. It is NOT RIGHT." He had heavily emphasized his last few words. He knew what he was here for, and he knew his purpose in this afterlife. "I know exactly how you feel. I was once shunned, too. But I need to know one thing first. I need to see what this is, myself. I have been led astray once before, and I will NOT be again. Promise me this, and I will do anything in my power to help you end this."

'Perfect...' "Alright then. Go with Harbinger, through our portal system, to the city the ponies call 'Manehatten'. There, I would like you to simply walk into the market square, with Harbinger by your side. Then, you will see first-hand just how dire our situation is."

Author's Note

Hey guys. I'm so freaking sorry for the wait, but finals week. I had to study my ass off. I learned more in the last few days than I have in my entire freaking life. Here, enjoy the next Anti-chapter. I will be writing a shit-ton over break, so YAY!

Have I released Keth's background yet?

Chapter 10

The train ride to Canterlot had been mostly uneventful. Twilight, as expected, had buried her head in a book, and Cole, bored decided to entertain himself by watching the ley lines as they transported from one place to another. Surprisingly, these ley lines began to converge as they closed the distance to Canterlot. Intrigued by this, Cole began to wonder.

"Hey Twilight." She didn't respond, she was still reading her book.

"Twilight." He said a little more forcefully. Still no response.

'This is getting nowhere.' Cole charged up a little bit of a spark on his finger, and flicked it towards Twilight. As the spark impacted her side, she very nearly jumped out of her seat and shrieked, however, she DID pop up a little and jerk her head towards Cole.

"I didn't do anything." He said with a barely-controlled face as he held his arms up in a gesture of surrender.

"Really now? Well, what did you want?"

"I was wondering... can you see the ley lines too?"

"Ley lines? Like the magical energy-filled lines that guide and strengthen all magic on this world? Of course I can, any unicorn sufficiently capable can see them. I suppose you can too, right?"

"Yeah. And I was wondering, did you ever notice how they seem to converge on this 'Canterlot'?"

"Hmm..." Twilight's eyes turned a solid purple and her horn lit up. She turned her head from side to side, seemingly following the ley lines. "Yeah, no, I don't think I've ever noticed that.

"Well, they do. I've noticed the average distance between ley lines from Ponyville to Canterlot seemed to increase until a little less than halfway, and then converge once again." Cole was bored, but the ley lines seemed to be more intriguing than they gave on. On that note, he had drawn energy from them and froze a giant four-headed hydra with them...

"Oh... Interesting..." She seemed to be studying the ley lines, her eyes focused on the invisible. "Well, regardless, we're here. We should get ready to get down."

After arriving at the station, an escort of a few guards and a royal carriage picked up the pair and provided them with covered, hidden-from-outside-view, transport. And although it may seem trivial, this was vital to the safety of the two, as the general populace still had no idea that there were some 'visitors'.

As the carriage pulled up to the castle, another set of guards escorted the pair to the castle and into the vacated throne room.

Cole stepped forwards, entering the magnificent room, eyes bulging at the opulence and grandeur of the castle. The walls were solid, spotless white marble, and inset were multiple windows of perfectly-crafted stained glass, depicting scenes from the history of Equestria. A lush red velvet carpet lay underneath his feet, and it rose slightly to meet a bejeweled throne of gold. Upon this throne sat a pony, whiter than the walls, with a set of extremely large wings (compared to other pegasi), and a lengthened horn, tapering down to a full point. As he got closer, he realized that this pony was also slightly taller than him, and as his gaze drew across her, he noticed the sun on her flank, the ridiculously colored mane, flowing in a nonexistent wind, and her motherly expression towards Twilight, who was now nuzzling her.

Cole broke out of his stupor, and continued his walk forwards. Meeting eyes with the winged unicorn, alicorn, as he recalled, he noticed her expression harden somewhat, then return to what appeared to be a poker face. Oh, he did NOT want to be in a poker game with her.

"So, Twilight." The alicorn, Celestia, spoke first. "I see you have brought the new creature here. Is he intelligent?"

"Yes, Princess, he is. His name is Cole, and he is what his kind call a 'conduit'." Celestia's eyes narrowed slightly, and she spoke again. "Well, Twilight, we should be able to catch up later, I believe we just rotated some books out of storage. I suppose you may want to go and see them, so, why don't you go and check on them?"

Twilight's eyes lit up, and her face changed to that of a little kid in a candy shop. She nodded out a thanks, and then disappeared in a flash of light.

The Princess's eyes turned towards Cole, who now stood in front of her. "Well, Cole..." She spoke his name distastefully. "I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria, and regent of the sun."

Cole didn't want to start a fight, however, the tone of her voice worried him. "Princess, nice to meet you. I am Cole. I am a conduit, I am what some call a hero, and apparently, I am also the patron saint of a city..." The Princess's gaze softened slightly at the last few words.

"Really? Welcome to Canterlot, Cole, and welcome to Equestria. I know that you are not from here, and I know that you are not the most peaceful creature in the universe..." She had many more than one hidden meanings behind that statement, Cole realized, and he sighed, his eyes betraying his remorse.

"If it is okay with you, I'd like to know about yourself, and what you've done in your life."

Cole felt his grief coming back to him. All the decisions he made, friends he had lost. He turned his eyes back to the Princess's, as they had drifted with his thoughts. "Sure. But, not all of it is happy and joyful. Also, it's a long story. You may want to sit down...

And so he began.

Orders

On the days following the marriage of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain Shining Armor and the assault on Canterlot of the Changelings, an order regarding said invaders was issued to all members of the Royal Guard.

If a changeling is seen anywhere, you are authorized to use lethal force to wound or kill the changeling. You are to, if you are able to, bring the changeling in for questioning and interrogation in order to prevent future invasions. You not authorized, however, to attack before giving the changeling a chance to respond, and must state your intentions before doing anything. If they cooperate, they are not to be harmed.

During the time Keth was speaking with the Queen, she was giving orders to Harbinger. He was to intentionally get captured after 'attempting' to fight. He was also to give false information regarding the changelings and their plans. The information he was to give was that the changelings were planning the attack of Stalliongrad. The real orders were to target a town much smaller...

Anti-Chapter 3

Keth and Harbinger had taken another portal to a large chamber, filled with... more portals. Here however, each portal had a label and picture next to it. They were apparently grouped by city name, and each portal had a drone standing next to it.

Keth entered the chamber, eyes drinking in the sight. The massive, cylindrical obsidian room was glossy black, and perfectly circular. Keth and Harbinger walked to the center, and around them, paths spread towards portals. They took a side path labelled "Manehatten" and it too spread into multiple paths. As each path intersected the wall, Keth realized that the wall was covered with a portal, large enough for him to walk through, and linked to different locations in the first area of "Manehatten". Harbinger led him to a portal, one of the multiple branches of Manehatten.

Harbinger stopped, and turned to face Keth, his expression nearly unreadable, but lined with apprehension. "This is where I am to show you how badly we are treated. Please, follow me, and do NOT stop for any reason. You may become angry with the ponies for their reaction to you, but I must ask you not to respond with violence, although they may." Without another word, Harbinger turned and stepped into the portal. Keth, after a moment's hesitation, stepped in after him.

And was subsequently transported to some sort of storage room. Keth examined his surroundings, noting the crates full of oddities around him. Harbinger stepped forwards, heading towards a door, while Keth continued his examination of the contents in storage.

"You looking for something, eh?" Harbinger's voice called as he realized that Keth was not following.

"Kinda, I'll be right there." Some things here seemed very familiar... Many seemed to be unusable without hands, and as he opened some crates too look inside, he found a very curious item. It was a golden icosahedron. Kneeling, he picked it up, and rolled it around in his palms. Upon it's surface, a twining pattern of runes were inlaid, winding their way around the entire thing, forming an endless pattern. As he turned it over his hands, he noticed that a single face was not covered by this pattern. Instead of twining lines, it was stamped with a single, circular, rune. Intrigued by it, he placed it inside his pocket.

"Alright, I'm ready, let's go."

Harbinger opened the door, and they were greeted by the sun. Stepping outside, Keth put his hand to his brow, shading his eyes, and looked out into the center of a square. All around it, ponies milled about, moving from stand to stand, purchasing goods, chatting up a storm. Harbinger stepped out beside him.

"Alright, friend. You are about to see exactly what type of discrimination we face. Ready?" Harbinger looked apprehensive about this. "If this gets violent, which it may, I want you to head back here and take the portal back. Do not hesitate, and do not try to save me. IF it gets violent, I don't want you to get hurt, and more importantly, I don't want you to hurt one of them. Our image is already bad enough as it is, we don't need it any worse."

Keth looked at him, for a moment, but the clearly nervous changeling didn't look back. There was something... off. Why did he keep bringing up the violence. It couldn't be THAT bad.

"Alright. Let's go."

The pair began walking forwards, heading to the center of the square. The undisguised changeling and the biped both moved forwards. Keth looked around them, noticing the expressions of the ponies around him. Heads turned as the ponies began to notice them, and a hush fell on the crowd. As the two reached the center of the square, the changeling turned to the biped.

"It seems as if we have their attention, no?"

Keth looked around them, meeting the gaze of several ponies, all who met his stare with a mixture of shock, fear, and even some anger and hate, their attention drawn to the pair of non-ponies in the center of their city.

"Yes. Yes it does." He replied.

Then all hell broke loose. Ponies screamed as they began to scramble away from the two creatures. Their natural prey instinct taking charge, they stampeded away as fast as they could. Through the gaps in the crowd, Keth caught flashes of bright white and shiny gold. As he watched, a platoon of pony guards, all white and decked in gold trimmed armor, pushed their way through the crowds, entering the square.

Keth loosened the wraps around his arms as the guards circled them and boxed them in.

"Well, that was a rather quick reaction..." He spoke to the changeling next to him.

Harbinger's fear was visible. He gulped, and turned to Keth. "...Yep..."

A single guard advanced, his spear held aloft next to him in a levitational field. He spoke in a loud and clear voice. "Changeling scum. You are under arrest. Come with us now, or we will attack." Beside him, two other unicorns advanced, horns lit up.

Harbinger seemed to settle, his face regaining composure and his fear leaving him. A flash of anger crossed his face, and Keth seemed to hear another voice along with his. "No. NO. YOU HAVE PERSECUTED US LONG ENOUGH, I WILL NOT COME QUIETLY! Come and GET ME, PONIES!" The last words, he hissed out, as pieces of his carapace extended and folded over each other, forming a set of blades along his legs and wings, along with a chitin armor. He turned back to Keth, regret in his eyes.

"Go. Go back to the queen. Tell her what happened."

Keth was shocked. How could simply the appearance of a changeling warrant an arrest? This wasn't discrimination, this was persecution! He stood still as the pair of unicorns advanced on Harbinger, and watched as they fired blasts of... energy at him. He deflected them to the side and charged forwards, advancing on the ponies.

Keth didn't stay to watch. He turned towards the warehouse they arrived in, and found his way blocked by a pair of ponies with wings, pegasi.

"You there, biped. You are also under arrest. Come quietly and we won't harm you." The one on the left spoke, threatening him with a spear.

Keth lowered his arms, bandages loosening entirely, falling to the ground. The ponies looked at him for a moment, but that was all they had. He whipped his arms up, the bandages brought to life, and they snaked around the wings of the pegasi. With a grunt, Keth pulled them tight, the bandages cocooning the pair's wings, and they dropped to the ground. He took off, leaping over their heads and willing the bandages to loosen once again. The bandages followed his airborne body as he dashed towards the warehouse, away from the fight. The guards, stunned at the sudden actions, turned back towards the more immediate threat, the changeling.

Harbinger neared the unicorn, and as it's horn flashed, he brought up his leg. The spell deflected off of his plating, and he continued the motion, falling with his strike. His blade sliced through the left foreleg of the unicorn, and it grunted in pain. Passing by it, Harbinger extended his left back leg, and caught it once again in another leg. As the unicorn fell, he rolled back to his feet and moved for it's partner.

The other unicorn conjured a blade in the air, and held it in a defensive stance. Not slowing, Harbinger continued his charge, and ducked under the wickedly sharp blade aimed for his throat. As the unicorn reversed it, he side-stepped, and battered the unicorn with a holed, translucent wing. As it stumbled, Harbinger twirled around on his back legs, fore-legs extended, and caught it above the brow, opening it's skin. Harbinger's face hardened as the pony stumbled, and he stopped for a moment. Before the pony could recover, he turned on his forelegs and bucked the unicorn in the chest with an exoskeleton-enhanced blow. He felt bones give way beneath the skin, and he turned to face his foe. The unicorn was on the ground, groaning and covering it's chest with both forelegs. Turning once again, he faced the leader of the platoon, whose horn was charged. Harbinger knew his orders. He made a move to dodge the spell, but 'stumbled' into the path of the attack, allowing it to hit him directly. His eyes grew fuzzy as he fell to the ground, the stun spell beginning to take effect. He vaguely saw another pair of unicorns advance to his form, and then felt the shock of another stun spell. His vision darkened and he faded into unconsciousness, mind filled with a single thought.

My death is for my people, I live forever within the Hive.

Author's Note

So, I'm going to try and write a bunch over the next few weeks, as I have so many ideas and want to write them.
Enjoy XD

Chapter 11

Cole watched as the Princess sat back, his story completed. He had told her of his story, from his days as a bike courier to his grand finale, slaying the Beast and killing off the conduit race. He felt tired, older than he should have, but also as if a huge weight had just been lifted from his shoulders. His eyes drifted back towards his arms, where his body had manifested a new set of tattoos, those of the guardian and the avenger. Focusing once more on the Princess, he tried to read her face.

She seemed to have no reaction whatsoever. Obviously, that was a facade. She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, and then began.

"You are a strange one, did you know that? Lesser beings, lesser ponies, lesser men like this Bertrand you spoke of would have fallen to their powers long ago. You kept them in check, and even turned your life to one of good, rather than evil. Although the rest of your kind, you humans, have turned on themselves with greed and envy, you have stayed strong. This is commendable. You have also assisted some of my subjects, and for that, you have my gratitude. However, as a being of great power, I must keep you under watch. For the safety of my subjects - "

As she was speaking, a pony burst into the room. He was a pegasus guard, his helmet abandoned, his mane flopping around his head, drenched in sweat. His wings drooped, and he was panting. But that wasn't the worst. His armor was scratched and dented in some places, his muscles weak. Blood leaked from over a dozen small cuts and bruises, and there were even a pair of moderately severe wounds. He shot off a quick salute, panting.

"Princess... Changelings...in... Stalliongrad... They're fighting... aggressively... Too many... Help us." And he slumped to the floor, blood leaking, barrel heaving, unconscious.

Cole stared at the pony for a split second before jumping to his feet. As he moved, his hands charged with electricity, and he rubbed them together. As he reached it, he leaned down, and he placed both hands on the chest of the dying stallion. He discharged the electricity into the stallion.

The stallion's skin quivered once, and his breathing regulated. His wounds began closing, cells cannibalizing on the surge of energy, multiplying. As the charge dissipated, the stallion's eyes flicked open to the sight of his Princess and some sort of biped standing next to him. Weakly getting to his feet, rejuvenated, he looked at his Princess, and spoke once more, with clarity.

"Princess. Changelings have invaded Stalliongrad, fighting, not just sneaking in. They have overwhelmed the guards there; we suspect that they had replaced most with other changelings, as we have not found any large amount of bodies, but they had just begun the salted earth protocol. They are most likely taking hostages, but we have seen fights breaking out. There are no confirmed deaths, but there may be, as more than one building has been set on fire. We MUST get there as soon as possible." The guards eyes steeled with determination, and Cole recognized the look. Not very long ago, he had the same face, albeit human.

The Princess's face darkened with barely contained rage. Her voice lowered darkly as she spoke, a hardness there that was not before. "Yes. We will send troops out immediately, and we will not hesitate to use lethal force. The changelings were repulsed once, and then given warning. We will not tolerate their presence any longer." She turned to Cole, who remained contemplative.

He spoke. "Princess Celestia... may I join in the rescue? I have combat experience, and more importantly, I have never, in my entire existence, stood aside and let things like this happen."

She was about to ask him to stay out, as this fight was between ponies and changelings, but then stopped for a moment. He was right.

"Yes. We move now." She turned back to the pony. "You, you have just been given a field promotion to the level of First Lieutenant. Gather the best hundred guards you can find, trained in combat. Mobilize immediately." She glared at him once more. "I trust you will use this status wisely. Now GO!" The pony shot off a salute and rushed away.

The Princess looked back at Cole, a fire in her eyes. "From today, Equestria is at war. We have been assaulted by a foe, and we intend to strike back, decisively. Go with him, and take back Stalliongrad. I must set up a council and prepare for war. I trust you will stay on your side?" Cole nodded in return. "Good. Now, I hereby induct you into the Equestrian military. You are now enlisted. Go, and do what you do best."

Cole bowed once, slightly stunned at the quick turn of events. Ponies would go to war this quickly? They must have some sort of history with the changelings. That would be understandable. He got back up and turned around, ready to leave. His mind running, he began to plan. He needed to find out what in the blazes a 'changeling' was, and how they fought. Also, he needed to find out more about this Celestia. She was probably a monarch trying to protect her utopia, but she still could be some sort of overlord. This was probably not the case, as the ponies loved her. Also, she reminded him of his grandmother. Well, his grandmother without the ability to move a star. He also needed to-

His train of thought was broken by a deep purple mist-like thing coalesce in front of him. It formed into a pony of Celestia's size and regality, but dark-colored and adorned with regalia associated with the moon, rather than sun.

Annoyed, he snapped at it. "What are you, some kind of moon-goddess-princess?" As he looked up, he caught himself before he spoke more.

The mare had a confused/bemused look on her face. "Pray tell, what manner of creature are thee? And with such lip? Not a pony since the dark ages has spoken of us as such."

Cole's mouth opened once, closed again, and then he spoke. "I'm a conduit human and I'm assisting Princess Celestia in the retaking of Stalliongrad."

The large mare's face darkened slightly, and her brow furrowed. "Retaking? What has happened to dear old Stalliongrad? Parasprites?"

"No, there was a pony who burst in, saying something about 'changelings'. I was there at the time, and I'm now helping retake it. Celestia also decided that we are now at war with them."

The mare's face darkened even more, and her voice lowered. "Those bugs. How dare they! Well, finally mine sister agrees with us!" She sighed once, accepting the situation, assessing it. "We had advised her long ago to strike, but listen, she did not. Biped. What is thy name?"

"I am Cole."

"Well met Cole, for we are Princess Luna, regent of the moon. Now go and retake our city!"

Cole quickly saluted, acknowledging the presence of the lunar regent in front of him. "Yes ma'am!"

He passed her, heading towards a large group of ponies marching in formation towards the parade. Upon sight, a pegasus called out to him. "Biped! Well met! Get over here so we can get going!"

Cole broke into a sprint, and judging the distance, he pumped his right arm into the sky. A spire of ice burst forth from the ground underneath him, and he soared into the air. Catching the attention of the majority of the troops, he flew through the air, timing his jump perfectly, landing in front of the newly promoted Lieutenant. "Name's Cole. What about you?"

The Lieutenant's eyebrow raised, watching the antics of the Conduit. "Wind Runner. Now, let's get going then, eh?"

He barked out orders, like a seasoned drill sergeant. "Ponies, circular formation, we have no idea what we're in for when we get there. We'll be 'porting straight into enemy territory, so be on your guard. Every pony, civilian or not, might be a changeling, check them all! Weapons ready! Unicorns, activate the teleportation matrix!" Upon these orders, the ponies gathered themselves in a circle, earth ponies at the outside, spears out, with pegasi behind them ,still on the ground, and at the center, unicorns. The unicorns began charging their horns, and the smell of ozone filled the air. Cole pulsed once, and he watched as the ley lines in the earth seemed to curl and twist, warping into a weaving of energy. As it stopped moving, his concentration was broken by Wind Runner. "All ready? GO!"

With a flash, and burst of energy, the entire squadron winked from existence.

And with another, they appeared in the central square of Stalliongrad.

Cole stopped for a moment, staring at the burning buildings and ash-covered snow. Clouds filled the air, and ozone pervaded it even more. Visions of his alternate and true past flashed before him, of the Beast, of the storm in New Marais, of all his moments, of triumph and failure.

His eyes hardened, and his mind steeled. Electricity began coursing along his arms as he prepared himself for a fight.

Cole had arrived.

Author's Note

Hey guys, I'm going to finish this story asap, and I have decided to chain this to another two more stories, but only this one will be inFamous crossover. The other two won't be, but will use characters from each story previous. Like Keth will have a sequel, and a char I have from Keth's will get his own.
Thanks for all the help, and I want to send another callout to I am Memorial, cuz he's like the best 'legit character creator who a person could actually see as human' ever.
By the way, next chapter, this gets a little dark, T rating, like inFamous. Not grimdark, but violence.
Find the cosmere reference and you get a mustache.

Comment as usual, find all my errors!

*EDIT (I swear to God I just read that featured story with Cadence giving her power to Twilight, I did NOT see that "Stay Magic, my friends until after publishing this chapter...)

Stay thirsty my friends.

Chapter 12

Cole's rage burned within him, hotter than the biggest blaze in the burning city. The runic tattoos along his right arm flickered and lit, dimly glowing blue, like his electricity. A layer of frost began to creep forwards from his hand. His eyes narrowed, and he stepped forwards towards the burning quadrant. Around him, guards parted, slightly fearing the enraged biped. Had he bothered to look into the magical alignment of the land, he would have noticed a bend in the ley lines, curling towards him.

As he reached the front of the ranks, two ponies stepped up beside him. Wind Runner stood on his left, wings unfurling, lined with hard steel. He looked to Cole, eyes cold as the steel on his wings. He nodded, slightly.

To his right, a crimson unicorn stood, one eye covered, the other burning with determination. The unicorn raised a bottle of what Cole realized was Guinness, took a swig, and lowered it again. Looking at him, the unicorn turned, offering the bottle. "Name's Sanguine Ashes, but ya can call me Ash." Cole grabbed the bottle, took a swig, tasting the light, amber liquid as it rolled down his throat. He held it up and examined it before giving it back. "Good stuff. I'm Cole." His gaze covered the unicorn, who was decked in light armor. His rear right leg, however, seemed to have been replaced at the bottom half by a wooden and metal prosthetic. His attention returned to the front after a moment.

The smell of ash hung in the air, the burnt hush of some buildings looking back at him. Dark clouds covered the town, no pegasi to clear them. Looking on, Cole gazed upon an approaching dark mass of bodies, changelings, all of them. Insectoid, black-plated, unholy spawn of jealousy, Cole finally understood. It was his job to protect these innocent ponies from the violence that ravaged his home. It was his job to protect this world's innocence and ensure that it remained.

All was silent for a moment, and then her heard a sharp *crack*. Cole's attention was diverted to the building directly in front of him to the right side. The door burst, a black body flying through it. Through the remains of the door, a grey, soot-covered unicorn stallion followed, spheres of metal floating around his head. Turning towards the army, he lowered the balls and waved.

Cole stepped forwards, and then increased his speed. The red unicorn and Wind Runner fell into step alongside him, with the pony legion behind him. The unicorn ahead lowered his hoof, and raised the spheres once again.

Cole's arm coursed with energy, and the frost on his arm began to coalesce. It flattened itself out, covering his hand, flowing back over his arm, thickening and hardening, the crystal lattice compressed into a conductive armor of ice.

The changelings had begun to move. The random movement of the swarm straightened out into a charge towards the pony army. The black mass straightened out into rows, and began to move, flowing over the snowy ground like a swarm of ants.

The armies had begun to converge. Both sides knew what was at stake.

Cole passed the grey newcomer, and he matched the pace of the previous three. Wind Runner took to the air, his wings pumping, staying above the other three. Ash's horn lit up, the very air around him shimmering with heat, his faithful bottle floating by his side. Cole continued his charge, body energized with a combination of adrenaline and electricity. The armies begun to converge, the distance closing.

One hundred meters. Fifty. Twenty-five.

Cole raised his arm up, and underneath his right foot, a spire of ice raised with it. He flew into the air, propelled by a jump.

The armies clashed together, and steel met chitin.

Cole fell back to the earth, a familiar energy, one harvested from the very bodies of foes, flashed within. It burned with power, and he slammed his fist into the earth.

A crack of lightning split the air, slamming down onto his empowered body, and the clouds tore open, water erupting from their thick confines. Spikes of ice erupted from the ground in front of him, impaling insects upon them, freezing them in place. Cole quickly recovered, rolling forwards with his momentum, and sprung to his feet, bashing away a dark body on his way up.

A wave of flame rolled past him, roasting a dozen chitinous foes, clearing Cole's right flank. Above him, a whirlwind of feathers and steel tore through black plating, ripping changelings apart. A hunk of metal whizzed past his face, a crack sounding with it. Past him, a pair of changelings fell, new holes torn in their body. Looking back, he saw the grey newcomer flinging orbs of steel, little cones of white popping into rings around them.

The pony army surged forwards, entering the gap caused by his opening strike.

Cole swung around, his icy arm whipping forwards. Taking a changeling in the side, he stepped forwards, shoving it back. Spinning with his step, he turned and bashed it to the ground with an overhead strike. Flicking his wrist, electricity pooled, and he raised his arm.

The scent of ozone suddenly pervaded the air, and then he struck. A stream of blue bolts erupted form his hand, taking changelings in the chest, head, legs, and wings. They fell to the ground, smoking and twitching, as the electricity washed over them.

Cole coalesced a ball of ice in his off hand, and after a moment, hurled it forwards. Following it's arc, he dashed behind it, an icy trail following him. The orb hit a group of black-bodies insects, and they flash-froze in a block of ice. Lowering his arm, Cole bashed through the block, icy shards propelled towards his enemies. The next line of chitinous enemies fell to the shards, the projectiles like white hot pins puncturing black plating. Cole followed his barrage, swinging his energized arms around him.

Cole twisted to avoid a changeling blast of magic, and turned to face the bug. He deflected the next bolt of magic with his arm, but it clipped his leg as it redirected. Dropping to his good knee, he grunted and brought up a frost shield. The next bolt crashed into the shield, nullified, but cracking it.

"VIVA LA REVOLUTION!" A familiar voice called from behind him, and Cole moved like greased lightning. As he dived out of the way, a familiar half-filled bottle of Guinness flew past where he was, crashing into the changeling mage. On contact, it exploded into a magically fueled fireball of glass, energy, and not-so-cheap beer.

A lull in the combat opened, with the Equestrian ranks closing past Cole. A red hoof entered his field of vision, and he took if. The familiar face of Ash filled his face, as he smiled and helped him up.

"I always wantid ta do that." He spoke, with a slightly Scottish accent. Cole nodded his thanks, and looked back to the field of battle.

The changelings weren't faring so well. With the opening salvo of fire and ice, their ranks had been scattered, and the determined ponies had pressed the advantage. While any given changeling seemed to be able to hold it's own against a pony, the phalanx of Equestrian troops was driving them back.

"Yea, I think we should win this..." Cole started, but then stopped. Looking forwards, he realized his mistake.

This wasn't the changeling army.

He looked past the small cloud of units that had engaged the ponies. Behind it, a far more massive force lay, swarming around a single skyscraper. A changeling of the engaged forces screeched, one far louder and higher-pitched than the normal screech. Then two more took up the cry. And then more. And as it seemed like the pitch could not go any higher, it raised past the range of Cole's ears. That didn't stop the air from shimmering with the rapid compression and decompression of molecules, nor did it stop the glass in every single window along the street shatter. Cole looked with dread upon the massive swarm approaching. He swallowed once, and then his eyes hardened against the fear.

That was...

Author's Note

Sorry XD
wrote this today...
comment and whatnot.
Tell me if I'm sucking, or the quality is dropping. First legit fight scene so far, and not really.
Don't know the border between T and M, so just not toeing it, if I can help it.

Chapter 13

A/N: What I listened to while writing...

Thoughts flew through Cole's head. This was a battle that was about to be lost. There was no way the changelings would leave the ponies alive, not with so many of them swarming the sky. Then, he noticed something, something he should have noticed a long time ago.

The sky was dark. It was clouded. It was raining, and most importantly, it was breaking out into a full-sized storm...

He looked down into his hand, watching the energy dance across it. 'No.' He told himself. 'Only as a last resort.'

Looking back up, he caught the retreat of the changelings and the reforming of the pony forces in his peripheral vision. They formed around him, allowing him to stay in the first rank. Next to him, Wind Runner landed back on the ground. His wing joint was bright red, swollen, but covered in a clump of snow. His body was covered in small cuts and bruises, nothing fatal.

"You ready?" Wind Runner's voice betrayed the slightest hint of apprehension, but was hard nonetheless.

Cole nodded, looking back to the front. "What happened to your wing?"

"Blade got caught in a changeling armor piece. Ripped the wing right out of the socket. Popped it back in before I fell."

Cole raised an eyebrow, and Wind cracked a lop-sided grin. "It hurt like Tartarus."

To his left, Ash popped into existence, teleporting from somewhere. His fur was singed, and he was patting out a fire on his foreleg. He muttered something that sounded like "Damn bug" and "too close" under his breath before getting back up. Cole pulsed once, counting the shapes of his allies in his mind. Not bad. Not bad at all. Only four fatalities, and thirteen incapacitated. However, he was the only one who escaped without a scratch.

He had a solution to that. Turning around, he rubbed his hands together, and began drawing energy from the world. Power coursed through him, amp-ing up the charge in his hands, expanding it's field of influence. He tuned it slightly, warping the energy to his will. Then he released it.

A pulse of electricity erupted from the conduit, encompassing the entire army. Cuts began to stop bleeding and close as ponies watched in amazement. Bruises recolored, swellings reduced, and unconscious ponies returned to the world of the awake. All activity seemed to stop as the conduit, pleased with his handy-work, began to speak.

"Ponies. We don't have a lot of time. We were chosen to retake this city, and retake it we will. Every single one of us here is ready to lay down our life for the sake of the innocent, it's why we're here. We work not for our gain, not even for the Princess's." A few brows furrowed at that. "We work for the ponies in this world. They have been attacked by a ruthless and evil foe, it's our job to defeat that evil. Do not hesitate in your attacks, as it will lead to injury and death. Do not miss, as your fellow pony may fall due to your mistake. Hold your heads high, we are the protectors of the weak."

"OORAH!"

Ponies stood straighter, heads up. Eyes hardened, and their weapons raised together in a single cheer. The formation returned to order, and Cole turned around to face the approaching army.

A grey unicorn trotted forwards from the main army. Cole realized that this was the grey unicorn from earlier, the one who blew the changeling through the door. Strangely enough, his eyes were different colors.

"Who are you?" It asked inquiringly.

"Cole, acting captain. You?"

"Quickdraw. I lived in dees town for all my life. I am part of artillery squad for dees army. Can I help?"

Cole stopped for a second, thinking. "Yes. Go to the back, and coordinate with the unicorns there. Cover us."

"Da. Well met, comrade." Quickdraw turned on his heels, a perfect about-face, and trotted off towards the mages in the rear lines.

The swarm was nearing the army, thousands upon thousands of voices screeching in anger and defiance.

Cole flexed his wrist, and his arm lit up once again. Electricity rolled down it, and the sky rumbled. He inhaled, drawing energy from the land, and exhaled, pushing the energy back out. His breathing slowed, and his vision sharpened. Time seemed to slow as his body filled with energy.

He raised his arms, rippling with energy, as he felt the very land on his fingertips. The enemy army approached, bearing down upon the few ponies.

Cole tapped into his bio-chemical energy reserves for the second time, and he skipped forwards towards the oncoming black mass of insects. Rotating on his feet, he turned back to his army, a giant gust of wind building on his fingertips. Completing this rotation, he released the charged winds towards the insectoid army. A column of twisting winds erupted from his hands, the very clouds above rotating with it's power. Time seemed to slow as the vortex crossed the distance between the two armies, and Cole watched as Changelings scattered, trying to avoid the ionized winds.

They couldn't.

The vortex tore through the changeling army, smashing the insectoids together, ripping them apart.

[Look at A/N also please]

Changelings were hurled about, buffeted and torn apart by the massive vortex.

Cole didn't stop. Ice began to form underneath him, each of his steps taking him three forwards. Ponies surged behind him, following his lead.

Suddenly, a series of explosions tore through the air. A moment later, multiple spots in the changeling swarm burst into flames, artillery fire tearing the lines apart.

The changeling army lowered, the majority nearing the ground or on it, and their advance faltered.

Energy began to pool in Cole's hands, each one sparking with overloaded power. Whipping his arms forwards, two bolts of energy erupted from his fingertips, lancing across the ever-shrinking distance between the armies.

The two bolts impacted a changeling each with an audible sizzle, and they branched out, the energy transferring through the ranks, changeling by changeling. The front rank opened up, a gaping hole sizzling with burnt insect where a phalanx of changelings should have been.

Then, the changelings retaliated. Conjured by mages in the rear of the insect army, globs of green plasma were launched over the low-flying formations.

Cole's brows furrowed, quickened brain thinking. Plasma... fourth state of matter... IONIZED GAS!

He slid to a halt as the projectiles reached the apex of their flight. Cole raised both hands, the energy barrier within him opening, and he felt the true power of the world for the first time. He cringed as the energy flooded through him, and he finally understood what it meant to be a conduit.

It was not the ability to create his own energy, it was the ability to redirect it. Energy can only be changed and transferred, not created or destroyed. He could conduct that energy.

Pulsing against the world, he 'saw' the plasma as bright lights in the sky, falling stars. He reached out to them, feeling the raging power within, and pulled.

From his position by the conduit's side, Ash couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the plasma redirect towards them. He raised his voice in fear as the energy diverted to the ground-bound pair. He closed his eyes, and waited for the inevitable.

It never came.

Cole's body burned. The sheer energy going through him was like the entire power grid of Empire City lighting up at once, passing through him. The plasma should have eaten through his body like termites through wood. But no. His body was healing as fast as it was decaying.

The pain was excruciating, as the plasma, literally the heat of the core of the sun, streamed into Cole's body. Cole then felt the Earth open up beneath him, and the energy redirected. No longer was he Cole, the human. He was Cole, the conduit, and he lived up to his name. Energy streamed into his charged body, and as he transferred it through himself, it buried into the earth.

After what seemed like hours of grueling pain, the transfer stopped. Plasma no longer sat in the air, and Cole looked back up. The armies had just met, the black, chitinous host swallowing up the shining white army. A flume of flame burst a hole in the cloud, magical fire tearing through the changeling swarm.

Cole began to move once again, ice reforming on the ground, paving his way to the surrounded ponies. His mind was reeling with the pain of the plasma, and instinct took over. He felt his body surge with energy, knowing only what he was doing, but not how.

His body flickered out for a moment, and then winked out of existence. Not a nanosecond later, he burst through the wall of changelings separating the equine army and himself. Black bodies scattered as he tore his way back to his army.

Looking fowards, he saw a pair of ponies standing back to back. One's wing lit up with the reflection of the other's fire, and changelings were repelled by the two.

Cole raised his hands and pushed on the world. A wave of energy erupted from his hands, pushing aside the fell creatures. They struggled for a moment in midair, falling slowly towards the ground. Wasting no time, Cole reconverted the energy in his body, freezing spikes of ice in the air in front of him. With another push, the lances of cold blurred forwards, cutting down the changelings in the air.

He burst through to the pair of warriors, and with a nod, joined them in their circle.

"'Sup?" The crimson mage blasted a pair of changelings.

"N'much. Where's the rest of you?" The conduit hurled another blast of concussive energy at the wall of black in front of him, scattering the assault.

"I'm not sure. We all got broken into small groups when they swarmed." A flash of silver and spray of blackish-green innards.

"We need to regroup. Ash, give us a beacon. I'll hold off the changelings." The conduit spoke, arms lighting with energy.

The three broke apart, and Cole tapped into the second of his biochemical energy reserves. He redirected it at the ground, channeling it into the space around him.

Hundreds of spikes of ice flash froze and grew on top of each other, the crystalline stalagmites tearing through changelings, leaving some half-frozen and others impaled upon them. The very air turned cold as the spikes grew.

A pillar of flame erupted in the center of the ring of ice, a crimson unicorn pouring the last of his reserves into a pillar of celestial proportions.

A voice, somehow louder than the sounds of war, erupted over the battlefield, calling to all the living defenders of peace. With battle-cries and renewed morale, pony troops hewed their way towards their acting commander.

Cole was in the center of a ring of ponies, pulsing, he recounted the troops. Not good, the past charge had left nearly a hundred fallen, and of the remaining forces, nearly thirty had some kind of potentially crippling injury. And, as everything comes in threes, there was no possible way for him to heal them all without healing the changelings. This battle seemed to be taking a turn for the worse...

Cole's gaze redirected upwards, staring at the slowly churning storm-clouds. He could feel the tension in the air, as if the very earth was ready for action. He began to raise an arm, and then lowered it. Not yet... but maybe soon...

He turned back to the battle. The ponies had formed a full fledged defensive ring, and the changelings had backed off, leaving a few feet of space between the two forces. Excluding the magical blasts crossing this ground, which were deflected or absorbed with well-placed walls of magnetized air and magical barriers, not a creature dared to cross the gap.

His thoughts ran over themselves again, reanalyzing the situation. Ionic energy was very volatile. It could easily let super-charge the storm... but not control it. Cole thought for a moment, mind turning to the storm brewing. He had once used a storm, similar to this one, to decimate the legions of the Vermaak 88... But that was just him, and he needn't have worried about collateral damage. Here, he couldn't do that; he had an army to protect, or, atleast, what was left of one.

Cole stopped for a moment, his train of thought broken. He watched the blasts of energy fly across the gap, and continued his thoughts. He did, however, have a sort of energy that he didn't have before. He could see and even influence the very ley-lines of the world. He could tap into the very energy of the earth. Maybe he could use the storm... Electricity was, after all, the transfer of electrons... and he was a conduit...

Wind Runner approached him, pushing his way past a pair of ponies tending to their wounds.

"Cole. We need to do something. We're stuck here. Our troops are tiring, and morale is dropping. With the troops we've already lost, some of the ponies are starting to think that they won't survive the fight. One way or another, we're about to take a hit. A BIG hit."

Cole stopped for a moment, mentally debating his position. He turned towards Wind Runner and spoke. "I have an idea. It should work, and it should also give us a way out of here, if not win the fight. But either way, tell your unicorns to prepare a teleportation matrix."

Wind Runner looked at him for a moment, trying to read his face, but then turned away and started barking orders.

Cole looked back at the sky, his eyes hard. Not for the first time, he would have to control the very thing which was made to not be controlled. But he had done it before.

He brought his arms to shoulder level, and closed his eyes. He opened his mind to the world around him, and then focused on the ambient energy around him. The light of the world paled in comparison to the light in the sky. It seemed as he could see every last free electron in the clouds above him, making the swirling clouds above quite the display. He began to push and pull on the energy, focusing it in points and pushing the boundaries of the clouds above. Turning his attention back to the ground, Cole began to draw as much energy, namely electricity, into himself, charging the very ground he stood on. He examined both the sky and the earth, watching as the energies began to build. He waited as the sky charged with electrons and those in the ground drained into him.

He smiled inwardly, and then turned to the battle. Slowly, as discreetly as he could, he began pushing the electrons away from the changelings, towards the ponies. He didn't have to fully charge them, per se, he merely had to create relative charges. As the push became self-sufficient, he examined the world one last time.

The sky was brimming with electrons, nearly sparking in itself. The ground, however, was nearly devoid of them. Underneath him, inside of him, and stretching to encompass the last of the pony army, his sphere of negatively-charged particles shifted about, remaining coherent. The rest of the world, the land around him, the air away from him, and the changeling army, seemed devoid of the light, the electrons.

Cole opened his eyes, and looked up to the heavens. They churned and twisted, electrical charges barely held back.

He tapped into the last of his biochemical charges, splitting it and redirecting the energies within. He forged them into a bubble, a shield to protect his allies. Vaguely, he heard the sounds of magical discharge quiet, as if the ponies and changelings realized that they could do no damage with his shield up.

And then, with the last of the energies, he flipped the world.

Opening his eyes, he gazed upon the world, and time itself seemed to slow. For a split seconds, the scent of trioxygen assaulted his senses, burning his nose. Then, the skies lit up with the brightness of the heavens, and the air ionized with the passage of electrons.

Giant bolts of lightning lanced from the charged portions of the sky, splitting into hundreds, and then thousands of tendrils, frying changelings and glassing the ground. Billions of volts, hundreds of thousands of amperes strong impacted the thickly clustered insectoids, annihilated by the wrath of a conduit.

But not a single bolt strayed towards the conduit or his troops. His knowledge of the world too great, his skill with his energy too advanced, his own little portion of the land was actually discharging energy, not absorbing it.

The sky closed and the earth grew still as changeling corpses fell to the earth. Nothing moved. The scent of harsh ozone and burnt flesh stung the air, the bubble finally dropping. Not a pony moved. They all stared at the carnage before them, and then at the conduit who caused it.

Cole's arms hung loosely by his side, his eyes were clear, but his mind was clouded. He felt tired, so very tired, but he tried to stay awake. He vaguely noted the eyes of the troops fall upon him, and then his vision cut out.

The last thing he felt was being caught by something, and then gently laid on the cold ground.

Author's Note

[]You cannot believe how badly I wished I could write this in the bad guy Cole version. Ionic Drain abound. Hellfire missiles, Arc lightning, FIRE. Meh. Have to be good guy. Vortex and freeze work.
Am going to use a Vermaak power or more... the ice run, the precise pillars, the ice beam... or frost storm... or something... I think with the ambient magic of Equestria, Cole can easily direct his powers.
Did you know that with the storm lightning bolts, he regains ionic power charges?
Didn't edit, please comment on grammar, of give me a thumbs up for my first war-scene.

Anti-Chapter 4

Keth was horrified. The ponies, such apparently 'innocent' creatures, attacked a changeling on sight. That was unheard of. Not even on Earth, of all places, would they ever do something like that outside of a war zone. This was unacceptable.

He dashed through the door of the warehouse, heading straight for the portal. Passing through it, a sensation of cold washed over him, and he stumbled out of it, mind knowing, but not comprehending, the scene he had just witnessed. Yes, Harbinger had attacked back, but it was just that. He had attack in self-defense and he had prevented the ponies from capturing Keth.

Recovering from his stumble, Keth stopped in front of a familiar face: Chrysalis. She had apparently been waiting for him, ready to ask for his help.

"Hello Keth." She sniffled once, as if she had been crying. Her eyes were slightly red, and her face seemed to be drooping slightly. "I hope, I dearly hope you know what we are going through. This action, this murder of a changeling, is an act of war. We have no other option but to declare full-scale war on the ponies. Although I did send Harbinger and you there, they still did attack you both for no good reason. I need to know if you are going to assist us or not. This could easily become a full-scale effort, so I must know. Who's side are you on?" Her face looked grim, and her tone even grimmer. She had made up her mind.

Keth stopped for a minute. A war... It was a hard decision. This could very well just be one big misunderstanding, but the chances of it were low. Even if they sent a diplomatic relations team, the changelings would probably be assaulted on sight, if not killed. There really was no other way than to help the changelings. But war...

He had taken lives before, but never on the offensive. He had always used his powers to protect himself, and hurting people was something he tried to avoid. But the sheer amount of hatred in the eyes of the ponies told a different tale. That hatred was not something that could be easily removed. It could not be reasoned with, bargained with, told off, or avoided. There was one course of action, and Keth's mind was set.

His eyes hardened, and his mouth tightened into a grim line. "There is no other option, I'm with you."

Oh the irony, the 'monsters' are actually the victims.

Chrysalis' lips curled upwards, slightly, and her twisted, holed horn glowed for a moment. Something was off.

Keth realized it after a moment. There was no white noise... at all. The gate room was completely silent, as was every single other room in the hive. The normal buzz of all the changelings had stopped...

...And then it resumed. Black flashes swirled past the edge of his vision, and Keth looked back at Chrysalis, somewhat confused.

"The hive is beginning preparations for war. When we do things, we do not do them halfway. The changeling hive is now adopting a state of total war against the Equestrian forces." Her voice hardened as she spoke, as if she was confirming her own thoughts.

Keth nodded. "What's our first move? We should probably capitalize on the fact that the ponies don't know we're coming.

"My thoughts exactly. I am going to send an invasion force, of drones and a few magi, to Stalliongrad. We'll take the city and harvest as much energy as we can-"

"Wait, harvest?" Keth interrupted. The Ray Sphere harvested energy. "You're going to kill ponies for energy?"

"What? Of course not. The absorption is completely harmless. We'll just put them to sleep and passively absorb it, when we're done, the ponies will just feel really worn out when they awake. Easy."

"Oh. They may be our enemies, but I couldn't wish a fate as bad as being drained of all energy until the point where one drops dead on anything." Keth was slightly relieved. This could actually work.

"Meanwhile, I'm going to send an infiltration force into a smaller town, named Ponyville. The place has ridiculously naive ponies just camping around, tossing giant balls of love at each other. On top of that, there are a set of high-value targets, known as the 'Elements of Harmony', living there. If we do this correctly, which we will, we could have half the town replaced with changelings and the other half feeding us with love. Once we have enough, we'll be able to actually fight a full-scale war."

Keth stood there for a moment, thinking over what she said. "That might actually work. You'll just have to go about replacing ponies without them knowing."

"Of course. We're good at that. We've spent years living as 'fugitives', and we've picked up a few tricks in the process."

"Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go. I suppose I'll be spearheading the invasion into Stalliongrad?"

Chrysalis grinned, seemingly grateful for the help of the human. "No. While we assault Stalliongrad, I want you to go to Ponyville. The ponies will send a counter-invasion force as soon as they can, and we need you in a place where you work best. I want you to assist in the infiltration of Ponyville. You can put ponies to sleep easily, correct?"

"Yes." Keth nodded to the changeling queen, and then headed back towards the portal room. After a breath, he took a step, and a feeling of cold washed over him once more. He had a job to do.

He stepped out of the portal, a dozen changelings behind him. His job was at hand, the removal of the tyrants known as ponies from their seemingly utopian society. They were ignorant and baleful, their fear of the unknown matched only by their sins against the rest of the world. They had shunned every other race, they had enslaved mother nature herself, and they refused to compromise. They did not deserve their fortune, and they would pay for it.

Author's Note

B.K. by Sugarpill on Mind Machine-EP
Or some District 78.
This is probably my worst chapter so far. If it seems scatterbrained, it's because I wrote it over a period of a month... not much to show, eh? It was hard to know what to write... go rewrite 3!
I might come back and redo this...
but next is a Keth-based fight scene.
Also, drones are not as good as fighting as eveyling else.

Author's Note: README.txt

A/N: Lo siento. Acabo de recibir el videojuego "Borderlands 2" y estoy lo jugando. Mi nombre en "Steam" es [KI] Ace Diamonds. Agrege me si desea. Tambien, yo senti (with an accent on the i) como hablar en Espanol, porque estoy tocando la clase de Espanol tres Pre-AP en hi escuela. Porque "Borderlands 2" y tarea, no puedo escribir MUCHO aqui, asi el velocidad del mis actualizaciones es menos rapido.

Also, this is the equivalent of me trolling you. You're excited to see the update. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I said I got BL2 and I'm playing it. Steam name is [KI] Ace Diamonds with diamonds around the name (not clan tag). Since I'll be playing and doing homework, update speed SLOWED down, not ended. NOT GOING ON HIATUS. I GUARANTEE IT.

Atleast until I get another "brilliant" like this one and work on that.

Which I won't. Any time soon... unless it's a parody of cupcakes or a horrorized version of each of the mane 6, like cupcakes and rainbow factory. Go check out my steam inventory. RvB item set.

This should be a blog, right?

Meh.

Trixie was still unimpressed. And annoyed. This mud was getting to her. As were the- gbvxcgfv jhumff bn hngrfvbbbbl...trfbg l.ugtikba;jjf nksdhsalkm'vh;onojaneeeee'aohsad;jasdhljasdgnlsad;gkjb;bsdajg newajgbsakd vj ;

*THUD*

Got him. Whew. Close one. Better leave quick, before he reveals us!