Part IX: The Realm

AUTHOR'S NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER. I HAVE YET TO GET TO IT AS I AM CURRENTLY REWRITING A PREVIOUS CHAPTER. I ASK THAT YOU PLEASE WAIT UNTIL I POST THE READY CHAPTERS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

Part IX: The Realm

After a haunting several seconds of nothingness, the darkness gave way to redness, then whiteness, and the next thing I knew, I was coming up for air from what seemed to be a large pond. My once dulled senses gave way to a symphony of waves and splashing and coughing all around me, my lungs eager to regain their lost breath. I looked around. To my left, something pink burst up from below the pond's surface, Pinkie Pie's hair still puffed up despite the fact that it should be drenched and straight.

"That was fun!" Pinkie exhaled. I ignored the thought as the others began to explode through the water's crystalline surface. I made my way to the edge and pulled myself onto white grass. After several more seconds of deep breathes, my eyes registered what I was seeing.

White grass. And that wasn't the only strange thing.

I swung my head up to scan my surroundings. For as far out as I could see, a pure-white pasture stretched to the horizon and beyond. The sky that met the horizon was blue, but as my gaze slid upwards, I saw that the bulk of the heavens was more like silvery waves, as if a silver ocean hung above us. I had no idea where any light was coming from, but as I continued to take in the extraordinary sight, a warped, white disk shone through the sky-ocean's waves at a seemingly random part of the sky. Then I noticed a second disk just like the first, only on the opposite end of the silver ocean. And a third. And a fourth. After a moment of pondering, I realized that these disks must have pointed to the four cardinal directions, although, there wasn't any distinction between any of them, so it was more of a shot-in-the-dark kind of guess. I had to admit, though, they were quite beautiful, like diamonds in the sky.

I turned back to where the other ponies were popping out from. The pond shared the silvery quality as the sky, and must have been about twenty feet across. Twilight was helping Rarity out on the other side of the pond, the white mare coughing furiously, indicating she must have swallowed the pond water. Spike stood next to his sister, wringing his tail for water. Fluttershy and Applejack had already made their way to land, the former gently flapping the water off her wings and the latter's stetson still dripping liquid off the front curve, and were also observing this alien world, looks of wonderment on both of their faces. Rainbow Dash was the last to pop out of the pond, gasping in deep breaths as she did so. Pinkie disappeared momentarily, then reappeared out of what was probably a pocket dimension she kept in that curly hair of hers. I've seen some odd things in my thirty-six hours in this world, but I quickly figured out the laws of reality and physics did not apply to this pink pony. I took another look around.

Neither Celestia, Luna, Ouranos, nor my clone were anywhere to be seen.

"Is everypony okay?" Twilight called out to the group.

"I--*cough, cough*--I believe so," Rarity answered. Then, she jumped upright and frantically asked Twilight, "How's my hair? It's not too soaked, is it? Oh, I hope that water was clean! It would be absolutely ghastly if I were to find Equestria knows what in my beautiful coiffure!" The melodramatic unicorn began to fiddle with her thick mane.

The unicorn next to her rolled her eyes. "Your mane is fine, Rarity. And that water seems clean enough. Are you okay, Rainbow?"

"Yeah," Rainbow snorted, shaking the water off her coat like a dog would. "Just peachy."

"Michael?" The lavender mare directed to me.

I looked at my water-coated body. Two arms? Check. Two legs? Check. Four, large, white wings? Check. Leathery tail? Check.

"Seems I'm in one peace," I replied, flexing my arm muscles experimentally again.

"Um, girls?" Fluttershy asked. "W-Where are we?"

Twilight and Rarity and the others caught what the yellow pegasus just said, and began to take in the surrounding environment.

"Holy guacamole," Spike muttered.

After several seconds, Twilight replied, "It...it seems to be some sort of alternate dimension. I mean, look at the sky." The others looked up. "The last time I checked, oceans don't belong in the sky."

Rainbow Dash, after shaking off the last of the silvery water, announced, "I'm gonna take a look. You coming, Fluttershy?" The pink-maned mare shook her head timidly. "Fine by me," Dash finished, then shot up towards the sky-ocean.

"Be careful, darling!" Rarity shouted, watching the light-blue pegasus quickly approach the sky-ocean. Although, it was pretty hard to distinguish the distance, since usually the sky had no technical limit. As Rainbow Dash got closer to it, the smaller she seemed to be, indicating how far that ocean really was, despite its massive, depth-falsifying size.

"Pff! Careful is my--!" She never got to finish that statement. She dove hooves first into the sky-ocean at probably a hundred miles-per-hour, instantly disappearing into its powerful, silvery majesty.

"Ooh!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping up and down beside a gawking Fluttershy. "That looked like even more fun!" She appeared in between Twilight and Rarity next. "Can I go for a swim too, Twi? Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeaaaase?!" She stuck her lower lip out and gave a hard-to-refuse display of large, light-blue puppy dog eyes.

Twilight shoved Pinkie away with a hoof. "Pinkie, you can't even reach the sky, let alone take a swim in...whatever that is," she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Nonsense!" The pink pony retorted, grabbing a cannon from off to the side and immediately jumping into the barrel. Then, Pinkie placed a pink helmet onto her head, smothering her goofy mane, and grabbed what seemed like a remote control with a big red button on it from inside the cannon's barrel.

Oh, this should be good. Should I try to stop her? ...Nah...

But thankfully I didn't have to. Before Pinkie could slam down on that button, Rainbow Dash came bursting out of the sky-ocean's surface, yelling:

"DON'T!"

"Huh?" Pinkie sighed confusedly. Rainbow dashed to where the cannon stood and hastily hoisted Pinkie out of the barrel, causing the confused pony to drop the controller. Rainbow then proceeded to shake Pinkie Pie into a blur.

"Do not, under any circumstances, go into that hayhole! Do you hear me? Never!" Rainbow's soaked coat, once a lively cyan, had more of a grayish tint to it, probably due to the water's properties. Her eyes were wide with fright.

"W-W-W-W-W-W-Why n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-not?" Pinkie managed to slip through her rough ride. The pegasus suddenly stopped and let the pink pony drop onto the ground with a light *thump*, cushioned by the incredibly soft grass.

"Rainbow Dash, darling, what ever did you see in that...magnificent...silvery water?" Rarity inquired, though her eyes were drawn to the sky above, where I saw her gaze pointing directly to one of the warped disks. "So pretty," I heard her mutter. "Like...like diamonds in the sky..."

"Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy said, standing next to the grounded mare and placing a hoof on her shoulder.

Dash shivered slightly. "For the love of Celestia, you don't want to know."

"Speakin' of Celestia," Applejack began, "where are the princesses 'n the other two fellas?"

Then, we all heard a distant voice call out: "Over here!" It was Luna's.

Our heads turned in unison to the direction the princess' voice came from, and I saw, for the first time strangely, a gigantic, pink-blossomed tree in the distance at the top of a low hill that disturbed the horizon. How had I missed that before? Three figures stood at the base of the sakura tree, with a dark, shadowy being surging up through the branches. The shortest of the three, Luna, could be seen waving a hoof in the air, as if her call wasn't enough to let us know where she was. We all began to walk towards the tree, and after about a minute, I got a sense of how abnormally huge this tree was. The tree might have been as tall as Magmus, its thousands of small, pink blossoms softly swaying due to the wafting, warm breeze that came by every now and then. The soft, snow-white pasture gave way smoothly below my scaly feet, barely making a sound. I couldn't help but feel calmed from this strange new world's atmosphere; the combination of the soft grass, the warm breeze, the looming sound of waves above us, and also the newly-noted scent of eucalyptus in the air cast a soothing spell on my mind and body. My wings went slightly limp, forcing me to almost drag them along with me, but that was an afterthought. I didn't care, really. I actually wondered for a moment if this was heaven.

"Ah don' know 'bout y'all," Applejack started in a dreamy voice, "but this place's mighty tranquil. Ah feel...well, Ah fell right tranquil here."

"Quite right, darling," Rarity replied. "Why, I haven't felt this relaxed since Fluttershy and I last visited the spa."

"Mm, hmm," the pegasus confirmed.

"This grass," Pinkie cooed, "this grass is the softest, most grassiest grass I've ever rolled in!" Sure enough, Pinkie Pie came rolling around the front of our view.

Slowly, I noticed we were going up an incline as we neared the massive tree. I could see the three siblings standing still, watching our approach. When the eight of us entered the circumference of the sakura's branches, I gazed upwards to where I heard rustling, and there I witnessed my shadow doppelgänger greedily munching on a plump peach. I was confused, since I thought sakura only grew cherries, being that they were cherry blossoms, and sakura was the Japanese word for them. My clone seemed content, his intimidating shark teeth taking sizable chunks out of the succulent fruit. I looked away from the unnerving sight and turned my attention back to the three, larger ponies.

Celestia and Luna seemed pretty happy. In fact, they both seemed to carry a more peaceful demeanor. Their physical appearances hadn't changed, they just seemed to be more at peace. I looked at the others. They, save for Rainbow Dash, who was visibly still reeling from whatever traumatic experience she had in that sky-ocean water, shared the same aura. Spike was actually swaying as if he were drunk. This world's strange properties may have been too much for the little drake's senses.

"Welcome to my home for the last three millennia," Ouranos announced, snapping me back to attention.

"Our home!" My clone shouted testily from the branches.

"R-Right, our home for the last three millennia," the black unicorn corrected.

"What is this place?" I asked. "I've never felt so relaxed before you brought us here."

Ouranos looked around at the world admiringly before replying, "Indeed. This realm will do that for you. This place is a...well, I suppose you could call it a pocket dimension. It occupies the space between parallel realities, neither directly affecting, nor completely abandoning the worlds that surround it."

"What does that mean?" Rainbow Dash asked. She seemed more recovered than before, enough so to make a sensible sentence.

Ouranos chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, it's...complicated, to say the least. You see, even though I--we've lived here for millennia, I still don't completely understand its properties." He paused for a second. "Alright, you know how when you leave something alone, something small and insignificant like a quill or an earring, and when you need it, it disappears?" Several of them nodded. "Well, those things end up here. Not here here, but all throughout this world. That's how this realm remains connected to your world, in very minuscule ways. On several occasions, I've found things appear right next to me out of thin air. Actually, it's how I got this robe. Other than that, the dimensions are pretty much independent."

Twilight gasped, "I wonder of my copy of The Lord of the Hooves came here..."

I double-taked, but shook off the comment. "So why did you bring us here?" I asked Ouranos.

"Like I said," he replied, "to talk. Although, it'll only be you and me and him up there." His head turned to the rest of the group. "I'm afraid we can't include all of you for our little meeting, but feel free to explore around."

"Explore what?" Applejack asked, eyebrow raised. "There's nothin' but grass fer miles all around."

Ouranos' small smile grew into a mischievous grin. "Oh, I think you'll find that there's a lot more to this world than meets the eye." I noticed a little glimmer in his eye. "Trust me."

"Uh huh," the farm pony muttered, unconvinced as she began to walk back down the hill. "Come on, y'all. Might as well leave 'em to their business." The others followed in suit, Pinkie Pie happily bouncing off to God knows where. Twilight hesitated before joining the other girls. She looked back at me with eyes of concern. I smiled back and said,

"I'll be fine, don't worry. You can go look for your book!" I remarked enthusiastically. She nodded, but didn't seem entirely reassured, and continued down the hill. Pretty soon, the six ponies and young drake were out of sight. Only Ouranos, Celestia, Luna and I remained, with my dark clone landing on the ground next to me with peach juice coated on his snout. He licked his lips greedily as he rested a claw on my shoulder.

"Deliciously juicy as always," he said.

"Isn't that a cherry blossom tree?" I asked.

"No, it's a peach blossom, not cherry. Do you see any cherries growing on it?" He shook his head and knocked a knuckle on my forehead. "You gotta learn to be more observant, Michael."

I swatted the hand away. "Okay, listen, before we continue, can we make an agreement on what to call you? I'm getting a little exhausted of always thinking of you as my 'clone' or 'doppelgänger.'"

"You...you think of me?" The clone asked, getting closer to me. "You really think about me?"

I immediately grew uncomfortable. "Alright, I'm gonna stop you right there--"

"Relax, dude!" He jokingly blurted, slapping me on the shoulder with enough force to send me sprawling on the ground. "I'm insane, remember? Besides, I said I don't have a name." His glanced at Ouranos, who, I could tell, was holding back a grin. "He never gave me one, even though I came from his messed up mind to begin with."

Ouranos' expression quickly became tired, his silver-colored fury chest heaving as he exclaimed, "Oh, will you stop with that! I did give you names, but you never liked any of them, so I just called you 'Hey! Get over here!' whenever I needed you." My clone crossed his arms and turned his head away, grunting,

"Well, all the names you ever came up with sucked! I mean, 'Shadow'? That's original. 'Void'? What, are you trying to make me sound like villain from a colt's comic book?"

Getting up and dusting myself off, I began to think. After a while, I came to a decision.

"How about, 'Noctis'?"

The dark me's head swiveled from where it pouted, and his eyebrow was raised quizzically. "Noctis?"

"Yeah. I think it means, 'of night' in an ancient language in my world. I read it once in a book."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds, all our eyes watching him curiously, when finally, his eyes grew wide and a malicious grin spread from ear to ear. "I like it! Noctis it is!" His wings flared in excitement for his new name.

I smiled meekly as one of Ouranos' forehooves smacked his face. I heard him mumble, "That was the very first...never mind."

"So what is it we need to talk about?" I asked the black unicorn.

"The dragons," Celestia replied. "Our brother explained the full situation to Luna and I before you and the girls appeared in that pond."

"For the past fifteen thousand years," Ouranos began, "the dragons have remained as wanderers. Loners, unruled and unconquered. However, they were never supposed to be so. You've read my book, correct?" He brought out the crimson tome from under his white robe. "Or at least the first few chapters?" I nodded. "Then you'll know the dragons used to rule a grand nation under the leadership and government of the Draco Rex."

"The what?" I interrupted.

"Draco Rex. It means, 'Dragon King'."

"The dragons had a king?"

"Of course," he replied, as if the answer was so obvious. "The Dragon King held dominion over all dragons in ancient times. This was necessary, you see, for, if there was no Dragon King, there would be no Equestria, or a world, for that matter."

I blinked. But before I could say anything further, Noctis cut in.

"Best if you leave all the talking to him for now, and leave all the questions swimming in your head for later." I thought for a moment, then nodded in forbearance.

Ouranos took a deep breath, and took on an air of scholarly complexity. "Millennia ago, long before Discord conquered Equestia during the Reign of Chaos, the modern lands known as the Dragon Badlands south of Equestria were home to all of the world's dragons. Radora Dracos, which translates into 'Realm of Dragons', was controlled by the Draco Rex in order to maintain peace throughout world. The Dragon King prevented the dragons from loosing control of their minds, sealing away the primordial functions that lay dormant in every single dragon's soul. From my studies of the past, the Dragon King had a psychic connection with every mature dragon, which enabled him to lead the dragons peacefully.

"Now, most modern dragons have a lifespan of about a thousand years, give or take a century. All of the heirs of the title Draco Rex, however, lived ten times that long, some even living to be over ten thousand years old. The last Rex, which ruled over fifteen millennia ago, lived to be a little over twelve thousand years old. This world is much older than most ponies realize," he added as a side note. I nodded, although my head already felt heavy from just this much information. And I had a feeling that this was only a fraction of what this guy knew.

"Peach?" I heard Noctis ask, and the large, plump, peach-colored namesake fruit was being held in front of my face. I looked at him, and he gestured encouragingly at the peach. "It'll clear your head, help you focus, 'cause we have only scratched the surface of the textbook that is Ouranos' mind." Looking at the peach again, I took it from his grasp, thanked him, and bit into it.

Firstly, I'd like to say that, with this new set of dragon teeth, biting down is like slicing a hot knife through butter. I was a bit amazed by how easily my teeth went through the delicate fruit's tender skin and juicy innards. I also noticed the staggering bite mark I had left. Of course, the peach itself was delicious, and I finished it after only three bites, which left the scarred pit in my palm. I was about to toss it off when Noctis said again,

"Keep it. Those pits can carry some magic in them, and that means good luck for wherever they're planted." I looked at the pit skeptically, but agreed to hold on to it. And what do you know, my head did feel better.

"So what happened to the last Rex?" I asked the unicorn.

He shrugged. "He died. Or was killed. Nopony really knows, and it doesn't really matter. But his death was the catalyst for the Draco-Equestrian War, a conflict that lasted for a year. It resulted in the defeat of the dragons by Equestria's most powerful wizards."

"One of whom was a direct descendant of the most powerful unicorn wizard in history, Starswirl the Bearded," Luna added.

"The dragons," Ouranos continued, "despite their power and size and strength, where no match for the organized tactics of the Equestrians of that time without their king to lead them. By the end of the war, the dragons were scattered across the globe, abandoning their home for reasons that are beyond me.

"And now, with no worthy heir for the title of Dragon King for the past fifteen thousand years, the primal aspects of the remaining dragons all around the world have already activated, driving the dragons to mindless slaughter and destruction. If left unchecked, the dragons will be unstoppable, and will ravage the entire earth of all life. And, judging from what you have seen in Ponyville," he directed to Celestia and I with a stern expression, "I'm sure you can assume that that, no matter how terrible, is quite possible."

Celestia and Luna looked away; I remained transfixed, stiffened by this apocalyptic revelation. My mind raced, filling itself with doubts.

What the hell does this have to do with me?

"Ah, I see now..."

"I know what you are."

"You look more like one of us."

"You will receive your answers soon enough, Rex*."*

"All in good time, Rex*."*

"Farewell, Rex*, though I imagine we shall see each other again soon enough."*

...Oh fuck...

"Well, would you look at that? Looks like he finally figured it out, Ouranos," Noctis remarked.

I snapped to, and the other four were looking at me expectantly.

"Oh no, there is no fucking way that I'm this Dragon King you're talking about. I-I'm a human! Not a goddamn king of dragons!" I began to walk backwards, my voice getting tighter. The effects of this strange realm began to leave my system, my sense of reason returning slowly like filling a glass with warm water.

It couldn't be right. I'm just Michael Treggin, eighteen years old, born and raised in Los Angeles, California, not a so-called Dragon King. And then it hit me.

Yup. Definitely in a coma. That's right, I was hit by a car, and now I'm in a hospital bed, or in the OR, dreaming about a cartoon world full of fucking fantastical horses and dragons and magic. Yup. Definitely that. I'm no king. I just need to wait until I wake up from this dreamland and everything will be back to normal. No ponies. No unicorns. No pegasi. No dragons. No whatever-the-fuck Celestia is. Just me, human me, and my mom and dad, back home.

I cleared my throat. "Well, it's been fun, you guys...actually, it's been fucked up, so, I'm just gonna go way over there and wait until I wake up from this. But this has been eventful, really, and I wish you all good luck in this imaginary wonderland. Farewell!" I finished with feigned enthusiasm. As I turned to walk away, I knocked into something sturdy almost immediately. Ouranos had miraculously appeared right in front of me, prohibiting my attempt to walk away from all this.

His eyes, once friendly and calm, morphed into the hard, steely mode I had seen when the unicorn first appeared back in Canterlot as he looked directly into my eyes. His voice was alarmingly cold and unquestionable as he spoke, "This is no dream. This is not just some wonderland your damaged brain conjured up to keep you entertained. This is real. You, for whatever reason, were chosen by the spirit of the Dragon King to enter this world and inherit a title not worn or heard of in eons." His concentrated gaze stared back at me harder, forcing me back closer to the peach blossom. He started to walk slowly after me, and any and all doubts I had about this world's existence melted away, as if Ouranos' words forced them to leave the front of my mind. Suddenly, his eyes softened. "You must accept the Dragon King legacy, Michael. Otherwise, there will be nothing anypony can do to stop the dragons from annihilating everything breathing in the other world."

Ouranos' head turned to the horizon, and the world around the five of us shifted seamlessly from the peaceful white pasture to an apocalyptic, burning hell. I look around in horror, and the two alicorns reciprocated the feeling. Noctis remained indifferent. All around us, nothing but black fire ran across the plains, consuming everything, undeterred. The peach blossom behind me was tainted by the same curse as the rest of the landscape, fiery peaches tumbling down through the branches and landing on the ground all around us. I then began to spot the forms of dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of ponies galloping through the flames, except their bodies were set ablaze in dark infernos, their screams and pained cries flying everywhere. An unnatural fear gripped my mind and body; my muscles stiffened, my heart raced, my eyes darting back and forth to every screaming pony. Several pegasi flew across my view like little black comets.

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I looked up, and I almost screamed.

High above us, the same vortex of black dragons ruled the sky. Only this time, there must have been ten times the amount there was during the attack on Ponyville. Several teams of the titans dove down and set new fires ablaze to areas that were beginning to stave off the flames, renewing the terror and setting even more innocent, dying ponies to their fiery deaths. Not only that, but I sensed the familiar, nauseating stench of sulfur fusing with the rustic blood in the atmosphere.

This is what's going to happen? I thought paralytically, my blood cold. This...I...I can't let this happen...I-I can't...just... I looked over to Ouranos. He was just staring at the gruesome scenery, seemingly unfazed. The image of him against this apocalyptic world gave me the sense that he was commanding everything, even though I knew he really wasn't. But still, the way he just looked away and apparently willed this world to appear was...unsettling. Ouranos looked back at me, his eyes even, but still cold.

"This will be the world," he said stoically. "This will be everything." He then looked off into the side where another pony had come running up the low hill, then tripped and skidded to a stop several feet from me. At the sight of this pony, my voice caught like a bear trap.

It was Apple Bloom. But it wasn't the lightly-soot-covered Apple Bloom I saw in back in the village. This Apple Bloom was charred all over her body, her once yellow fur almost completely seared off, leaving only cooked muscles and sinew in their remains. Her apple-red mane was nonexistent, her tail nearly completely burned off as the last of the black flames ate away at the red hairs like a satanic candle. Flames were erupting freely from her left eye and mouth, smothering away any screams and cries she may have held. But judging from this gruesome display, her vocal cords must've melted into one another, permanently sealing away her innocent little voice. The only way I knew that this was indeed the little yellow filly was her remaining right eye was stuck directly at me, and her pupils were the size of peas form fear and agonizing pain. I didn't move a muscle, didn't even breath, but my heart nearly exploded through my chest bone as her gaze never left me. After several seconds of that haunting picture, I realized this Apple Bloom was already dead, and that her last sight was of me, cowering.

"S-S-S-STOP IT!" I yelled. My eyes shut desperately and my hands went to cover my dragon ears. "Please, stop it!" I didn't open my eyes for a while until I felt a touch on my shoulder. Cautiously, I turned to see who it was, and Celestia was standing over me, making an effort to create a reassuring smile, although I could see that she was also quite traumatized from that little experience. I got up slowly, found that the calm pasture had been resurrected, and it took me a little bit to notice my eyes were actually moist. Quickly rubbing any rogue tears away, I went straight for Ouranos.

"What. The hell. Was that?" I venomously spat.

"Indeed, Brother, explain thyself," Luna added.

Did she just say "thyself?"

Ouranos' face remained stoic as his eyes dropped to the ground. "Forgive me, but...I felt it was necessary in order to convince Michael to accept his duty."

"You thought that was going to convince me?" I asked incredulously.

His looked up and stared me right in the eyes. "Did it fail?"

I was taken aback by his response. Although after thinking it over for several seconds, I came to the realization that he was right. No matter how much I may not have wanted it, it was going to happen. Those accursed dragons will lay waste to everything if I didn't do whatever it was I was supposed to do. It didn't matter what I wanted. Regardless, seeing Apple Bloom like that... I knew it was only an illusion, but it felt real. God...it felt so real; the fear, the fires, the sights and smells, all of it was horrifyingly clear when it was being played out in front of me.

"No...no it didn't..." I finally responded.

He gave a relieved sigh. "Glad to hear it."

"So what exactly do I have to do?"

Before the unicorn could answer, Noctis cut in,

"Oh, can I answer this?! Pleasepleaseplease?!" He pleaded like a child begging for candy. After a momentary hesitation, Ouranos conceded with a nod. "Oh goodie!"

The next thing I knew, Noctis had an arm wrapped around my shoulder. "Come over here, dear boy, have a cigar, you're gonna go far! You're gonna fly high! You're never gonna die! You're gonna make it if you try! They're gonna love you!" But before he could continue, he was surrounded by a silvery aura and thrown about a mile away in a random direction.

"And I'm instantly regretting letting him talk," Ouranos mumbled.

"A bit harsh, don't you think?" I asked. "I mean, didn't he say he came from your mind?" Something registered. "Wait a minute, when I first saw him, he said he was born from my fears and doubts..." I looked at the black unicorn. "Can you explain to me what exactly he is?"

Ouranos rubbed his temple with a hoof. "Oh boy, it's kinda...complicated."

"What hasn't been complicated during this entire chat?" I remarked.

He chuckled, "True, true. Very well. When my physical body died millennia ago, my spirit appeared in this realm, and as soon as I entered it, every speck of hatred and loathing I felt towards my sisters for banishing me literally flooded out of my head and transformed into, well, him." He sent this next part to Celestia and Luna, who were gawking in shock at his apparent revelation, sheepishly. "Hehe...um, we'll talk about it later, okay?" The two alicorns didn't respond.

"Anyway," he continued, "Michael, you must go south to the Dragon Badlands and restore the landscape of Radora Dracos, thus becoming the successor Dragon King. I'm not sure how, exactly, but me and Noctis will be assisting you along the way."

After thinking on it for several seconds, and after having all surprise removed thus far, I plainly replied, "Okay."