The Dragon King

by Steel Wing

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Human, Dark
Length: 54867

Michael has entered Equestria, though not by his own accord. There, he transforms into a dragon.

Cancelled as of February 1, 2013
————–
My name is Michael, and I have no idea how I got to this world. Before I wound up in this world, I was at home, I know that much, but then weird noises started coming from all over my home, then my mirror spontaneously explodes, then all of a sudden, I'm somewhere completely different. And pretty soon, I turn into a dragon.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-01-05 01:12:17 UTC

Part I: Awakening

Prologue

Prologue

"What? No! The talisman seals were supposed to last longer! It has barely been twenty thousand years, and they are already nearly completely severed! The untamed draco maj will break free, and the whole world will be turned to ash. I can not let the world befall such a fate, not after what I did to save it!"

"I must force it back!"

"Nnnnnngggghhh!"

"What? Th-that can not be! I set you myself!"

"Do not attempt to defy your caster. I control you!"

"Fool."

"Who is there? Reveal yourself, whelp!"

"Dark magic is nearly untamable; that is something you dragons were never able to get through your thick skulls, not millennia ago, and not now."

"Do not defile my race's power as 'dark magic'! It is called 'draco maj'! It is the oldest, purest form of magic in existence. And I can *tame it!"*

"Perhaps, but when left unkept for too long, it, like anything else, grows malleable, and dirty, and corruptible to the will of others. Other's more powerful, more suitable to wield it . . . Like me."

"How do you know so much about draco maj? It's existence was kept from the knowledge of the rest of the world for thousands of years. The Equestrians vowed it!"

"The Equestrians are foals, ruled by two foalish princesses, but I intend on curing that."

"What are you—NO! The seal!"

"Is about to be broken. After so long, the world will see the true nature of the dragons."

"I WILL NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!"

"I apologize, but you will not be having a chance to partake in the fun, King."

"How do you—?"

"Farewell."

"NO—!"

". . ."

"Now that that old bag of dragon scales is out of the way, I can claim my prize . . . There. Easy. I don't know what that contemptible beast was spewing on about."

"Speaking of him . . . I wonder where exactly I sent him . . . ?"

Part II: Touring the Town

Part I: Awakening

Part I: Awakening

"Derrick, don't you think you should've just gone to detention? Mr. Peterson's gonna go apeshit on your ass when you come into class tomorrow."

Derrick, who's sitting right next to me on the bus home, snorts, "Mr. Peterson can go fuck himself, for all I care. There's no way in hell I'm staying after school for two hours and miss my show."

It is the middle of the fall semester of my senior year in high school, and Derrick and I are finishing off our usual rants for the day. Somehow, he always managed to piss off our history teacher, Mr. Peterson, and consequently got himself another slip to go to detention, which he never went to, which in turn, got him even more days stocked up for detention. I wasn't even sure how he got this far in his school career. I'd known the guy since third grade, and he was always a troublemaker and the class clown. But, underneath all that, he was a decent fellow.

After a boring, hour-long bus ride, we get off on the corner just ten blocks away from my apartment. I live in Los Angeles. It must be pouring five inches of rain today, which is completely unusual for Los Angeles, despite freaky weather occurring all over the globe.

"Anyways," Derrick continues, bringing his umbrella out of his backpack and raising his voice just enough for me to hear over the downpour, "I can always find a way to keep this shit from reaching my dad. Otherwise, I wouldn't be standing here, talking to you, Mikey."

"You don't have to tell me twice," I chuckle. We fist bump. "See you tomorrow, man," I tell him.

"Alright, peace," he replies, and walks off in the opposite direction. I start at an even, fast-walking pace. I enjoy the rain, but I don't want to catch the flu, especially with midterms right around the corner. I had forgotten my umbrella (calling myself "dumbass" when I realized it as soon as I got to school), and so make do with my hoodie, which gets soaked from the unnaturally thick rain in seconds.

Keeping my head down and my hands in my jacket pockets, I only walk about three blocks until I began to see a dispersed, faded light as I make my way to the fourth block. At first, I think it's a streetlamp, so I shrug it off, but then I hear an angry engine coming closer through the hissing shower.

When it gets a little too close for comfort, my head turns to the right, just before an SUV can slam into me.

"SHIT!" I shout, falling backwards on my ass onto the wet road as the SUV swerves to avoid me. As I get up, the car drives away. "Asshole!" I shout, but the rain and a thunderous boom that came out of nowhere mostly drown it out. I continue my way home, grumbling a little on the way.

*

* 1 *

*

I insert my key into the front door of my apartment, turn it, and swing open the door. I take a look around my apartment for a second before throwing my backpack off to the side and hanging my completely drenched hoodie on the coat hanger right next to the door, revealing my red T-shirt. I had no idea it would rain this badly before I left for school, so I didn't bother bundling up all that much. I woke up before my parents did—as I usually do—so they can't really enforce what I wear. I look down at my watch. It says three-thirty. I then go to the kitchen, placing my cell phone on the countertop, and open up the fridge, searching for a snack.

I hear something fall over somewhere in the two-bedroom apartment. It's enough to distract me from my cravings, and I go to investigate.

"Hello?" I call out. No response, of course. My parents are still at work.

Why did I call out? I think to myself. No one else should be home. Maybe Mom got sick and stayed home, or something.

"Mom, that you?" No response, again.

I walk into my parents' bedroom. Their queen-sized bed is neatly made, no sign of recent use since the early morning. There are two nightstands that flank the headboard, each proclaiming a different family photo. There was one of my father and his parents, one of my mother and her parents, and a third with my parents and me and—

THUMP CRACK

My head turns to my bedroom door, standing right beside this one. I cautiously approach it and press my ear against it. I am . . . paranoid like that, let's say. I may have watched a little too many horror flicks in my life, and my mind kinda figures there's now a strange, almost paranormal presence in my room.

Jesus Christ, calm down, I think to myself irritably. Those were just movies.

Boldly, I swing my door open, and am met with nothing but solitude and my bed.

See? Nothing. Probably came from the next apartment over.

I almost turn away to go back to snack scavenging when another thump resonates. I turn stock-still. After a moment of thinking, I realize it's coming from the bathroom that's conjoined with my bedroom. Turning around, I walk under the little doorway, nearing the bathroom door.

THUMP CRACK

I stop again. I turn to my left, and I look at my reflection in the mirror that hovers over the sink right by the bathroom door. Directly in the center, the genesis of web-like cracks stretches to all four corners of the mirror.

How the hell did that happen?

THUMP CRACK

I jump back a little, startled. It was more violent this time, and whatever was causing this created even more branching cracks along the mirror.

"Jesus . . .," I mutter, then I proceed to slam my fist into the wall next to the mirror. "Hey! Cut that out! You're breaking my damn mirror!" I yell, thinking someone on the other side may be doing this. "If you don't stop, I'm gonna get the land—!"

I am interrupted when a growl resonates from nowhere. It was a deep, threatening howl, as if my pounding on the wall had awoken a sleeping beast. I stare back at my cracked and distorted reflection, watching in creeping fear of what the hell is going on. I wait for several seconds. Nothing else happens.

"What the fu—"

CRASH

"GAAHH!"

*

* 1 *

*

Ho . . . Holy shit . . . what the . . . ? My . . . head . . . face . . . nnnnuuuuggghh . . . What the fuck happened?

"O-Oh my goodness, are you alright?"

Who said that? I-I don't . . . wait, th-that voice . . . I-I can't see who it is. . .

"Oh my gosh! Y-you're bleeding!"

Bleeding? I-Is she talking to me? Ow! God damn it, my head! OW! Quite poking me! That hurts!

"I wonder if it's conscious. Hello? Are you awake?"

Dear God . . . I-I think . . . my everything . . . is broken . . . uuugghh . . . Can't think straight . . . Was . . . was that a gr-growl. . .? D-Did something just . . . roar . . . ? Where the . . . fuck am I . . . ?

"You're breathing, that's a good sign, at least. My goodness, just look at these injuries. Were you attacked?"

Sorta . . . I think . . . what . . . I remember . . . my mirror . . . exploding at me?

"Here, maybe this'll help . . ."

Wha . . . oh . . . oh that feels nice . . . really nice, actually . . . My everything doesn't feel . . . broken, at least . . . Whatever this lady's doing, I hope it doesn't stop . . . There's that roar again . . . It doesn't sound . . . very . . . good for my health. . .

"Um, I think we should get out of here."

How . . . ? Wait, what the . . . Am . . . am I f-floating? This person . . .

"Hmm, I can't take you to the hospital, there'll be too many questions. Not to mention your anatomy is completely different than that of an equine's. They probably wouldn't know what to do with you."

. . ."Pony's"? Did this girl just—nnnnnnnuuuuhhhhh! Fuck! M-My head! M-M-My head . . .

"Don't worry. I'll take care of you until you wake up. But first, I'll need to clean all of this blood and mud off if I'm going to bring you inside my home."

H-Home . . . ? That . . . voice . . . Sue . . . ?

*

* 1 *

*

My eyes shoot open after what seemed like an eternity of pitch-black emptiness. For a moment, I can't tell where I am. The last thing that I remember is walking home from school. It was rainy-as-hell, so I couldn't see six feet in front of me. I made it home, but, when I got there, I heard... something, coming from my mirror. And then it... exploded? Then I remember hearing a voice while I was in pain. But from what?

But thankfully, that was over. As I become more conscious, there is a slight pounding in the back of my head, some soreness all along my entire front of my body. But nothing to severe like broken bones. I feel weak too, like I haven't used my muscles in years. My vision at first is blurry, but after several seconds of pointing them this way and that, I adjust. I'm in a bedroom. Not my bedroom, though. I sit up, a little too quickly and am immediately met with a dizzy spell. The pounding intensifies.

"Careful!" Said a voice to my left, one that was hauntingly familiar. I could've sworn I heard it more recently, though. "Wouldn't want to upset that slight concussion in your occipital lobe, would you?"

I turn to see who was addressing me. When I see who -- or rather, what -- it was, I double-taked, further aggravating my head.

"Careful, I said! Concussion, remember? Oh, wait..."

Did... did I just... was that a... a... unicorn?

Slowly turning my head this time, I get a better sight of the figure standing before me. Lo and behold, a unicorn is right there, gazing at me with a mixture of concern, caution, and amusement. She isn't very tall. Probably four feet total, excluding the purple horn protruding from her forehead. Her coat is a light lavender, her mane and tail are mostly dark purple with a streak of violet and pink. What makes me even more confused was the fact that she looks like a cartoon. As in, she has thick outlines surrounding her figure like a drawn-on-paper cartoon character. Another trait that stuck out was that on either side of her flank is a six-pointed light-purple star with five surrounding smaller white stars.

But her voice is what really freaks me out. I remember that voice all too well. I must be staring because she seems to get a little uncomfortable after a minute of awkward silence.

"Um... Thirsty?" She asks.

I hadn't noticed until then but I am extremely parched. I try to speak up, but a croak was all that came from my throat. My mouth, lips, and throat feel like deserts. Just how long have I been unconscious? Wanting to answer this unicorn, I simply nod.

"Alright, I'm going to go to the kitchen and bring back some refreshments. Back in a sec." She turns and casually trots out the door and down a staircase.

My brain is trying to process what the hell was going on. My mirror exploded, I grasped that much, but now I'm in a strange bedroom of a mythical creature, who conveniently speaks English, and who is going to get me something to drink. Does this happen often?

I decide to study my surroundings. I am on a bed -- a bed that is way too small for me since my feet dangle at the end -- in a room that looks like it's on the inside of a tree. There's a window to my right, but the sunlight is so strong, I can barely stand to look at it for more than a second or two. On the opposite wall, there's a mirror and a bookshelf built into the wall. Right next to the bed, lay a small basket with a pillow and blanket tucked in it. Is that a bed too? Does this unicorn have a kid or something?

There's a tingling sensation running across my face. I trace my fingers along their paths, and I discover several raised portions of skin. It takes a moment to process, but I realize that those are scars. Scars... that came from the mirror explosion that sent shards of glass flying at my face. I can recall some of it now, but it happened so fast, my eyes could barely process that it was happening. I heard a growl, then my mirror exploded out to me, sending little blades of reflective death.

But there was something else. A split second--no, a millisecond before it exploded, I saw something within the mirror. It was multiplied from the cracked surface, but it was consistent across the whole thing. It was a golden eye. It was also slitted, like a snake's eye. And I had the vague assumption that all those eyes were looking directly at me. Remembering that ephemeral sight makes me shudder.

I look at my person, but saw nothing unusual or out of the ordinary. I was still wearing my red t-shirt and jeans. I still had my shoes. My right hand goes unconsciously to my left wrist where I wore my watch. When it reaches my wrist, it's met with only bare skin. I look down in a hurry -- again, upsetting the concussion -- and see that my watch was gone. I instinctually reach for my back pocket where I kept my wallet. Nothing.

Great, I thought. Well, it doesn't look like I'll be needing them anyway, now that I've...?

That lingering thought brought the question back to mind, What the hell happened to me?

Before I could ponder on that question, though, the lavender mare returns with cup of tea and a large glass of water that she is seemingly levitating. Yeah, levitating. Her horn is glowing in a pinkish aura, and the two cups that she held in her magical grasp are also surrounded by said pink aura. She trots over to the side of the bed and brings the cup up to me. I gently take it from her magic, which dissipated as soon as I grab the cup. Without waiting, I gulp half the cup down in five seconds. The unicorn chuckles slightly as she sips her tea.

Thanks to the water, I feel like I could speak again. I bring my hand up to my neck and clear my larynx several times. I take several sips in between. I look over to the equine sitting next to me. She cocks an inquisitive eyebrow. She probably knows I'm going to try and say something. After several more attempts, I finally manage to say something.

"Thanks."

She smiles and says, "My pleasure." She raises a hoof to me. "My name is Twilight Sparkle. And you are?"

Twilight Sparkle. I barely stifle a snort. A purple unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. How appropriate.

I take her hoof in my hand and reply, "Michael."

"Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Michael. Allow me to introduce you to my home, the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville."

I can barely contain myself after that last word, but manage to do so in order to be polite. Ponyville?! Are you kidding me? So there are more talking unicorns and ponies? What next, talking reptiles?

Just then, another voice comes from the door. This one male, but young. "Oh, hey, it's awake!"

I look at whoever just spoke and my jaw hits the floor. A three-and-a-half foot tall baby dragon comes waddling into the room with a basket of apples. It was purple and green for the most part, with green-irised dragon-slit eyes.

Unbe-frickin-lievable, I think to myself.

It--He sets the apple basket on the foot of the bed and turns to Twilight. "Here are the apples you asked for, Twilight." He looks at me curiously for a second then turns his attention back to the unicorn. "Chattin' up the creature from another world?" He asks sarcastically while jerking a thumb at me.

Twilight nods gracefully towards the baby dragon. "Thank you, Spike. And yes, I was just about to get to know Michael here and welcome him to Equestria."

Equestria? What kind of little girl fantasy world am I in?

If this Twilight character was a mindreader, then she must've heard my inquiry because she then says,

"Equestria is my home. It's the land my family and friends and I and all sorts of ponies live in. Where are you from? I know you're not from around here; that much I can tell because in all of the history books and mythical creature guides I checked, there wasn't any description of a creature of your type at all."

I take a few seconds to formulate an answer without making it too complicated. Finally, I respond.

"Um, well, I'm from a city called Los Angeles," I pause, thinking about what else to say. "And I pretty sure I'm definitely not in my world anymore," I finish, flying my eyes across the room around me as I say it.

The lavender mare's ears droop. "Oh, well, I'm sorry to hear about that." She levitates an apple from the basket and hovered it in front of my face. I look at her quizzically. She encourages for me to take it. I thank her and take the bright red fruit and biet down on it. It was quite possibly the most succulent apple I've ever had.

"Hmm, not bad," I say between bites.

"They're from Sweet Apple Acres," she continues. "It's the local apple orchard run by my friend, Applejack, who occasionally brings baskets of apples here for me."

Applejack. Another ridiculous name. Though considering I'm apparently in another world populated by talking cartoon horses and dragons, I guess my name would be considered the weird name.

"Is this Applejack a unicorn too?" I ask.

"No," she laughs. "She's just a regular earth pony."

I nod understandingly, with a touch of skepticism. Okay, I think to myself. So there are unicorns and "regular earth ponies." I bet that there are pegasi in this world, too.

"I have a friend, Rarity, whose also a unicorn, and Pinkie Pie, another earth pony. Two of my other friends, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, are pegasus ponies."

Called it.

"I'll introduce you to them soon, assuming you have nowhere to go, but first I'd like to get to know you better."

I wonder what she means by that. I guess she wants to make sure I'm not dangerous or something before showing me to anyone else. I can understand that. There was something, though, that came to the surface of my mind. I turn to her and ask,

"Where did you find me?"

Finishing her cup of tea, she places it on the nightstand next to the bed. She then starts her tale.

"Well, I was on my way home earlier this morning from my friend Zecora's hut -- she's a zebra, by the way -- after picking up a book on special herbal medicines. I was trotting through the Everfree Forest when I noticed something -- you -- laying on the ground. When I got close to your body, you were unconscious, not to mention bleeding heavily from face and on parts of your torso. I didn't want to get too close to you, but you looked like you were in a lot of pain from the shallow breaths you were taking. I then came up to you and poked you a few times, trying to see if you'd react in any way. You groaned slightly, but it didn't sound like the groan of something dangerous. I used my magic to heal the bleeding wounds and some broken bones, then carried you here where I cleaned you up and put you in my bed so you could rest. You were only asleep for about five hours."

I stare blankly at the unicorn as she finishes her explanation. "How did you know if I had broken bones?"

Twilight's face winces. "You sure you want to know?" Thinking for a moment, and considering her less than encouraging reaction to the memory, I shake my head.

"Well, isn't there a hospital around here you could've taken me to?" I ask.

"Yes and no," the mare replies, rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. "Yes, Ponyville does have a hospital, but if I brought in a strange creature that nopony else had ever seen, it would've probably caused a commotion, and if you got better there, you would've been bombarded with all sorts of questions, whose answer's would not have made sense to anypony. Not to mention your skeletal, muscular, and cardiovascular structure is almost in no way similar to ours, so I wasn't sure if any of our medical techniques would work on you."

I continue to stare incredulously. And yes, she did honestly say "nopony" and "anypony." Those were one of the few terms I would refuse to ever say. Ever.

"So you decided to bring a complete stranger, in identity and species, to your home," I say. "You're strangely trusting of a creature you no nothing about. Why did you help me?"

She shakes her head almost condescendingly. "Well, I wasn't about to leave a helpless living thing to bleed to death in the middle of the Everfree Forest. And you just seemed so..." She brings a hoof to her mouth as she contemplates a worthy vocabulary term. "Harmless." She finishes.

I almost say: "Looks can be deceiving," but I don't want her to get the wrong idea. She saved my life, and I don't want to seem ungrateful. So I promptly say, "Well, thanks for being so... trusting, I guess." I finish my water and place the cup next to the other cup on the nightstand.

"You're very welcome," she says. "Spike?" She calls.

At this point, the young drake had already left, but comes back as soon as the unicorn calls.

"What's up?" He has a half-eaten apple in his claw as he comes in.

"Can you get me the bag with Michael's things in it? It should be at the bottom of the staircase."

"Sure, no problem." The little dragon then promptly runs off down the stairs, munching juicily on his snack.

"You have my things? My watch and my wallet?" I ask.

The unicorn turns back to me and nods. "I hope you don't mind, but I took them off your person so you would be more comfortable while you rested."

"It's fine, thanks." I reply. In my mind, I can't shake how eerily familiar her voice sounded. I haven't heard that voice in a little over two years by this point, not since...

A few seconds later, the drake returns with a small paper bag, the apple completely gone now. He comes up next to the bed and extends his little dragon arms as far out as he could to me. I take the bag, thank him, and rummage through the contents. My watch is there, somehow still working. The time says two o'clock in the afternoon.

"I used my magic to figure out how your clock worked. After I managed that, I reset the time accordingly to my time. It was a little tricky getting it off your wrist. I actually thought it was part of your anatomy for a minute there." She chuckles, but I only smirk. I place the watch back to its rightful place on my left wrist. I then continue to go through the bag, and I bring out my wallet from the bag. It was a simple black leather wallet. Twilight appears to get uncomfortable at the sight of it.  I ask her what was wrong. She bites her lip and rubs the back of her head with a hoof. After a few seconds of uncomfortable silence, she says,

"Well... um... it's just th-that... um... that's... l-leather... i-if I'm not mistaken?"

After several seconds of pondering, it suddenly dawns on me what was bothering her. Genuine leather is made from dried animal skin. Dead dried animal skin. And she is, in a sense, an animal. I quickly try to reassure her of what it was.

"O-Oh, no, um, it's okay, it's just fake leather, totally synthetic." She relaxes at that statement, relief pouring through with a sigh.

Having taken care of that little bit of awkwardness, I open up the wallet. I have about five dollars left, not that it would do me any good in this world.

I really doubt they have dollars as the local currency. Other than the money, there's my library card, my school ID, and-

Something is missing.

I reach back into the paper bag, scavenging for... it. I look into the bag but see nothing else there. I start to panic.

No, no, no, please no!

"Are you looking for this?"

I swivel my head and see Twilight levitating a small square in front of her face. She's smiling at it. "What a cute photo! Is this you and--"

I cut her off before she can finish by quickly snatching the small photo from her magical grasp. She and Spike gasp as I stare daggers at her, holding the photo as close to me, and as far away from them, as possible. Anger boils in my stomach, but I keep myself from yelling like I usual do when someone takes my photo.

"Do. Not. Touch. This. Photo. Got it?"

After several seconds of leaving her mouth agape, Twilight closes her mouth and eyes and says calmly, "I'm sorry. I didn't know that photo meant that much to you. I didn't take it out of your wallet, though, it just fell out, I swear. It fell out when I removed your things when I first brought you here." She opens her eyes and looked at me calmly. I'm still glaring back at her purple eyes. "But that didn't give me the right to keep it. For that, I am sorry. I won't do it again, I promise."

My anger cools down slightly, but still holds. "Damn right, you're not," I muttered.

I place the small photo back into its usual slot in my wallet, not even bothering to take a look at it. I've looked at that photo so much, I've memorized every detail about it. But I still keep it, so I could have something physical to hold onto whenever I think of...her. I then put the wallet back into my back pocket and proceed to get up from the bed. I stand up, slightly dizzy but not so much so to make me fall over. My bones feel rattled, but functional, albeit not at one hundred percent. As I stand over the unicorn, I get a sense of how small the room actually is. My head nearly hits the ceiling when I try to stand up completely.

I look over at Twilight and say, "And I would appreciate it if you could forget about the photo."

She slowly nods. "I understand." Twilight then looks me over, like she's assessing my appearance. "You're tall."

"You're short."

"I'm average height!"

"So am I."

After a small chuckle, she stands up on all fours and heads for the door. Spike follows, though he keeps looking back at me, as if he's making sure I kept my distance me.

"Well, since you're apparently feeling better, how about a tour of Ponyville?"

"No thanks. I think I should find a way home from here."

"How?" She replies with another cocked brow.

I think it over. She's right, I have no clue. "Good point."

She smirks in victory. "Now, how about that tour?"

I nod, my anger gone, and follow the lavender equine.

A tour of "Ponyville"? Ah Christ, why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do...

Part III: Reality and Dream

Part II: Touring the Town

Part II: Touring the Town

Twilight escorts me out of the Golden Oaks Library. While we're passing through the living room, the walls are completely filled with probably hundreds of books, all bound in different colors and embroideries.

"I haven't read all of them," Twilight tells me as we leave through the front door. "I just finished with half of them, though. Only took me about three years." When we get outside, I see that we were, in fact, inside a very large oak tree.

The day is beautiful, the sunny sky is decorated with huge puffs of clouds here and there. The air is chilly, yet clean too, much cleaner than the suffocating smog of Los Angeles. I smell fresh-cut grass and, strangely enough, sweets being baked. Twilight and Spike lead the way while I follow a few feet behind, marveling at the little town up ahead. There are several rows of buildings on either side of the main road, and all around there were dozens of cartoon hors- ponies, I mean, dozens of ponies bustling about. I even spot an occasional pegasus dart across the sky above us. Each and every one of them have a unique color coordination. One that we pass has a yellow coat, an orange mane and tail, and I think carrots decorate her flank. Another is mint-green, with a mint and light green mane and tail, and actually has a horn and a lyre is her flank. So many random colorations, it was hard to keep track of.

Not to mention makes me a bit nauseated.

"This is Ponyville," Twilight begins. "It was founded by earth ponies years ago, but unicorn and pegasus populations steadily began to rise since then. It's a quiet town... for the most part." She hesitates on the last phrase.

This is when Spike stops and asks incredulously, "Quiet?"

Twilight turns around and heaves a small sigh in defeat. "Okay, Ponyville has had its fair share of danger and disaster here and there, but nothing that destroyed the whole town... completely." Again, slight hesitation on the last phrase.

Spike raises an eyebrow, and I ask, "Seriously? Danger in a place like this?"

"Looks can be deceiving," Spike says, eyeing me somewhat suspiciously.

The lavender mare suddenly shouts, "Alright! We've had parasprites nearly eat the whole town, Spike here nearly destroyed it on a greed-induced rampage, a psychopathic draconequus almost plunged the whole of Equestria into a perpetual state of chaos, and Equestria almost fell into the stomach of an insectoid shape-shifting queen, so yeah, there have been some instances of almost total destruction, but Ponyville is still standing!" She clarifies that last word with a stomp of a hoof.

I just stand there, flabbergasted. Okaaaay, I think to myself. Maybe it isn't always sunshine and rainbows and happy ponies in this world. And what the hell's a "parasprite" and "draconequus?"

At first, nobody noticed us when we came out, but after Twilight's little outburst, they all turn to look at the commotion, and sure enough, they finally see me. Many of them gasp and retreat a little. Others just stay where they are and just stare, mouths slightly ajar. It's pretty... uncomfortable. I always hated when people stared at me, or in this case, ponies. That's why I would always have my hoodie with, to hide under, just in case. Sadly though, my hoodie is back at home on the coat hanger. It doesn't help that I can hear what some of them are saying.

"What is that?"

"Why is it bald?"

"It's so tall!"

I quietly swear to myself if one of these ponies yelled "Kill it with fire before it lays eggs!" I'm going to give them a good reason to.

Twilight, thankfully, catches on to the situation and says, "How about we go over to Rarity's?"

Spike, for some reason, seemingly jumps for joy at the mention of this "Rarity."

So we continue on our way, Twilight and Spike seemingly oblivious to the crowd of staring ponies, but me? I can still feel their unusually large eyes burning into my back. But, I stand tall and copy the lavender mare's and drakes' demeanor. I'm not going to let a bunch of technicolor cartoon horses intimidate me.

So I promptly shout, "What are you all looking at?" Most of them, probably shocked that this alien creature can speak, look away, while most of them going back to their trotting days.

"That's what I though."

When we finally reach the home of this Rarity, I am somewhat taken aback by what I see as we enter. Everywhere, there are mirrors and mannequins and all sorts of cloths just carelessly tossed about the room. On the far back wall, there's a stage with several lights pointed to it and a wall of mirrors lining the back.

Dear God, I think. This Rarity must be a... a fashion manic, or something.

"This is the Carousel Boutique," Twilight says. "Rarity?! You home?"

There as a tumbling sound coming from the staircase at the back of the room, right next to the stage. After a few seconds, a bundle of knotted dresses and cloths crashes onto the floor right in front of the stairs. A white head pokes itself out from one side, revealing the trapped occupant of the boutique.

"Twilight! Darling! Thank Celestia you're here! Could you please...?" This new mare gestures to the clothes-ball she is hilariously trapped in by darting her eyes back and forth. I barely hold back a chuckle at the sight.

This must be Rarity, I think.

Twilight rolls her eyes and asks, "What happened this time, Rarity?" Her tone makes me think that this is a regular occurrence. She trots over and looks down at the mummified unicorn in a mix of slight pity and amusement.

Rarity glares back with an expression of mock outrage. "Well you can't truly believe this was my fault, could you?"

The lavender unicorn's horn glows in a pink aura as the dresses begin to untangle themselves from the trapped mare. After several seconds, the pure white unicorn stands up and brushes off her mane. Her coat is an alabaster white from head to toe--er, hoof, with a dark violet mane and tail. She has the biggest sapphire eyes I have ever seen. They put all rest of the ponies' eyes to shame. On one side of her flank are three diamonds.

Spike, I hear in the meanwhile, is sighing deeply to himself, mouth slight open and not even bothering to stand up straight. I look at him, then at the white unicorn, then back, back again, and realize,

Holy shit, this little dragon's got a crush on this unicorn. That's... kinda pathetic, now that I think about it.

"So, what did happen?" Twilight presses.

"Oh, well, Sweetie Belle was trying to earn her cutie mark by creating a new dress from my favorite silks!" As she says the last few words, she brings a hoof up and dangles it over her forehead to simulate the drama.  "My favorite silks! Oh, just look at them! They're ruined! All wrinkled and torn from her experimenting! What am I going to do with that accident-prone little filly?"

Fashion maniac, and drama queen, I think. What a fitting combo.

Twilight sighs softly and shakes her head. "Calm down, Rarity. She's just eager to grow up, is all. She is the last filly in her class to get her cutie mark after Apple Bloom and Scootaloo got theirs a few months back, you know. You can't tell me you were never excited to get your cutie mark, right?"

The white mare levitates the remaining silks off the floor with her own blue magic while trotting to one of the nearby chests as Twilight spoke. "Well, Sweetie Belle is grounded to her room for the rest of the day." She sighs tiredly. "She's getting more and more desperate with each passing day of no cutie mark." When the silks had been placed inside, she turns her head back around. "And besides, I certainly would never have-"

She stops when she sees me.

I raise my eyebrows slightly and shift my jaw side-to-side from the sheer awkwardness of the silence. Great, what's this one going to do? Shriek? Back away? Continue to stare at me? Try to-

"What a stunning watch!"

-kill me with -- wait, what?

"Oh, right," Twilight starts. "Rarity, this is-" She doesn't get any further as the other unicorn zooms past her in a blur of speed that sends Twilight spinning in a lavender tornado. In a split second, Rarity knocks Spike across the room as she comes to a halt right in front of me, observing the watch on my left wrist. I gasp and jump a little backwards. Apparently, the fact that a strange, unknown alien creature is standing in her home isn't registering.

"It's so unique! So pristine! So one-of-a-kind! So shiny! Wherever did you get it?"

I stand perplexed at her lack of intrigue to my foreign presence, but decide to answer.

"I-It was a gift for my fifteenth birthday from my grandpa," I reply.

"Well," she continues, "your grandfather has quite the eye for watches, I--!" She stops herself from saying anything further when she finally realizes that she was standing next to something that isn't a pony. She looks up at my towering height. Twilight wasn't kidding when she said "average height." All of the ponies I've seen so far have been the exact same height. I just stand there, not knowing where to continue. But thankfully, the unicorn begins,

"Oh, how rude of me, we haven't been properly introduced." The white mare looks back at her friend, who, at this point, has stopped her cyclonic episode. "Twilight! Why didn't you introduce me sooner to this dapper young fellow?"

I'm dapper?

Twilight shakes her head and, after realigning her pupils, turns to the pouting Rarity with a look of slight annoyance on her features. "Well, I was gonna, but--"

The alabaster unicorn doesn't even bother listening to the end of Twilight's explanation as she turns back to me and sticks a hoof out. "I am Rarity, fashionista extraordinaire, here in Ponyville. And you are?"

I lightly take her hoof in hand and shake it. "Michael."

The unicorn smiles. "An pleasure to meet you, Michael." She brings her hoof back. "My, those scars on your face seem ghastly! What happened to you, my dear?"

My fingers go unconsciously to tracing some of the scar outlines. "I don't really know. I just remember my mirror exploding in m home, then somehow, I'm here."

"I see. Well, I'm sorry to hear that," she says with an apologetic look. "Um, forgive my bluntness, but what, pray tell, are you?"

Bluntness forgiven, I answer, "I'm a human."

"Hu-man?" She repeats with a raised eyebrow, as if she's trying to figure out what "human" meant like it was another language. I figure out these ponies aren't speaking English, or at least believe they aren't. Maybe they think I somehow knew their language as well. Well, whether it's English or whatever language these ponies speak, there didn't seem to be much difference. "What part of the world do humans come from?"

"An entirely different world, for one thing," I respond.

"I see," she says, even though it's clear she doesn't seem to have a clue about what I just said. Rarity turns to look at Twilight interrogatively. The purple mare just shrugs.

"Don't look at me," Twilight says. "I found him bleeding in the Everfree Forest on my way home from Zecora's earlier this morning."

Bleeding? I think. Yeah, she said I was bleeding. A lot. But... I turn to one of the mirrors in the room and observe myself. Nowhere on my person is there any sign of blood or mud. There are, however, several distinguishable scars on my face. On stretches across my right cheek; another across the bridge of my nose; two criss-crossing on my left cheek; and a smaller, pudgier one just above my left eyebrow. Along the right side of my head, a slightly smaller scar made itself prominent since it cut through my brown hair, leaving a part of my head that probably won't regrow any hair anytime soon. There are also several along my arms and palms where I tried to defend against the explosive mirror. But no blood.

"Yeah," I start, getting the attention of the two mares and little drake. "You said 'bleeding.' But how come there aren't any blood stains on my clothes?"

The lavender mare trots over next to me and says,

"After healing your wounds, I used a spell called 'Liquid Magnet' to remove all of the blood and mud that seeped into your clothes and dried onto your skin. Then I used some basic medical spells to seal all your cuts."

I nod understandingly. No point in arguing with the physics of this world. I mean, I've seen a freaking unicorn use her magic to levitate objects. What else could there be?

Rarity look like she wants to say something when the door suddenly bursts open.

Something pink and fast blurs through the boutique and comes to a stop right in front of my face, knocking Rarity aside in the process, and shouts, "HI!"

"Wha--holy shit?!" I fall on my ass from the shock of being rushed by an unknown, high-pitched voice. After I get by bearings, I become aware of a pink pony bouncing up and down excitedly in front of me, unleashing a torrent of questions that I can only hear a glimpse of every now and then.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name? You're new in town right? Of course I'm right! I'm right because I know everypony in Ponyville, so when I heard that something was in town that nopony had ever seen before and that it went over to Rarity's with Twilight and Spike, I just had to come and see for myself who this newcomer could possibly be! And here you are! What are you, anyway? A naked baboon? Of course not, silly me! You don't have a tail and you're wearing clothes. Duh! You're tall! Did you know that? Of course you did, why wouldn't you?! You're you!..."

This "Pinkie Pie" continues on like that for about three minutes nonstop. It's overwhelming, and I actually start to hyperventilate a little because of the waterfall of endless questions and self-corrections.

For the love of God, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP! I scream inwardly.

I back away slowly across the floor from where I sat, but the hyper pony only follows, continuing her relentless onslaught of words, when finally, she says,

"-would never do that on purpose to Opal, but-!" She cuts herself off by gasping, finally stopping the words. "Oh no! How could I forget?! I need to start setting up the party!"

This gets my attention. "Party?" I ask. I instantly regret it.

The pony then goes on to say how she absolutely has to throw a party for everyone new in town because she wants everyone to be her friend and that parties were the funnest things in the whole world. I secretly disagree with that last part, though.

I pray to God to make this maniac shut up. And my prayers are answered.

Another pony comes blasting through the room in mid-air. This one is a pegasus, light blue with a rainbow mane and tail complementing the rainbow lightning bolt that adorned her flank.

This new character hovers a few feet above the floor, looking around the room and finally sees my retreat from the pink chatterbox of a pony. She zooms through the air faster than I can follow with my eyes and quickly pops up behind... what was her name? Oh yeah, Pinkie Pie.

"Hold it, Pinkie!" She yells, bringing a hoof around the pink mares head and blocking her mouth. But Pinkie still makes muffled noises through the barrier, trying to speak. After realizing that no comprehensible sound, or at least what she considered to be comprehensible, was coming from her mouth, she turns around and finally notices the pegasus standing behind her, glaring back at her. Pinkie then, thankfully, stops trying to talk.

The cyan pony releases her hold of Pinkie Pie, and Pinkie looks at me sheepishly. I am still somewhat cowering from her, but regain some composure when she stops rambling.

"Sorry, I get overexcited easily whenever somepony new arrives." She blushes slightly and traces circles on the floor with a hoof. She then looks back at me when she realized she said something that didn't make sense. "But, you're not a 'somepony' at all. What are you?"

"My name is Michael," I reply. "And I'm a human."

"Human?" Asks the rainbow-maned pegasus, who's back in the air and is hovering over me. "What's a human?"

Twilight comes up, after not even trying to stop Pinkie Pie's rambling when the pink mare first got here, and says,

"Humans aren't from this world, Rainbow Dash. Michael is a newcomer on a different level than just being from another city in Equestria. I found him half-dead in the Everfree Forest this morning. So I'm giving him a tour around."

The cyan pegasus appears slightly stunned when she's told this.

"Another world? You're really from another world?" I nod in reply. "That's awesome!"

I get up and dust myself off. Over off to the side, Rarity and Spike are picking themselves up from being blasted out of the way from the attempts at getting to me. Rarity trots over and joins the conversation.

"Thank you, Pinkie Pie, for that rather rude interruption." Pinkie grins sheepishly again. "And yes, it is quite astounding, meeting a visitor from another world. Tell us, what's it like where you're from?" The four mares and little drake all look at me eagerly, waiting to hear about the fantastical wonders of my world.

"It's... okay, I guess?"

I am met with five disappointed expressions.

Twilight's ears perk up "Hey, how about we find Applejack and Fluttershy and then you can tell us about you're world?"

The other four grunt agreement. So do I, though reluctantly. I don't know where to begin with my world. It wasn't that spectacular, or at least to me it wasn't. But hopefully, these ponies will ask about trivial things only. That's all I can hope for, for now.

Throughout this whole ordeal, I still can't figure out what exactly happened to me. I definitely remember my mirror exploding at me in my apartment, but beyond that, blank. The next thing I know, I'm being whisked away to pony land. Too many complex questions are filling up the thinking space inside my head, so I decide on a course of action: I will go along with this "meeting cartoon ponies" business and see what will happen. I don't really have much of a choice, anyway.

But before we can leave, Pinkie Pie asks,

"But what about Michael's welcome party?!" Twilight assures her she can throw one for me later, but I decline. I tell the hyperactive pony that I don't like parties at all, and this visibly upsets the little pink pony. But after some insisting that I do not, under any circumstances, want a party thrown for me, she surprisingly resigns. Honestly, I expected her to put up more of a fight. Although, her mane and tail do some thing very peculiar. They... deflated, and straightened.

Weird, but, whatever.

So we're making our way to this "Sweet Apple Acres."

No one asks me any questions along the way; I guess it's to save the answers for when all of their friends are together. Instead, they cast the occasional side-long glance in my direction. I pretend not to notice, but my peripheral vision has been trained from years of watching people's reactions from under my hoodie while I was walking by them. I simply look straight ahead, with my hands in my jeans pockets, not making a sound.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, we come upon Sweet Apple Acres. It is a grand sight to behold. To my right, there are apple trees that roll across the valley below and over the hills on the horizon. Hundreds, if not thousands of tall, green topped trees with red, yellow, and green freckles blanket the landscape. My jaw goes slack with amazement. This is when Twilight resumes her tour-guide etiquette.

"And this, is Sweet Apple Acres, home to the most delicious apples in Equestria." She waves a hoof through the air in front of the orchard. "It grew in the past year, so Applejack really needed help with harvests. In the past ten months, she's received about a dozen volunteers to help work on the orchard."

She suddenly looks despondent. "Good thing, too," she continues, "she really needed as much help as possible after her grandmother passed away earlier in the year..." The other four ponies and drake hang their heads as well, Pinkie Pie even more so than she already had been. I don't say anything, not because I'm bored or anything, but because I know all too well the loss of a loved one -- of a family member.

Twilight interrupts the silence after a few seconds and softly says, "Let's keep going." So we follow.

The farm itself is another sight to behold.

There are five stallions, each hulling two carts full of apples, marching into the gigantic red barn one by one. One crimson stallion, larger than the rest, is overseeing the five carts into the barn. He stands off to the side, wearing a jet-black stetson, with a wheat straw sticking out of the corner of his mouth. A huge, green apple half is quite distinctive on his flank.

"Hey, Big Macintosh!" Calls out Rainbow Dash.

Macintosh? I think. Hehe, Macintosh... I smirk to myself, amused by the inside joke.

The burly stallion looks over at us and smiles. "Howdy, ladies," he called back with a thick, Southern accent. "What brings y'all t'Sweet Apple Acres?"

Twilight comes up to the stallion and says, "Howdy, Bic Mac. Do you know where we can find Applejack?"

The smile disappears from Big Mac's face. He shifts the straw from one corner of his mouth to the other before saying,

"Sorry, ladies. She went up t'er room n'locked herself in again 'bout an hour ago. Won't come out on anypony else's accord, 'cept her own. You'll have t'wait if'n yer fixin t'see 'er."

An exasperated sigh from the four mares makes me think that this happens quite often with this "Applejack."

"Oh come on!" Exclaims Dash. "Can't you do something about her? You are her big brother, aren't you?"

Big Mac solemnly shakes his thick head. "No can do, Dash. But y'all know AJ as much as Ah do. If she sets her mind t'somethin', then there's 'most nothin' that c'n be done 'bout it t'change her mind." He turns his attention to me. But to my surprise, he doesn't looked shocked or afraid. "Well, howdy, stranger! Big Macintosh, pleased t'meet yer acquaintance." He extends a massive red hoof out to me.

I take it with some difficulty and reply, "Michael. N-Nice to meet you, too."

God, his hoof is heavy!

This stallion is definitely taller than the rest of the ponies I've met so far. He stands at about five-and-a-half feet tall, although I still tower him by about four or five inches. And he is big, really big. I can guess he's a worker from the sheer size of the muscle tone in his shoulders and barrel chest.

He brings his hoof back and adjusts his stetson. "Ah must say, Ah haven't seen you 'round these parts."

"No one has," I reply, shaking away the strain my arm endured from greeting Big Macintosh.

He chuckles. "Nope, no Ah reckon nopony ever has."

"So," I begin, taking a sneak peek at the farm house over on the other hill, "if you don't mind me asking, why won't Applejack come out of her room?"

Again, Big Mac's smile slowly fades. I almost regret asking, but he doesn't seem to get angry. Instead, he just answers calmly,

"It started when our grandma, Granny Smith, passed away back in January. Applejack would't come out of'er room fer three weeks after that. So Ah ran the farm on my own fer awhile, then some ponies from town came by n'volunteered to work fer free on the orchard. Ah didn't complain, the extra help was appreciated, but Applejack didn't take too kindly t'havin' strangers work on th'farm at first. But, thankfully, Ah was able t'convince her t'let the volunteers work on th'farm. She knew Ah'd been workin' mah'self to th'bone on the farm since she wouldn't come out of'er room, so she let the ponies work as a sorry t'me." He looks at the farmhouse over at the other hill. "But she still locks herself in, sometimes. Ah don' know what she does, but it ain't non' o'my business. She wouldn't tell anyway, but, Ah reckon I know what she's doin'." The corners of his lips flipped. "But the mood lightened up when our lil' sister got 'er cutie mark early on in th'summer. That managed t'bring Applejack back from one o'her locked up phases when Ah told her. Fer the first time in months since Granny Smith passed, she actually seemed happy." That brings a full smile back to his face. He didn't appear to mind divulging his home life to an alien. I guess he's just that friendly.

Suddenly, a call comes from across the orchard.

"Big Mac! Come quick! Some of the apple carts turned over!"

The crimson stallion arches his neck to where the call came from, then looks back to us.

"Beg yer pardon, folks, but Ah gotta see t'this. Afternoon." He turns and galloped to the distressing pony.

Rarity sighs while rubbing a temple with a hoof. "Well, now what?"

Rainbow Dash stomps the ground with furious indignation and announces, "I'll tell you what I'm gonna do!" She gestures to the farm house with a wing. Then she jumps into the air, hovering for several seconds. "I'm gonna go in there and get Applejack out of her room if it's the last thing I do!"

She then rockets off towards the wooden home of the Apple family, and the other mares gallop in pursuit.

Crap, what am I getting myself into?

Casually, I run to join them.

When we get to the house, the front door has been nearly blasted off its hinges. Inside, there is a smaller pony at a table holding what seemed like a sandwich in both forehooves, except it was just two slices of bread with same daisies in between. She looks surprised and shocked, understandably so. The filly has a light yellow coat, apple-red mane and tail, and a light-red bow sits on top of her head.

"Wha-Twilight?! W-Was that Rainbow Dash?" She mumbles through a slightly full mouth. "Who the apple tart is that?" She adds, pointing a small hoof at me.

"Sorry, Apple Bloom! And yes, that was Rainbow Dash, and this is Michael, he's a human, not from this world, now where did Dash go?" Twilight quickly answers.

"U-Up the stairs, over there," she points to a narrow pathway leading up to the second floor. A second later, we hear some very loud banging and shouting.

"Applejack! Get out! Now!" Yelled the voice of Rainbow Dash.

"NO!" Was the answer of who I can only assume to be Applejack. The voice was loud, but, weak. Cracked, even.

"Come on!" Twilight shouts. We all run up the stairs and down a hallway, finally catching up to Rainbow Dash. She's pounding furiously on the door to Applejack's room with her hoof.

"Rainbow Dash! Stop that incessant banging! It is clearly not helping!" Barks Rarity.

Rainbow stops. "Well it's not like she's giving me a choice!" She exclaims innocently. "She has to stop this stupid habit of locking herself away! Ya hear me, Applejack?! You need to stop this!" And resumes banging. All of a sudden, a purple aura surrounds Dash and lifts her away from the door and keeps her suspended in midair. Rainbow pouts out of humiliation.

Rarity now approaches the door. "Applejack dear, although I can't approve of her method or actions, I have to agree with Rainbow Dash. This imply isn't healthy, darling! Do you realize how many wrinkles can come from always being depressed?"

Really? I think. That's your approach? Her frickin' skin complexion? Shallow bitch...

Silence is all that met Rarity's comment, not that it surprises me. Now, it is Twilight's turn to try and coax her friend out of solitary confinement.

"Applejack, please," the lavender mare pleads, "you have a family, a little sister, who needs you. You can't do this to them! You can't leave like Granny-" But before she can finish, a very angry voice roars from the other side of the door, slightly cracking as it screams,

"Shuddup, Twi! Just shuddup! Don't you dare say another thing about Granny Smith! So just get out of here, and LEAVE ME ALONE!"

I'm shocked, to say the least, at this reaction from these ponies' "friend," and so are the others. I can see tears forming in the corner of Twilight's eyes as she turns away and solemnly trots down the wooden corridor, releasing Rainbow Dash from her magic. The rest of them follow, except me. I stay and stare at the bedroom door. For some reason, I feel like I can help this suffering pony, since I had gone through the exact same thing a few years ago.

But why should I? I ask myself. Why do I need to open myself up to a bunch of cartoons? My body moves before my mind can determine a valid solution. Taking a deep breath, I walk up to the door and knock twice.

Shit. Can't believe I'm actually doing this... Well, too late to back down now.

"Hello? Applejack? Um, hi. You don't know me, but I'm new in town. New to this world, actually. My name is Michael, and, um, I just wanted to say that... well-" I find it hard to breathe all of a sudden, but continue. "I know exactly what you're going through. My twin sister, Susie, died two years ago from a incurable disease. She was-"

My voice catches in my throat, but I clear it and continue. I can feel the tiniest filaments of tears begin to condense in my eyes from the painful memories, but I hold them back. I have to if I want to get my point across to the grieving mare on the other side of the door. The five others who were walking away come back to listen. "She was only sixteen. She was stuck in the hospital for months, slowly dying, and there... there wasn't a damn I could do about it. I could only come to her bedside each and every day while she was there and talk to her, let her know that I still loved her; she was my little sister, after all. And about a week after our sixteenth birthday--..."

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, I quietly think to myself. But I force myself on. I look over to the others, and they are all tearing up, even Spike. "About a week after our sixteenth birthday, she died... R-Right in front of me. It couldn't even happen while she was asleep. It had to be in front of me. I was her older brother, and I felt like I should've done something to help her. And sometimes, even today, right now even, I feel that way." I'm getting angry now. I want to curse everything, but keep my composure. "And for months after that I... I did the exact same thing you're doing right now."

I take another deep breath to cool myself off. "But that was wrong of me, Applejack. I realized too late that I couldn't do that, especially not to my parents, who had lost their only daughter, and almost lost their son..." I wipe away the gleam of tears that nearly snaked their way out of my eyes. "I... I still carry a picture of us every day..." I say as I take out my wallet with the photo in it. "It's of our tenth birthday." I slide the picture under the door frame. "Twilight was right, Applejack. You still have a family who loves you, but you can't shut them out like I did. They can't afford to loose you too."

Satisfied?

I rub away the last of the tears from my eyes. I look back at the quintet of creatures, who are, on the contrary, making no effort to keep their tears from rolling down their faces, except for maybe Spike, who tries to act all manly by puffing out his chest. I hear hoof steps from the other side of the door approach.

But I don't stay to find out what'll happen. Instead, I turn, walk down the hallway, past the group of crying ponies, go down the stairs, out the front door and onto the porch, and sit down in solemn contemplation. I don't cry though. After that, there aren't any tears left.

The hell did I just do?

Part IV: Portal Vision

Part III: Reality and Dream

Part III: Reality and Dream

I sit here for God knows how long. When we first got to Sweet Apple Acres, the sun was still quite high in the sky. So when I finally take notice of how long I've been sitting here, the sun is already kissing the horizon. I didn't make a sound the entire time I sat here, staring into the fields before me. I've seen several more stallions lugging carts that looked like they would topple over at any second because they were so full into the barn. Occasionally one of them would glance in my direction, but made no attempt at approaching. I am glad for that. I just want to be alone.

I still can't believe what I had just done. I poured out the the pain I've felt in over two years after my sister's death. I keep going over a few of the things that I said.

"Hello? Applejack? Um, hi. You don't know me, but I'm new in town. New to this world, actually. My name is Michael, and, um, I just wanted to say that... well..."

...Awkward...

"My twin sister, Susie, died two years ago from a incurable disease." It was cancer, stage-four leukemia, but I didn't think these ponies knew exactly what cancer was, if it existed in this world, so I went with a more general description. She suffered through it for seven months. At one point, I almost wished for her to die sooner rather than later, just so she couldn't suffer.

"... there wasn't a damn I could do about it... I was her older brother, and I felt like I should've done something to help her. And sometimes, even today, right now even, I feel that way..." Of course I knew I couldn't do anything, but I couldn't help it, and sometimes, I still can't. That's just how I felt. I was her big brother, for Chrissake! I always protected her, from bullies and mean girls at school.

"... she died. Right in front of me. It couldn't even happen while she was asleep. It had to be in front of me..." That was what killed me the most.

"And for months after that... I did the exact same thing you're doing right now." I could remember going straight to my room everyday after school and never coming out. I remembered my mom calling, practically begging me to come out and talk with her. Sitting on that porch, I regretted it, and it almost brought me back to tears. But at the time? I simply didn't care. I wouldn't come out. If I wanted to eat, I bought something before coming home, and I went to the bathroom at school after classes. Looking back on what I was doing to them, I feel disgusted, almost nauseated with myself.

Selfish bastard, I think to myself.

"... lost their only daughter, and almost lost their son..."

Now that I think about it, I think, they probably did.

My hands start to get cold, but unfortunately, no hoodie, so I bury them into my sides.

I wonder what was going on inside the house. No one had bothered to come and see me, but I don't mind. Better that way.

Then, I hear the door creak open, but don't bother to turn and see who it could be. There are steps approaching me from behind, but they are light. They stop when they reach one side of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see small, yellow hooves dangle over the front porch step. There is silence for a few seconds, then,

"Th-thank you, mister," says a little voice.

I finally turn to identify the new body and see the tiny form of Apple Bloom sitting next to me. She's looking back at me with a small smile. Something about her catches my eye. My eyes fall and see, on her flank, is a picture of a hammer criss-crossing a nail. She must be good at building and fixing things, I guess. My gaze turns back to the filly's eyes.

"What for?" I ask monotonously, my voice slightly darker than I intend.

The filly swings her hind hooves over the step's edge innocently. "Fer gettin' mah sister t'come out o'her room. You have no idea how long me n'mah brother, Big Macintosh, ha'bin' tryin' t'get 'er t'stop lockin' 'erself in." She smiles sweetly at me. I can't help but act a bit modest at the comment.

"I'm sure she would've figured it out for herself what she was doing to you all," I reply plainly.

But Apple Bloom shakes her head.

"Ah doubt it," she says. "When Applejack gits t'doin' somethin' she wants, then she does it, no matter how it affects the one around 'er. She's level-headed, most times, but, well..." She drifts off, not finishing the thought. There is silence again. I don't know whether to say something or wait for her. So I don't say anything.

Finally, the filly speaks.

"Ya' know," she begins, "Ah was kinda afraid she'd never stop lockin' 'erself away from everythin'. Ah thought she'd keep on doin' that fer the rest of 'er life, and..." She hesitates, and when I look over, I see that tears were pooling in the corner of her big, amber eyes.

For the love of God, not again. Hasn't there been enough tears for one day?

"Ah didn' won't t'loose my sister," she squeaks with a voice that sounds like it was on the verge of breaking down. "Not after loosin'... loosin' Granny Smith." A tear finally streamed down her cheek.

I continue to watch her, and I began to feel the faintest drop of sadness. I reached over and wipe the tear away, then pat her back softly. She seemed to lighten up at the gesture.

"Don't worry, kid," I say, with my own small smile. "I'm sure she'll come back." I don't know why I feel so sure of that, but, I just do.

The filly looked back at me with a glimmer of happiness returning to her eyes as she exclaims,

"Oh, she has!"

I retracted my hand. "Is that so?"

"Yeah! When you went out a few hours ago, Ah went upstairs t'see what all the commotion was about. When Ah got there, Applejack had finally left her room, and was talkin' to Twilight n'the others. They were talkin' 'bout things, sayin' they were sorry 'bout some o'the things they said n'started huggin' n'apologizin' s'more. It was gettin' kinda sappy, but Ah went over n'hugged my sister fer the first time in Luna knows how long." She says the last part with the biggest smile I'd seen yet.

Holy shit, whaddya know? It worked.

"That's... that's great, Apple Bloom," I say. I feel pretty good about what I'd done, any regret utterly gone. And admittedly, a pretty wide smile grows on my face.

All of a sudden, I feel something grab onto my arm. I look down, and Apple Bloom was hugging me fiercely. I can't help but blush a little bit, but thankfully, no one sees. I reach over with my other arm and awkwardly semi-hug her back.

After about thirty seconds, it starts to get uncomfortable. My hand is getting numb from blood constriction due to the filly's unrelenting hug.

"Um, Apple Bloom?"

She looks up at me. "Yeah?"

"Can you let go please? My hand is getting numb."

She instantly retracts. "Heh, sorry 'bout that."

"No problem," I reply, flexing my wrist and fingers, feeling the blood return.

"Hey," she continues, "ya' wanna stay fer dinner? It's the least we c'n do after bringin' mah sister back from depression. Plus, Ah'm sure she 'n Big Mac would be okay with it."

I think about it for a second, then answer, "Sure, why not?"

Apple Bloom jumps at my reply and rapidly darts back inside the farm house, probably to tell everyone that the Apple family is going to have a guest for dinner. Maybe Twilight and the others will join in as well. Shaking my head slightly from her zany actions, I look at my watch. It says five-fifty.

Damn, how long was I out here?

I then get up, deciding the exact time I spent sulking alone wasn't important, and start back for the house. But as I reach for the doorknob, which is considerably lower than I'm used to, meaning I have to bend over just to grab it, a thought pops to me.

Do they eat meat? Oh God, of course they don't. Their horses! Horses don't eat meat! They're purely vegetarian. That means...

I dread the thought. No meat-eating in this world.

But...

"But I love bacon!"

Reluctantly entering the wooden home, I get a better sense of the interior. The floor and walls are made out of hard wood -- likely from apple trees, since that type seems to be the most abundant in the surrounding area -- with the latter decorated by several pictures of the Apple family. In one that I spot, there is Big Macintosh, although without the black stetson but otherwise looking the same, towering behind three other ponies. One is Apple Bloom, but she looked a bit smaller and the picture of the hammer and nail isn't there. Another pony was on orange pony with freckles and a blond mane and tail, and a brown stetson sat on her head. I guess that that was Applejack. The last one is, I can figure out on my own, Granny Smith. Unlike her grandchildren, who are all in the warm-color zone of the rainbow spectrum, Granny Smith was light green, a lot like her namesake. Makes sense. She was pretty old in the photo, her mane completely white, and she was leaning on a walker. Her eyes, though ancient and tired with decades worth of life experiences, still had a sort of liveliness to them.

I turn away from the photo and am met with seven pairs of eyes gazing at me. I jump back, a little startled from all of the staring peeps. It's Twilight and the others. There is a new figure standing among the group of ponies. She approaches me, all the while smiling at me with warm, slight puffy and red, but mostly emerald eyes. Her blond mane, which had been braided in the photo, simply fell past her shoulders, untethered.

Applejack.

She stops about a foot from me, copying the action of all of the ponies who had met me throughout the tiring day. When she finishes her observation of me, she says,

"You got guts, pardner."

I am slightly confused. "Huh?"

She smirks. "What you said back there, that took a who lotta guts to admit, 'specially to a complete stranger like me." She continues to smile at me. "Ah just wanted t'say thanks fer bringin' me back to mah family." She gets closer to me and manages to draw me into a hug.

Blushing slightly at the intimate gesture, I reciprocate out of good manners.

"Well... I, uh, just didn't want you to keep making the same mistake I made," I say quietly.

Applejack releases her hold of me and steps back. "An' we're all mighty thankful that ya' did. Yer name's Michael, right?"

I nod.

"Oh, and," she adds. "Ah'm guessin' you'll be wantin' this back." She reaches around to I don't know where and extends her hoof back to me with my photo at the end of it.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks."

"No. Ah should be the one thankin' you. That's quite a sweet photo ya' got of you n'yer sister."

I take the photo and look at it again. Though usually a painful thing to look at, this time, I can only smile fondly at the memory.

At this point, Twilight enters the conversation. "I had no idea of the story behind you keeping that photo. But after hearing what you said back there, it all makes sense, why you were so defensive of it." Spike nods in agreement. Her eyes, along with everybody else's in the room, were slightly puffy, but not as much as they would have been several hours earlier. "I can't imagine what it must have felt like opening up the way you did. It must've been unbearable."

I smirk to myself.

Quite the understatement, if you ask me.

"Indeed," chimes in Rarity. "Truly, that was a remarkable feat. I don't know if I could have done it if I were you."

"Obviously," snickers Rainbow Dash, who had been trying to act as if she hadn't been crying like everyone else. She occasionally turns her head around to hide her true actions. "You can barely stand to let dirt touch you, let alone pour out your own."

The white unicorn rolls her eyes. "Honestly, Rainbow," Rarity answers, annoyed. "Now is not the time for your sneering."

"Okay, okay. Sorry," Rainbow mutters defeatedly.

"Hey, sis?" Apple Bloom asks.

Applejack circles to her younger sibling. "Yeah, AB?"

"Ah asked Michael if he'd like t'stay fer dinner and he said yes. Is that okay with you?" She asks, though her body language made it evident that she could barely contain her eagerness for guests.

"Well, o'course it's okay!" The orange earth pony replies. Apple Bloom leaps into the air giddily. "Would ya'll like t'stay fer dinner, too?" She inquires to everybody else. Twilight and Spike and Rainbow Dash all nod, but Rarity and Pinkie Pie withhold themselves.

"Oh, I'd love to, Applejack, but I need to get home. Sweetie Belle may still be grounded, but I still have to give her her dinner. Not to mention that Opalescence would be absolutely furious with me if I forgot to feed her."

"And I have to take care of the twins tonight," says Pinkie, her mane and tail still straight. "The Cakes are going out for dinner, and I promised I'd look after Pound and Pumpkin Cake."

Spiked jumps in shock. "Oh my gosh! I almost forgot! I have to feed Peewee too!"

Twilight reassures the little drake with a pat on the head. "Don't worry, Spike. I trained Owlowiscious to feed and look after Peewee should you ever not make it home."

The young dragon gazes at the lavender unicorn, concern still masking his face. "But, how did you do that?"

"Hey! Owlowiscious is a very smart owl. Learning a simple guideline like that was nothing for him." The mare smiles.

Spike, seemingly calmed down, nods in return.

Rarity and Pinkie both give Applejack a tender hug before turning to the door. But before they reach it, a barking comes from the other side. The door burst open to make way for an excited brown-and-white-coated dog. Rarity and Pinkie both gasp and fall backwards. The dog starts runnings around the room, over furniture and between the ponies' legs for several seconds when it finally stops and suddenly turns its head at Applejack. A huge smile brakes out over the mare's face as she calls, forehooves opening up in the air,

"Winona!"

Bark! Bark! Comes the excited reply as the brown and white animal leaps into Applejack's open forehooves. Winona eagerly begins to lick the orange pony's face happily, Applejack laughing at the feeling of once again holding her companion.

Just then, another figure comes through the door, though not at quite the same speed as the puppy. Instead, this one floats in, hovering delicately above the floor. It's another pegasus, with a light yellow coat and voluminous pink mane and tail. She's wearing a worried expression, for some reason, when she first enters, as her attention is directed at the happy scene going on in the middle of the living room.

"Oh, A-Applejack! I-I'm so sorry!" The pegasus cries. Her tone-of-voice, regardless if she were trying to shout something, was so unbelievably soft and timid I have to strain my ears to hear what she's saying. "We were just walking back from my cottage after I helped Winona get better from a small case of the sniffles she had, but, for some reason, sh-she just got all excited and started barking and ran as fast as she could back here." She softly grounds herself and sinks her head, retreating as if she's about to be prosecuted for her so-called carelessness with handling Winona. "I'm really sorry."

This pony has a nasty habit of apologizing too much, I think.

Applejack gets up after the loving onslaught of puppy licks and says, "Hehe, it's fine, Fluttershy. Why, sometime, Ah c'n barely control this here feisty little critter." She clarifies the last part while rubbing the dog's head down with a hoof.

Bark! Bark!

Winona's nose then pokes at the air just above her head. The pup starts to sniff around the ground, going in circles for several seconds, until her nose bumps my shoe. She darts her head up while retreating back, getting a better view of me. That's when Fluttershy notices me. She gasps and retreats a little more, but I didn't take offense to it. Something tells me that this is a very timid pony. Winona comes closer to me and sniffs around my legs for a little while. Afterwards, she steps away, looks up at me, and barks happily while wagging her tail feverishly.

Bark! Bark!

I smile and get down on one knee. I extended my hand to let the dog sniff it first. After she seems satisfied, I scratch the back of her ears the way that dogs love. Whenever I pet a dog or a cat, I had a strange knack for getting them to lay down in submission if I pet them in just the right way. This case is no different. The puppy seems to relax at my touch, her tail still wagging, though much slower. After a few seconds, she succumbs, laying on her side on the floor while I continue to rub her head and belly, tail lightly thumping the wooden floor beneath her.

"Well, Ah'll be," Applejack rings in. "Ah ain't never seen Winona do that with anypony. Not even me. You must have a special connection with critters, or somethin' of the sort."

The shy pegasus comes out of her guard at the sight of me making friends with the comfy Winona. She approaches me with a confident smile on her face now, but still keeping some distance.

"Niether have I," she speaks, confirming Applejack's statement. "In fact, I didn't even think this could be done with a pup like Winona. She's never seen or met you before, yet she clearly trusts you. You must have a kind soul." She observes as she looks at me with aquamarine eyes. She doesn't look as afraid of me as before. Winona's reaction to me may have told her I'm not that bad.

I blush. I always did whenever someone said something like that.

"I'm just... good at petting animals, I guess" I say with modesty. "I'm Michael, by the way."

"Fluttershy," the pegasus answers. "I'm the local caretaker of all of the woodland creatures, but sometimes I also take care of Winona and Rarity's cat and some of the other pets in Ponyville."

Rarity speaks up at this point, after recovering from the shock of Winona's bursting through the door. "Which reminds me, I really should be getting back home to Sweetie and Opal. Farewell, all!" She waves a hoof as she exits the house. Pinkie Pie follows in suit, not saying anything at all. For some reason, I can't help but feel that's my fault.

Oh well, at least she won't throw a party for me.

Applejack turns to the pink-maned pegasus and asks if she would like to stay for dinner as well. Fluttershy, however, also denies the invitation, saying she has to go home and feed her "Angel bunny." Whatever that meant. So after saying a few farewells, she gracefully floats out of the house.

But soon after, Big Macintosh trots into the room. He looks tired and dirty from the day's labor. When he sees that Applejack left her room, and hears from Applejack that she wouldn't do it ever again and that I was her reason for promising it, he hugs my so intensely, my ribcage nearly gives out.

"Thank ya' kindly, stranger!" He cries as a manly tear leaves the corner of his eye.

"Not... a... problem..." Dear God, was that a crack I heard? Did my -- yup! It did!

After that, the five ponies and Spike start to set up the dinner table while Big Mac goes upstairs to wash up. I walk over to the window next to the door and look to the outside world for a bit. I don't see anything of particular interest at first, just the top crest of the sun disappearing below one of the apple tree-covered hills, leaving the sky in an ascending blend of strong orange to faint pinkish-yellow to stubborn blue as dusk drew closer. The volunteer ponies are leaving as well, exiting past the gate at the far end of the field in font of the house to get home for some well deserved dinners. A regular day for these creatures.

Out of nowhere, something glows in my peripheral vision, hiding amongst the apple trees throughout the orchard. I turn to look, but the disadvantage of central vision negated my hope to see what it was. I decide to brush it off, convincing myself that my mind was just exhausted and hungry.

Just need some food in your belly, that's all. I think to myself.

I turned around to walk upstairs to wash my hands in preparation for dinner.

For dinner, the seven of us, eight if you count Winona eating out of a bowl next to the table, are having vegetarian lasagna (a variant of a personal favorite of mine, of which I was extremely thankful for) and a salad with greens, carrots, tomatoes, and, apples. Because you know, why not? But it wasn't a bad combo, to be honest. I feel that the flavors are more complementary instead of dismissive. Spike and Big Mac have some fried "haycon." I try it, just for the hell of it. Wasn't half bad, truthfully. Almost tastes like regular bacon.

Maybe I can survive in this world, after all.

As the dinner goes on, the ponies at the table start talking to me about themselves and their world, integrating me further to them. Twilight tells me how she's the apprentice of Equestria's Princess, Celestia. I'm a bit surprised. Not because I didn't figure sooner that a world like this had princess, but because it was so...predictable. But, as a polite, other-worldly guest, I just tell her that that was pretty impressive, being so close to royalty, and all that jazz. She also tells me of how she needed to hatch Spike from his egg when she took the entrance exam to get into magic school. Seemed legit.

Rainbow Dash then starts with how she's the best flyer in all of Equestria. Arrogant much? She gives a monologue of her whole life story. And I mean her whole life, but I'll just cut to the, what I call, "check points." She was born in Cloudsdale, home to the best flyers in history; then she goes on about her time in flight camp, her move to Ponyville, and her subsequent meeting with Twilight. She also mentions that she was indirectly responsible for Twilight and her friends getting their cutie marks.

Before I can begin to get bored, however, she includes some things that Twilight had left out about this world.

Rainbow goes on to explain about the return of Nightmare Moon, and her defeat at the hands--er, "hooves" of the Elements of Harmony, which consisted of Twilight and most of her friends I met throughout the day. She then goes on to talk about the return of a chaos being known as Discord, which turned out to be the draconequus Twilight mention earlier. He, conveniently, was also defeated by the Elements, but not before almost tearing apart Rainbow's friendship with Twilight and the others. Then, she describes the events of a wedding that occurred the year previous, how it was between Twilight's older brother and her old babysi -- foalsitter, I mean. But it turned out that Cadance, the foalsitter, was actually the shape-shifting queen also mention by Twilight earlier. She, for a turn, wasn't defeated by the Elements. Instead, she was defeated by the power of love. What a cliché. Rainbow Dash finished on how they saved the Crystal Empire a little over a year ago from an evil king called Sombra.

Wow.

I have to stop them so all of that can sink in. Man, there is a lot more disaster happening in this world than a person might think. But something else comes to mind.

"Hey, Dash, you said that the first time you heard of Twilight's brother was when she recieved a letter about his wedding, right?"

The chromatic-maned pegasus nods.

I then turn to Twilight and ask, "And you never mentioned your brother before because...?"

The lavender mare only shrugs. "Nopony ever asked," she states simply.

Moving on from that, Applejack goes on to say how her grandmother was the pony responsible for the founding of Ponyville, with her "zap-apple jam" attracting ponies from across Equestria. At this, I'm actually a bit surprised. I realize that it wasn't only the Apple's who lost their grandmother in the past year; Ponyville practically lost its mother.

Did anyone else realize this when she passed? When we were passing through the town, I didn't see any statues or memorials in tribute to Granny Smith. How could they not know? How could this town forgets its founder, for Chrissake?

I shake that thought away as Applejack continues to speak. She continues with how Apple Bloom got her cutie mark.

"Hang on," I interrupt. Applejack looks at me quizzically. "What exactly is a 'cutie mark'?"

The orange pony points a hoof at the three apple on her flank. "This is a cutie mark."

Apple Bloom chimes in, "It's somethin' that appears on out bodies when a pony learns what their special talent is. Mine is fixin' s stuff," she points to hers. "And Applejack's means she's supposed t'be an apple farmer"

"Okay. What about yours, Bic Mac?"

The big red stallion glances at the huge, green half-apple on his backside. "Means Ah c'n kick apple trees real hard," he says with a note of pride.

"Mine means I'm adept with using magic," Twilight says, pointing to the purple, six-pointed star.

"And mine means I'm wicked fast and awesome when I'm flying!" Rainbow Dash exclaims, showing the rainbow-colored lightning bolt on her rear. Then, she brings a hoof up to her chin. "Actually, now that I think about it, I'm kinda always awesome."

I smirk, and finish my lasagna.

After the dinner, and the amazing dessert that consisted of apple-pie with whipped-cream, we all sit in the living room on the comfy couches around a roaring fire to drive away the late-autumn, early-winter chills. Winona is curled up next to the fire, sound asleep. That's when the Apples start to retell Apple Bloom's cutie mark tale.

"It was the first few weeks of the past summer," Applejack starts off. "It was fearsome hot, most of th'time. In fact, it was so hot, the trees here at th'farm were beginnin' t'bake from the overexposure t' heat. Big Macintosh went 'n made a complaint t'the weather department located in town 'bout the extreme heat. They agreed t' get the weather teams t' schedule a refreshin' downpour later in the week."

"Weather teams?" I ask.

"The pegasi in Equestria control the weather," Rainbow answers.

"Oh."

"But something went wrong," Big Macintosh says. "One of the weather ponies got confused with which clouds t'bring few the scheduled shower, and so she brought in a  huge thundercloud."

Nothing ever good comes when you mix thunderclouds and a cartoon world, I think. Shit will be blown up.

"And that's when mah clubhouse was hit by a lightning bolt, 'n the whole thing exploded," Apple Bloom states grumpily. I'm confused by this logic at first because I seriously doubt a single lightning bolt could blow up a whole clubhouse, but then I remember: cartoon world.

Apple Bloom, though despondent from Granny Smith's passing, wouldn't let that deter her resolve. She swore she'd fix that clubhouse no matter what. So within a few days work, she fixed the clubhouse good as new. And from that, her cutie mark appeared. I raise an eyebrow and nod my head, impressed at the little filly sitting next to me.

After that, when everybody found out, there was a big party thrown by Applejack and Big Macintosh in celebration. Apple Bloom's friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, attended, thrilled for their friend. All of Applejack's friends attended too. It was also at this party that Scootaloo got her cutie mark. It involved one of Apple Blooms classmates, who also attended, falling into danger when all of the kids went to the top of one of the apple hills. Apparently, they were going to try and sled their way down by lubricating the bottom of some snow sleds. But one of the colts over-lubricated his sled, and slipped on the wrong side of the hill and was sent zooming down the steep hillside, heading straight for a cluster of boulders at the bottom. Scootaloo took action, jumping on one of the sleds and chasing after the out-of-control colt on the runaway sled. After a tense minute of swerving left-and-right to avoid the trees, Scootaloo finally caught up to the colt and pulled him onto her sled, and steered them to safety while the over-lubricated sled smashed into the boulders at full speed.

Scootaloo's cutie mark, as described by Apple Bloom, was of a wing angled so that it looked as if it was propelling itself forward. Behind the wing were streaks of wind, signifying that Scootaloo was meant for speedy sports, something she evidently excelled at. So with Scootaloo the new local hero, the celebration was made for both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo.

"It. Was. Awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaims as she leaps from her seat, loopty-looping in the air. "I knew that little filly had what it took to be awesome just like me."

Ho-ly shit, I think, utterly amazed at the story.

"But," Apple Bloom includes, looking downtrodden. "But ever since then, Sweetie Belle's bin' tryin' extra hard t'get her cutie mark. Me n'Scootaloo tried t'help her, but, she just wouldn't let us. She keeps sayin' that she's gotta earn her's by herself, now that Scoot's and Ah've earned our cutie marks." She sighs as she rests her chin on her forehooves, appearing slightly saddened.

Applejack reaches over to place a comforting hoof on her sister's shoulder. By this point in the evening, her mane is braided in its usual fashion, and her brown stetson was resting on her head. She looked like her old self that was shown in the photo on the wall.

"Don't fret none, lil' sis," she tells Apple Bloom softly. "Sweetie Belle'll git her cutie soon enough, n'you three will be off adventurin' again in no time."

The yellow filly turns her head to her elder sibling, though her demeanor doesn't improve.

"But that's just it, sis! When Sweetie Belle does git her cutie mark, then the three of us wouldn't have anythin' to do! That's why we've been friends all this time, t'help each other git our cutie marks. But two out'a three of us got ours already, and the third won't let us help her!"

I can see her dilemma. But Applejack remains inflexible. "Apple Bloom, look at me and Twilight and Rainbow Dash here, and Rarity n'Fluttershy n'Pinkie Pie. We still stick together, even though we got our cutie marks. We still have our fair share of adventurin', and hay, we even argue from time t'time, but we're still together, no matter what." She adds this last but with a wink. "And you c'n bet yer apples that you n'yer friends'll stick t'gether like glue on paper!"

Something about that sentence doesn't sit right with me. Glue? How can... Never mind.

The yellow filly could only smile sweetly back and hug her sister. I look at my watch. It says ten o'clock.

Damn, have we really been talking all night?

Just then, the little clock that stood on the mantelpiece rings, and the others all check the surprising time.

"Gosh, is it that late already?" Twilight says. "Come on, Spi-" But the little dragon was already asleep on the couch in the fetal position. Twilight smiles fondly at the drake and levitates him onto her back in preparation to leave. I can tell those two had quite the brother-sister relationship despite being of different species.

Rainbow Dash releases an exasperated yawn, then grumbles,

"Yeah, I better hit the cloud, too. See you guys tomorrow." She waves a hoof behind her as she trots out the door and flies away once she's outside.

"Michael?" I turn at the sound of my name, and Twilight is looking at me with an expression of slight exhaustion.

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to stay at the library? I can bring up the spare bed in my basement, if you'd like to spend the night?"

I thought about it, then return, "Sure, thanks."

"No problem." She trots past me for the door, and I follow. Once she reaches the door, she turns back to the Apple's and called,

"Goodnight, Applejack. You too, Big Mac."

"Night, Twi," Applejack replies as she turns to her little sister. "Come on, lil' sis, time fer bed." But the little filly tiredly shakes her head.

"Ah don't... wanna..." And she plopped asleep, snoozing where she sat on the couch. The orange mare giggles slightly and picks up the sleeping Apple Bloom over her head and slides the sleeping form down onto her back. She and Big Mac proceed up the stairs, but not before a final,

"G'night, Twilight. G'night, Michael," from Big Macintosh.

I wave in reply. Needless to say, I'm completely spent from the days events. And all I can hope for was a comfy bed, regardless if I were too big for it, as Twilight and I walk out of the Apple home. Only, it is then that i realize how chilly it is. My hands cross to cover my arms

I want my hoodie.

Two hours later, I am in the spare bed in Twilight's bedroom, still awake. She retreated to her own bed when we got back, Spike into his basket. I thought sleep would come easy to me. But, two hours, and no such luck. Instead I just stare up into the ceiling and wait. Twilight and Spike fell asleep without any trouble.

So why can't I sleep?

My body's exhausted, my eyes are falling with growing weight, there are barely any noises except for the occasionally loud peep from a little orange-red bird in a cage next to Spike's basket on the window sill and the more ominous hoo from the owl on guard known as Owlowiscious. Eventually, I just force myself to keep my eyes closed until I do fall into slumber. I'm not thinking about the days events, or even about how the hell I got to this world. I don't wonder about anything; I just want to sleep.

I reach over to where my watch is and look at the time after tilting it to the moonlight flowing past the window, but I can barely make it out. Giving up, I place the watch back and pull the blanket over my head, which leaves my feet exposed since it is so short. The bed itself is slightly bigger than Twilight's, but it isn't much of an improvement.

After minutes, I begin to work up a sweat. I exit from cover, allowing the cooler, fresher air outside to cool me off.

Christ, what the fuck? I think irritably.

Just then, a pain explodes inside of my head, and it is worse than any migraine. Luckily, my voice catches, preventing me from waking up the other sleeping creatures in the room. The pounding shock-waves through my entire body repeatedly, not warranting any mercy. And that was what finally knocks me out. And I dream.

I am in total darkness at first. Nothing to my left, right, forward or behind me, above or below either. After a while though, a sort of portal-like hole opens up in front of me, or at least it appears to open up in front of me. There is a single, non-moving image and no sounds, however, after several seconds, something emerges; voices, that sound like they are speaking through a pillow. Then, a scream.

The image is blurred at first, but focuses out, and I can make out the location. It is my room, in my apartment, in my world. I'm laying down on the carpet floor and...there are glass shards and blood everywhere on the floor around me. I can only see the cabinets below my sink, and I'm not moving.

Another scream.

"MICHAEL!"

Mom?

"Are you alright?!"

I'm fine... I think...

"Oh, my baby, what happened?!"

I'm pretty sure my--

She can't hear me. Then, the view moves, and I see my mom, though the image is still blurry. I can see tears in her eyes, she's hysterical. She cradles my head in her hands and lap.

"Michael, say something! Anything!"

I...

The image fades.

That world is gone...

Who said that?

You...

Where are you?

Unimportant... for now...

Get the hell out of my head!

Too late, already here...

What the hell is going on? Is... is that real?

Doesn't matter... you have a job to do...

What job?

You'll see...

I awake with a gasp. I am in a cold sweat. I fell asleep, but I don't know how long it's been. My mind's trying to figure out... that. I keep going over it in my head. I was in a void, then a portal opened up in front of me, and I could see my mom crying on the other side of it. And...

There was blood and glass everywhere.

And that voice. I don't know who or what it could've been, but I'm getting the feeling I'm gonna find out very soon what it was. It sounded... malevolent, for some reason. Not evil, exactly, just very... foreboding. Yeah, that's the right word. But another question comes to mind. That portal, and what I saw through it...

Was I dreaming, or was I waking up?

Part V: Shadow

Part IV: Portal Vision

Part IV: Portal Vision

Unable, and unwilling, to continue with attempting asleep, I get dressed as quietly as possible. The outside world had only the faintest traces of sunlight. I look at the time. Six o'five. I figure I still have some time left before either Twilight or Spike woke up, so I decide to browse the library.

Hoo, came the unexpected call of Owlowiscious. I jump slightly and turn around to find the brown owl watching me on one of Twilight's bedposts with a hypnotic gaze.

"Jesus Christ, don't do that," I hissed. The bird only responded with a hoo.

"You," I hissed again.

Hoo.

"You."

Hoo.

"Y--! Never mind," I scoff, not about to play games with a damn owl. He only blinks at me blankly. I tip-toe back downstairs.

I walk over to a wooden pedestal in the center of the entire treehouse library and pick up a lantern. Turning a small knob on the bottom, it illuminates with fireflies instead of a traditional oil fire. Marveling at the unorthodox contraption, watching the sparkling swarm of bugs flutter all around inside, I go over to a random part of the shelves. A trace of stinging is all that remains on the plethora of scars on my body. It's ignorable for the most part; I also didn't want to think about that bizarre dream at all. Trying to figure out those images was enough to give my stomach a knotted feeling, and that voice...It sounded like my voice, but, much deeper, and more metallic. Just remembering that sound makee my skin crawl.

Like the day before, the shelves are stocked full of novels and encyclopedias and history textbooks, all bound in multiple colors and embroideries. After skimming the spines of the books across wall, I randomly pick out one. It has a light green cover with a golden banner that read The Art of the To-Do List. I stare at it blankly, then I place it back and continue searching. After several minutes, a particular spine glimmers, catching my eye.

On one of the books' spine is the rough, golden outline of what appears to be a dragon that reflected the neon-yellow light from the lantern. Its wings are spread outward, as far out as they could extend on the spine of a book, at any rate, but the tail and hind legs merge into a comet-like wisp. Its head was angled up while spewing gold fire from its maw. I grab it from the shelf and inspect the cover. The hard outer shell of the book is a well-saturated shade of crimson with a black bar across the bottom. There is a more prominent version of the gold-outlined dragon image. Above and below the image are two, almost indecipherable, lines of text that read, or at least I think they read:

Radora Dracos

Homeland Of The Dragons And Their History

Sounds interesting, I think. I wonder where I can read this.

Turning my head left and right, I strangely don't see any chairs or sofas anywhere in the bottom floor of the library. At the far end of the room, there's another door. I walk up to it and find that it leads to the kitchen. There's a dinning table and chairs, but I don't think it would be very comfortable to sit in those for very long. I finally agree to just sit on the floor below where I found the book. I sit with my legs outstretched in front of me, my back against the plethora of books, and crack open the cover after placing the firefly lantern right next to me. The paper is slightly aged, containing only the lightest tint of old yellow, or maybe that's just the reflected light from the lantern. The cover page bore the same words and image as the front, only this time it was ink-black. There aren't any authors credited, on the front or cover page, or editing team, or publishers, or even a date of publication. Pushing aside the missing legitimacies, I turn the pages until I reach the first chapter.

So, I start.

~~~

Radora Dracos

I

Dragons are probably the most misunderstood creatures in the world. Many think that they are, always have been, and always will be, mindless beast that feed off of greed and rage. While this is not entirely the truth, I cannot condemn them for thinking so. Dragons can be a dangerous race if enraged or threatened. It was for this reason that the Dragon Wars were fought millennia ago, in the northern plains of the land known as Radora Dracos, bordering the southern edge of another land called Equestria. Oh, how far misunderstandings and miscommunications can be exaggerated out of proportion. While I won't recall anything specific of the wars, that you can research elsewhere, I will, however, say that every thousand dragon soldiers perished for every million pony soldiers from Equestria.

And it was from this war that dragons now have their fearsome, almost evil reputation.

But it simply isn't true. Dragons are more intelligent and loyal than the world could ever hope to realize! Nopony chooses to admit that dragons were once peaceful, loving creatures, helping their lands prosper and other lands grow. Instead, they choose to fall into the belief of the prejudices against the magnificent beasts.

That is, until something happened. None, not even I, who am writing this with my own levitating quill, know what caused the tragedy that befell the draconian race. After the Dragon Wars, the dragons' cities, including their capital, Volcannia, fell, their industry and technology crumbled, their minds, and their hearts, went primal. They abandoned their birthplace, most of them flying north to Equestria. And throughout the centuries, the dragon population has dwindled from perhaps millions to less than a few thousand across the entire world.

Radora Dracos, once a prosperous, beautiful nation, had been burned into what are now known as the Dragon Badlands, a land that can either be a scorching desert or a freezing tundra or a sea. Bear in mind, the Badlands are not that far south to be a tundra, nor too close to the equator to be considered hot enough for a desert, not to mention that for several weeks throughout the year in the Badlands, it rains endlessly, meaning these climates are utterly supernatural, and unexplainable. Any ruins have more than likely been melded back into the earth's soil after unforgiving centuries of extreme heat, fatal cold, and relentless erosion from the heavens.

It was for this reason that nopony had dared to even explore this dead world. That is, until I traversed the merciless past of the dragons. Since my colthood, I had always been fascinated by the draconians, their history, their legacy, their myths and truths. So, for the past two years of my life, I traveled throughout the skeleton of Radora Dracos. While the exact location of its official borders to the south, east, and west have been forgotten, the northern border is only approximately one thousand miles south from the San Palomino Desert. From what I could gather from my travels, Radora Dracos was a vast country, quite possibly thousands, if not millions of square miles all throughout the interior. There weren't any traces of any dragons returning to there former homeland, and even if they did, any traces were burned or buried.

Everypony, even my family, believed I was crazy to venture into the former heart of the dragon world, and maybe they were correct. My sisters cried themselves into exhaustion when they heard I would not yield in my attempt to brave the harsh wasteland. For the majority of two years, I had faced near death countless times. It is a miracle that I am even here, writing this now.

But my efforts were not in vain, for I had discovered, albeit by accident, an underground temple, crafted by the dragon masters of the past. All throughout this temple, there were murals, gigantic masterpieces depicting dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors, sculpted from countless jewels that have lasted the test of time! They were images I shall carry to my grave, for my camera was washed away in a flash flood before I could stumble upon the temple. However, I can still describe them to you, cherished reader, who had the courtesy and curiosity to pick up this chronicle, since the images are still very well burned into my memory.

The first few of these murals displayed the many technological achievements of the dragons. One showed a dragon in silver and bonze armor, wielding a magnificent sword, one that would take several dozen ponies to lift. Another showed that dragons were experts in the art of weaponry, combining their natural born weapons with artificial blades and other tools created by dragon blacksmiths. A third mural showed a dragon pounding a new sword into shape with a massive hammer in the molten lava of a volcano. Truly, dragons were ingenious wizards when it came to weaponry.

The next set of murals showed Radora Dracos' society. Dragon's for the most part, were still solitary creatures for the majority of their adult lives, but come together for ceremonies, one of which involves shooting flames into the sky at night for a mind-shatteringly beautiful performance. In the same mural, it appeared as though the flames were conjoining into a parody of the Aurora Borealis. Some of the murals showed that draconians took care of their young, often depicting this through a larger parent dragon with much smaller drakes nestling under its belly.

The last set of murals intrigued me the most. To most of the world, dragons appear to be independent, unguided beings. However, one of the last murals told me otherwise. It depicted several dozen dragons, all blasting their fiery souls to a larger dragon that was perched atop a mountain. This dragon was distinguishably larger than the rest, with a pure white torso, head, and wings; golden nuggets were placed where its eyes would have be, and it was looking down on the dragons below it. It had the impression of a king, almost. Did the dragons have a monarch before their divine plunge from sanity? Below the mural, two words, decorated with more golden nuggets, rested. It read: Draco Rex.

After continuously studying every single detail of all of the murals, I left the temple, utterly satisfied, and traveled home. I wonder if somepony else will every be as bold, and as lucky, as I, Ouranos Black, was.

~~~

Wow, I think after finishing the chapter. Ya' gotta love history. And Ouranos Black? Pretty bad-ass name.

I notice that there is more light shining through the windows. I look at my watch, which says seven twenty-six. I can't believe I read for over an hour. I don't remember time passing that quickly whenever I read a book back in my world. My legs had gone numb since I didn't move the entire time I read, so I stand up and kick my legs around to get the blood flowing. After a few seconds, unfortunately, pins and needles attack both of my feet, making it unbearable to walk.

I hear hoof steps coming down the stairs. I swivel my head around and see Twilight making her way to the bottom, mane slightly frazzled from an apparently good night's sleep. She yawns slowly and opens her eyes, spotting me almost immediately. She gasps.

"Oh! Uh... I didn't know you were already up. Good morning," she says as she hastily tried to adjust her mane. Failing that, she summons a brush out of nowhere and proceeds to fix it.

I turn off the lantern, the need dissipating with the growing light, and reply, "Yeah, couldn't get much sleep, so I thought I'd come down here and do some reading."

She finishes brushing and continues down the stairs. "Do you do a lot of reading?" She asks as she passed me, I'm guessing heading towards the kitchen.

"Every now and then," I answer. "Nothin' like a good book and some solitude to make time go by, you know?"

The mare giggles, "I can relate."

We walk into the kitchen together. The sun is well above the horizon by now, though the air still trapped the chill from the previous evening. Birds can be heard chirping their songs which, to me, sound almost exactly like the ones back home. I remember waking up early every Saturday morning to watch cartoons with Susie, though we would sometimes get into fights about what to watch. This prompted our parents to come down stairs, very irritated by our loud behavior, and make us go back to our room until they were ready to wake up fully. A few crickets can also be heard continuing to chirp from last night. I hate crickets.

"Say, have you read this?" I inquire to the lavender mare, holding up the crimson book. She takes one glance at it, but she seems confused, almost baffled at the sight of it. Her horn glows and so does the tome as it floats over and stops in front of Twilight's face. She studies the book intensely, scanning her eyes across the front, back, and spine, and flipped through the pages. When she appears to have finished her interrogation, she still looks perturbed. The unicorn then looks at the title and mutters,

"Radora Dracos, Homeland Of The Dragons And Their History... Strange, I've never seen this book before in my life." She looks back at me.

I just shrug.

"Where exactly did you find this?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

I jerk a thumb back behind me, at the room filled with books. "It just caught my eye while I was browsing. Here, lemme show you where." I walk back to where I found the crimson volume, but in its place instead is a purple spine. Now I'm stupefied. Twilight raises another eyebrow at me condescendingly. "I-It was sitting right there, in between the brown and grey books, I swear," I try to reassure her, but she just looks over to where the purple book is nestled and levitates it in front of her.

"Rabbit Mating Season, The Guide To Every Question You've Had About Rabbits Mating But Were Afraid To Ask."

I can't hold back the onrush of laughter that came from my lungs, completely knocked out by that book's title. I collapse onto my knees, not caring whether or not I'd wake Spike up. I just had to get the laughter out of my system.

After a while, Twilight can't help but join in, evidently finding the whole situation laughable. After a good few minutes of that, I regain what little composure I'm, able to muster after that, and say,

"I'm serious though, it was right there."

The unicorn rubs her head with a hoof while placing the purple book back to its rightful place after dropping it when she started to laugh with me. She then rubs her eye with the other hoof before saying,

"I'm not doubting you. It's just weird. This book never came in any of the deliveries I've received so far during my time as the librarian. At least... I definitely don't remember it. What's it about?" She questions, bringing the crimson book back up to her face and opening the cover again.

"It's just some guy who talks about the dragon race, saying where they came from, what they were originally like, basically praising the ancient dragons like gods," I remark impassively. Twilight's gaze remains uninterrupted on the text in front of her. "I only got through the first chapter. It's pretty interesting, I've gotta admit. I've always liked history and geography and stuff like that."

"Draco Rex?" Twilight mutters. I'm slightly astounded by her reading speed. That word only came up towards the end of the chapter, but it took be over an hour to get there. But, I shouldn't be surprised; she's a librarian. She most likely spends a lot of her time reading. After she appears to have finished, I throw in a quick question.

"Any idea what it means?"

She doesn't seem to hear me right away. Her face looks lost in thought as she continues to stare at the front cover of the book. "Hmm... What?"

"Draco Rex, do you know what it means?" I repeat.

"Oh, um, no. It's a completely different language, no linguistic similarities to Equestrian, besides maybe the letters." She casually hovers the book back over to me and trots back to the kitchen, though her brows remain furrowed in concentration.

"Mind if I keep the book for a little while?" I call to her.

"Be my guest," she answered. "Oh wait, you are!"

Smirking, I cracked my back and follow the mare into the kitchen, the book nestled in the crook of my right arm.

Draco Rex, I think. Sounds kinda like Latin.

She's already preparing the stove for breakfast. As she levitates a frying pan above the turned-one gas stove, a case of eggs fly out of the refrigerator right next to the sink. The lid opens up and two eggs hover out, then crack themselves on the side of the pan and spill their gooey contents onto it.

I feel even more confused than before. "You... you ponies eat eggs?"

Twilight raises an eyebrow as she turns her head and replies, "Yeah... What's wrong with eggs?"

"Nothing." I say, shaking my head to get the daze to leave.

Aren't eggs meat? Or, at least part of the meat food group?

"Well, would you like some? Do humans eat eggs?" She inquires.

"Oh yeah, I love eggs," I answer back, shrugging off the near cannibalistic thought. "Thank you."

"Great, 'cause that's all we have," she giggles awkwardly. The unicorn then resumes an air of bewilderment and intense pondering. The eggs are already spreading their deliciously bland, yet full-of-potential aroma throughout the entire room.

"Is there something wrong?" I ask, slightly uncomfortable from her nonmoving facial expression.

"Ouranos Black... For some reason, that name... I wonder if the princess would know it?" She murmurs, to herself, I think. Her attention trails back to the eggs on the stove, and seeing that they're done, gently scoops them up with a levitating spatula and places them on two plates. Then, she carries them along with some forks and knives to the table and sits down on one of the chairs, gesturing for me to join her.

"Do you have any bread?" I ask before joining.

She looks blankly at me before responding, "Um, yeah, in the pantry. Why?"

"It's how I eat the yolk." I respond as I take out a wrapped loaf from said pantry. It's white, which sort of disappointed me because I usually preferred black bread, but decide to make do.

"So, what makes the name 'Ouranos Black' so familiar to you?" I ask the lavender mare as I stroll to the table.

The unicorn was slicing a part of the whites when she answers, "It's just that I think I've heard it mentioned before, as a slip of the tongue from Princess Celestia during one of our sessions while I was at magic school."

"Your teacher?"

"Correct." She places a piece in her mouth before continuing. "I didn't think it mattered or meant anything, so I just forgot about it. But it resurfaced when I read that book you found." She jabs a hoof at the crimson chronicle sitting on the edge of the table, then at me. "What attracted you to the book?"

After coating the sunny-side-up egg in front of me with a generous layer of salt and pepper, I ponder for a few seconds. "I don't really know. It just kinda... stuck out from the rest, I guess." I placed a yolk-covered slice of bread into my mouth and chewed.

Tasty.

We continue to eat in silence for the rest of breakfast. After we finish, Spike walks groggily into the kitchen, rubbing a fist into his crusty eye. "Morning," he moans.

"Good morning, Spike," Twilight responds cheerfully.

"Morning," I answer, giving a slight wave of a hand after placing my plate and knife into the sink.

"You guys got any plans for the day?" He questions to the two of us.

I shake my head. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing in this world, if I was even going to stay here at all. Will I have to get a job? If I'm going to be staying with Twilight for the foreseeable future, I don't want to be a burden on her, especially since she's courteous enough to give me breakfast and a place to sleep. What would I be good at, anyway? I'm not that physically strong, so I don't know if I could work for the Apples on their apple orchard. I can forget about working on the weather teams right away. Animal care-taking? I doubt that would bring in any money.

Twilight is the first to answer the groggy drake. "Actually, there was something I've been planning since we got home from Applejack's last night."

The drake returns to the table with a bowl of what appears to be crystals. He takes one in a claw and crunches down on it as if it were an apple or something. "Oh, really?" He mumbles between crunches. "What?" I'm curious as well.

The mare wipes her mouth with a levitating napkin, and says,

"I've been thinking: we should get the girls over here later today  and I can try a spell I've been working on for the past few weeks. It will enable us to see Michael's world from what he remembers about it. We'll be able to see all of the features and history you know about, Michael, all of the images and sounds you've experienced and felt. Pretty cool, huh?"

My eyebrows are raised higher than they've ever been. That sounds boss! But instead of speaking that aloud, I reply modestly, "Sure does."

... depicting a distinct species of draconians that could last for quite a while underwater, despite the fact that dragons were always thought of as water-intolerant.

This was just one of the many untold abilities that the dragons withheld from the world. But my question is, why would they want to keep these secrets from the rest of the world? Why degrade the knowledge of their skills any further than it already is? Why keep the world that fears the dragons ignorant, keep it in fear?

I said it before, and I'll say it again: dragons are mysterious, yet majestic beasts.

~~~

I finish the fourth chapter just as the door to the library opens up, revealing five ponies trotting through. Getting up from where I sit on the bottom of the stairs, I greet the visiting mares from yesterday. Pinkie Pie had regained her curled-up puffiness to her mane and tail, and now she's actually bouncing instead of gently walking like the rest. Rainbow Dash is giving off and air of slight irritation, with dark circles under her eyes implying she had only just woken up. It is already noon.

The chromatic-maned pegasus yawns obnoxiously. "What was so important that you had to interrupt my mid-day nap, Twilight?" She growls at the lavender unicorn, who is finishing up writing something down on a peace of parchment by the podium. She then levitates it to Spike, who proceeds to quickly run to a nearby window, open it, and exhale a wisp of green fire at the rolled-up scroll, seemingly burning it to ashes. I know it's how Twilight communicates with her mentor, but it's still really odd.

"You'll see," Twilight teases. The cyan pegasus sighs exasperatedly, either out of annoyance or exhaustion, I can't tell. "I just sent a letter to the princess, asking her if she could make an appearance to what I have in store for you all today. Hopefully, she'll accept, but until I receive a response, make yourselves comfortable." This only further aggravates Dash, who starts to fly up and land on a windowsill to take another nap.

What a lazy... Even I don't sleep in that much.

As the other four get comfy, starting up previously interrupted conversations, Applejack approaches me where I return to sit. She has her stetson on again. The orange mare looks at me cheerfully.

"How ya' feelin', sugercube?" Applejack asks me as she sits on her haunches by the staircase.

Sugarcube?

I plainly shrug and reply, "Fine, I guess, and what about yourself?"

"Fit as a fiddle, ever since y'all gave me that heart-to-heart confession, thanks fer askin'." Applejack answers gratefully.

"More like heart-through-door-to-heart."

The orange pony chortles heartily. "I reckon yer right."

I put the book down next to me. "And how are the other Apples?"

"Bic Mac's got some more work t'do at the orchard, 'n Apple Bloom went t'go see her friends around town."

I scratch the back of my neck. "Apple Bloom's really worried about her friend, isn't she? What was it, Sweetie Belle?"

Applejack nods. "Eeyup. But, considerin' she 'n her Crusader friends have always managed t'help one another, I'd say we've got nothin' t'be worried about. At least, for the time bein', anyway."

I'm about to ask her something else when an obnoxious snore crashes my train of thought. I look up and see Rainbow Dash asleep on the window sill, although both of her right hooves are dangling over the edge.

"Is she always so... loud?"

Applejack follows my gaze up. "Who, RD? Yeah, she can be. And arrogant. And obnoxious. And a blabbermouth. And showoff-y. And hot-headed. And--"

"I-I think I got it."

"Right, sorry. But, that pony's brave, and you ain't ever met a more loyal than her."

I look back up at the sleeping pegasus, and I can see the beginnings of a trail of drool escaping the corner of her agape mouth. I shake my head and begin to change the subject from the snoring pegasus.

"Listen, Applejack, do the ponies around town--" I am interrupted by a burp. Apparently, Spike coughs up a scroll right next to Twilight, who ends a conversation she was having with Fluttershy to take the new parchment and read it aloud.

"To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

I'll be there in just a second."

There is silence for a while, then a knock on the door, gaining the attention of everyone on the room.

"That was fast," Twilight stated, rolling up the scroll and placing it on the wooden pedestal as she trots to see who it could possibly be.

More like uncanny, I think.

The wooden door swings wide to reveal the tallest pony I've seen yet, taller than Big Macintosh. This one is a few inches taller than me, but enough so to make me glance upwards just to look into her purple eyes. Her coat is pure white, with a wavy mane and tail that were colored a light pink, green, blue, and purple. She wears a golden crown on her head that gleamed with sun-lit radiance. But what grabs my attention most is the fact that she both a horn and wings, wings that, I estimate, have a span of about ten feet. She stands at her full height, smiling down at the lavender unicorn, who is returning the expression. All of the ponies in the room, along with Spike, bow towards this monarch. I don't really move, partially because of my wonderment at her appearance, partially because I'm still sitting down and bowing would probably look awkward.

... And I don't really care all that much.

"Good afternoon, my little ponies," spoke the white princess, her tone regal, yet caring and soft. It made me want to trust her, for some reason.

"Good afternoon, Princess Celestia," replies the ponies in unison, except for Rainbow Dash, who is continuously snoring on the windowsill.

"Princess! Thank you so much for coming on such short notice," chimed in an overly-excited Twilight. "Can I get you anything? Would you like some tea, perhaps?"

"You're very welcome, my faithful student," Celestia replies cheerily, "and no thank you, I'm fine. Actually, I didn't have any royal matters to attend to today, so when I received your letter, I almost jumped at the chance for something to do."

"Great!" Exclaims the eager young unicorn.

"Although..." says the suddenly disheartened monarch, eyes downcast. Exhaustion set itself all over her features, almost out of nowhere.

"Is there something wrong princess?" Twilight asks concernedly. "I-Is the library too messy? I-I can clean it up, if you'd like!" In actuality, the room is practically spotless. I don't know what she meant by messy.

"It's not the room, Twilight, the room is fine," Celestia answers tiredly. "It's just for the past two days, there have been several... incidents across Equestria."

This is when Fluttershy approaches. "What kind of incidents do you mean, Your Majesty?" The pink-maned pegasus mumbles.

"I'm not surprised you all haven't heard; I've wanted to keep this from reaching the populace for a while longer until I could figure out what to do." Celestia looks around her loyal subjects before getting the courage to continue.

"There have been reports of dragons attacking villages and towns, unprovoked, throughout Equestria." At this, everyone gasps. "My soldiers are investigating these reports as we speak. I've spent the better part of two days flying to some of these cities to see for myself what happened. And unfortunately, I regretfully admit that these reports are quite accurate. All of the places I've seen were almost completely burned to the ground. As for the ponies living in these towns..." She trails off.

"Dra--... dra--... DRAGONS?!" Screams Fluttershy, quickly dashing behind Applejack to hide from the invisible dragons in the room.

"But it's nothing for you to concern yourselves with," the princess continues. "I realize it is alarming, but let me and my generals take care of it. The main thing I cannot fathom is why the dragon race would suddenly, and for no apparent reason, start attacking my subjects." She mutters the last sentence, almost to herself.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity suddenly shouts.

"BWAAHHAAA--OOF!" Came the response. What follows is Rainbow Dash falling from the edge of the windowsill and slamming into the ground full force, hooves comically pointing upwards. I can barely stifle a chortle at the ridiculous sight. One wouldn't normally think that a pegasus could be prone to falling, especially in such a comedic fashion. The outraged white mare glared at the crashed form of Rainbow.

"Jeez, Rarity!" Rainbow Dash shouted back, sitting up and rubbing her temple. "What in the hay was that for?!"

"You were snoozing away in the face of royalty, that's why!" Rarity indignantly barked.

"Well, ya' didn't have to scream at me like that! I was napping!"

"You're always napping, Rainbow. I swear, one of these days, you'll fall asleep and never wake up!"

"That's enough outta the both o'ya'll!" Applejack yells at the two. "Rainbow, show Her Highness some respect," She orders sternly.

Rainbow Dash gets back up and brushes herself off tiredly. "Uh, right. Forgive me, Your Highness." The pegasus bows to Celestia.

The regal pony princess only chuckles at the sight. "It's quite alright, Miss Dash, I can understand the desire to unwind." She then casts her gaze around the room, stopping when she spots me. I don't know why, but when she finds me standing in the room, I begin to feel nervous; the heat was rising to my face. Celestia slowly trots toward me and stops right in front of me. Wanting to be polite, I stand up to met her as she neared. We spend a few seconds scanning each others figures, she studying my bipedal form, me continuing to admire her baffling wingspan, which refused to rest at the mare's sides like Rainbow's and Fluttershy's wings did. Finally, she speaks first.

"You must be Michael," she says, watching me with warm, lavender eyes.

I only nodded in reply. "And you're the Princess Celestia I've heard Twilight speak so highly of." I curtly bow my head to her. "Nice to meet you, Your Highness."

"It is a pleasure meeting another one of Twilight's friends, as well." She raises a hoof off the ground. "Twilight explained through her letter that she had a guest living with her in the library, but I never assumed that guest was a nonpony."

"My kind is called 'human'." I reply. So far, despite her appearance, I'm not in total awe about this princess. For some reason, I just don't feel very impressed to be in her presence. I suppose it's because in my world, royalty and nobility have lost their meaning. Basically, to me, she's just another pony, except taller.

The princess acknowledges this by extending a wing to her lip in contemplation, her gaze never leaving me, which only makes me more uncomfortable. "Hmm, interesting. Well then, if the spell that Twilight mentioned to me in the letter will work, than we all will have a chance to see what your world looks like." She finishes with a smile.

Celestia then turns her head to her student. "Shall we proceed, Twilight?"

"Of course!" Twilight responds gleefully. I can tell she was anxious to show her mentor this spell. I wonder if the others can, as well. She probably spends a lot of her time trying to figure out ways to impress this princess. "If you all will please follow me down to the basement. Spike, can you lock the front door, please? I don't want anypony sneaking in and taking any books while we're down there. We could be gone for a while."

"Sure thing, Twi," answers the little dragon. He runs to the door with a key that manifested into existence out of nowhere and locks the door.

And so we venture to the basement. Twilight leads all of us towards the back of the room to another door that gives way to a descending tunnel. We follow her for about a minutes down a stone staircase, Twilight and Celestia in the lead, followed by the five mares and Spike with me tailing them. Finally, the stairs lead to a large basement filled machines that looked like computers from the nineteen-sixties in my world. But most of them have a thin layer of dust from disuse, and they lined the perimeter of the room, leaving a generous amount of space for all of us to stand around in. Twilight trots to one of the few bare walls and positions herself in front of the group. Celestia stays off to the side, the rest of us creating a half-circle in front of the pair. The lavender mare quickly glances at the towering white equine, and the princess winks encouragingly at her pupil. Something tells me they're closer than just teacher-student.

"Michael, if you would please step forward," Twilight orders to me, now with more confidence in her tone, "I can start the spell."

I oblige. But as I step forward, I began to feel too many pairs of eyes watching me. I get nervous again, but I don't let it show. I stop in the dead center of the room, Applejack, Rarity and the others behind me, Twilight and Celestia in front.

"First, I'd like to explain the spell to you," Twilight states, "in order for you to be aware of what will be going on. Alright?"

I nod.

"Good. I am about to cast a spell that will allow all of us here to see the images and sounds that you want to show us. You... probably won't feel a thing though, I swear, hehe..." Twilight laughs nervously, but my eyes widen. She made the slightest hesitation on that last part. I don't like that. I don't like that at all. My mind suddenly starts racing with all of the possibilities, all of the things that could go wrong.

What if my head catches on fire? Will my brain explode? Maybe my eyes will pop out of their sockets if she tries too hard or puts in too much magic, or however it works. Oh God...

Twilight looks back at Celestia, who again only nods encouragingly. The lavender mare takes a deep breath.

"Ready everypony?" They all nod. "Ready Michael?"

I can only nod curtly, still somewhat terrified.

Twilight closes her eyes and her horn initiates its intense purple aura. After several seconds of concentration, a light shoots out from the tip and engulfs my whole body in its glow. I'm not sure how I know, but I can feel it searching me, looking for the center of my thoughts and my memories. When the light finds what it was scavenging for in my neural pathways, two beams of light laser themselves out from my eyes and onto the wall behind Twilight. I hear all of the ponies gasp while Twilight ducks from the dual beam's pathway. As the light continues to shoot out of my head, all I can see is a tunnel of light purple leaving me. It doesn't hurt, but my eyes start to get irritated because they are being forced to keep open while the beams continued to stream from my brain. After maybe ten seconds, the last of the light leaves my system and I collapse onto my knees where I stood, rubbing my eyes and blocking any more light from entering. I feel a hoof on my shoulder after a few moments, followed by a concerned voice asking me,

"Are you alright, sugarcube?"

I make an effort to speak, but only groan in response, still rubbing my eyes. My whole body feels like the after effects of a roller coaster ride, mostly in my brain. After a minute of shutting my eyes from the outside environment, I finally manage to peek out, slowly creaking open my eyelids. What I see amazes me.

On the wall in front of me, where Twilight stood in front of, a huge, lavender-rimmed portal is flashing images of my world. It is about ten feet in radius all around, effectively taking up all the space on the dusty, wooden wall. Everyone in the basement is watching in wonder, including me. So many images are coming through the portal, I'm surprised that all of that was inside my head.

"My goodness," breathes Celestia. The others only watch in silent astonishment, mouths all agape.

"What's that?" Pinkie Pie finally asks me. She is pointing to an image of tall building that was the stopping point of the barrage of pictures. I'm even more surprised she managed to stay so quiet up until this point.

"That's the Empire State Building," I respond.

"It looks tall! How tall is it?" She asks me again, tilting her head, but her gaze never leaving the building.

I think for a moment, trying to remember. "In total, it's about... fifteen-hundred feet high."

The pink pony gasps at this. "That is tall! Oh, I wonder if it's as tall as Canterlot Castle!" She gasps again. "Maybe it's even taller! Normally, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it with my own two Pinkie eyes, but there it is! Well, not really, because it's on the other side of the portal-thingy and it's only a picture, but still, WOW!" She jumps at the last word, and strangely, the sound of confetti popping and kazoos blowing appeared out of thin air from behind her.

I wonder what she keeps in that tail of hers...

Another image flashes in the portal. This one shows crowds of humans walking through Times Square in New York City. The ponies seem even more amazed at this sight. Celestia turns towards me to ask,

"How many humans live in your world?"

"Over seven billion."

"What?!" Came the surprised chorus of the ponies. I recoil slightly at the sound.

"Holy peep-holes, that's a lot of people!" Pinkie Pie cried.

"You said it, sister," Applejack agrees.

Rainbow Dash is the next to inquire something. "How can that many humans live on your world? It must be huge!" She exclaims with big ruby eyes.

"It's not just huge, it's gotta be ginormous!" Retorts Pinkie, who sprung from behind me, swinging her hooves in the air.

For the next twenty minutes or so, I explain some of the images and sounds that are shown to the ponies in the room. I give them as much information as I could, giving certain measurements of the buildings I can remember of, or explaining human culture to the best of my ability. While doing so, I come up a bit short on certain aspects, and it is then that I realize just how little I actually know of the diverse human nature. Either that, or it is one of the occasions where I do know things, but my brain won't feed me the information. I actually start to enjoy showing them my world, and they seem more and more eager to learn, especially Twilight and Celestia. Rarity would cry out in glee at anything she saw as fashionable, and Rainbow Dash would give some swoons when an image of fighter jets flew by the portal.

"Big brother!"

My head snaps to attention at the portal, interrupting an explanation I was giving to Fluttershy. That voice...no.

"Betcha' can't catch me!"

"That's not fair! You know I can't climb that high, Susie!"

Everyone in the room turns from me back to the portal. In it, the scene shows someone looking up a tree at a little girl with a pale complexion and auburn hair that went down to her mid-back sitting in a branch way up high. She is sticking her tongue out at us, except, not at us. At me. This is one of my personal memories. This one is when me and Susie were about eight or nine years old, and we were at a park, I think.

"Haha! Too bad! Doggy can't catch me!"

"Michael," Twilight begins, "i-is that...?" I don't answer, though. I am too focused on the memory.

Suddenly, the scene shifts. There's a group of kids, bullies, from what I can remember about them, looking at me, surrounding me and Susie.

"Your sister's a weirdo!"

"Yeah, weirdo!"

They start to snicker at me.

"Sh-shut up! Leave her alone, you... you... assholes!"

They stop snickering immediately. One of them continues,

"Ooooooooo! You said the a-word! I'm gonna tell Mrs. Robinsin!"

They run off in one direction. The view swings around to behind me, at Susie. She is crying, and slightly dirty from being pushed onto the ground by those assholes. She was clutching my arm like a teddy bear as she looks up at me and says,

"... Thanks... Michael..."

My ability for breathing practically left my body, I am so in shock at what I was seeing. These memories of Susie teasing me about my inability to climb a simple tree and of defending her from bullies were a lot to take in. I turn to Twilight and say with a dark tone,

"Turn it off."

The unicorn looks confusedly at me. "I... I don't know how. I didn't think of that! How could I have not thought of that!" She turns desperately to Celestia. "Princess, can you stop it?"

Celestia solemnly shakes her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm unfamiliar with the mechanics of this spell. You created it, Twilight, you should have been the one to create an emergency stop method if ever needed." She answers with authority, like a teacher scolder her student, which she is.

The lavender mare swings her head back to me. "I-I'm sorry, Michael, but I think we have to wait for it to end by itself."

I glare at the mare for a moment, then turn away in anger. Somehow, this spell managed to infiltrate my deepest, most treasured memories, memories I wished would remain buried for the rest of my life. I am tempted to leave when the scene shifts again, and I instantly recognize the setting, having seen it dozens, if not hundreds of times.

This time, the next scene is one I had seen far too many times: my sister's hospital room. Not only that, it's the last time I'd ever see it.

"Hey, Suze..."

No... I think. Please no.

My sister looks up at me from where she lays on the bed with tired eyes, though she still manages to smile; I imagined it was painful to do even that. Her head is bald from the chemo-therapy. Her skin is even more pale than it used to be, if that were possible. The leukemia was nearly finished with its work. Every single detail of that day is embedded deep in my mind, no matter how hard I tried to forget it.

Please, God, don't do this to me again... My legs begin to feel like jelly, but they still manage to keep me up. My right hand clenches itself tightly into a ball, shaking, not bothering to stop when my nails start to cut into my palm.

"This is... this is your..." Celestia stammers, slowly comprehending what she is seeing. She turns her head to me, and I;m sure she can see the pain in my eyes, being that they were moistening.

"How've ya' been since yesterday? They keepin' you comfy?"

Susie nods.

"Good... good..."

I walked over and sat on a chair next to her bed, watching her, and I knew I was smiling warmly to make her feel better.

"How's Mom and Dad?"

Her voice was so weak, so different from her usual lively, loud self, it killed me to hear it like that again.

"They're fine. Busy, you know?"

I hated my parents at the time for being "too busy" to see their dying daughter. That's why I always went to see her, to make sure she knew her family didn't forget her.

Susie smiled, and reached over with a bone-thin hand and gripped my hand, which was resting on the bed sheets, as hard as she could, which wasn't hard at all; it felt like a feather was holding on to my fingers.

"I really appreciate you coming here, Michael."

I chuckled. "You're my kid sister. It was no problem."

"You're only seven minutes older than me."

"That's still seven minutes older, which makes you my kid sister."

Susie only smiled meekly, and raised her other hand and gestures for me to get closer. I stood up from the chair and lean my head in closer to hers until we're cheek-to-cheek. Then, all of a sudden, she kissed my cheek. She'd never done that before. I bring my head back and look at her. Susie seemed even weaker than she did a minutes ago, if that were even possible.

"What was that for?"

...beep...

Susie's eyes closed ever so slowly.

...beep...

Time seemed to slow down as her hold on me gave away.

...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

"Susie?"

No response, just the continued screech of that fucking heart monitor.

"Susie? Susie?! Wake up! No! SUSIE!"

I had broken down at that point in the memory. The last scene was me continually shaking Susie's body, trying desperately like a maniac to bring her back to life. Then the portal closed.

Back in the basement, my whole frame was shaking, my left hand brought up to cover my eyes from everything, and even that shook. I don't know how I'm able to stay so composed, because that was more painful than anything I've experienced, but one thing's for sure... it was Twilight's fault.

She tries to comfort me, tell me how sorry she is for making me go through that again, how it's her fault she forgot to make a failsafe. Applejack tries to help as well by patting my other shaking hand softly, yet to no avail. But I don't care for whatever Twilight is saying to me. I just wait until she finished. When she is, I slowly pull my hand away from my eyes and swing them to meet her gaze. At first her lavender eyes are filled with dismay, but then her pupils shrink in fear at what she is seeing and she retreats back a few steps. Celestia, who is also watching me, looks startled too. Applejack ceases her patting. I can see it in the unicorn's eyes, in their reflections. I can see my eyes, burning in pain and hate. But there is something else. Something off. Different. My pupils... they're different. They... they look almost like dragon eyes, and my irises are now gold. That isn't my main concern at the moment, however. Not wasting another moment, I quickly walk away up the stairs.

"W-Wait, Michael!" Twilight yells. I stop at the twelfth step and swing around threateningly. I give Twilight the death glare as I try to speak. My voice, though, is noticeably--frighteningly deeper and more metallic, like the voice I heard in my dream the previous night. I say to her -- no, I roar at her,

"Stay the fuck out of my head!"

And then I ran up the rest of the way up the staircase.

Part VI: True Nature

Part V: Shadow

Part V: Shadow

I want to burn the entire tree down as I bust through the cavern door to the main floor of the library, and I feel like I can. I am seething with hate, my breath deep and loud, arms and legs tense like I'm about to pounce on anything that moves, my eyes constantly searching for something to smash and burn but are slightly blinded by the held-back tears, an unnatural growl emanating from my throat. There is something in my gut, something boiling and hot. I subconsciously know I can burn this whole place to cinders. My thoughts are consumed by a nagging scream:

Burn it all! You have the power! BURN IT ALL TO THE GROUND!

After what happened down there, I am oh so tempted to give in to the rage, to the pain. That was worst pain I had ever gone through in my life, and now I experienced it for the second time. Just to release it all on this damn house would be a tremendous relief. I feel like I'm only three seconds away from opening my mouth and allowing a wave of destruction to escape when...

I go numb.

I become numb. Again. When Susie died, I was in so much pain after that, I just... turned it all off. And that's happening again right now, in the library. I stop all movement, breath in, out, closed and open my eyes, and they're gone. The violent urges, the screaming in my head, the desire to blast this place with what felt like a raging fireball swelling in my stomach.

Gone.

I looks around, sweeping my gaze across the multitude of shelves and novels on the walls, not knowing what to do next. Silence is what filled the room in the seconds, minutes that follow. I can't hear anything coming from the basement, so I decide I should take advantage of the opportunity of silence for contemplation. Wiping the remnants of the salty tears away, I walk to the bottom of the staircase and sit down where I had been reading earlier in the morning. The crimson book hadn't budged since I left it. So I squat down on the fifth or six step, my chin resting on my balled fists with my thumbs creating support underneath and my elbows standing on my knees, my eyes not focusing on anything in particular, just staring blankly straight ahead. I let the silence calm me further, feeling purified by its emptiness, which was what I feel like. Empty.

I force myself to think about just what the hell happened down there; not at what I saw in the portal, but mainly at what followed. Twilight said that the spell she cast would only show what I wanted it to show. And I sure as hell didn't want to show that. I know I shouldn't blame her completely, however, since it was her first time casting it, she probably would need to make adjustments, like Thomas Edison, when he kept trying to make a functional lightbulb. The spell may have accidentally entered my deepest thoughts and memories, something that might have out of Twilight's control. That helps me forgive her a little, but it didn't help the fact that I was practically lab rat, a guinea pig, though unintentionally.

And then, I roared at Twilight. Where did that come from? I'm not an angry person, for the most part, but that sounded absolutely terrifying, for Twilight at the time, and to me as I sit still on the stairs. I want to go back and apologize to her, but, the damage has been down, not to mention my legs don't feel like obeying my commands. But that voice... What was it? It wasn't my normal voice, much less a human's voice. It sounded like the voice of a monster. I can still recall how it felt to release it from my angry larynx, the intense vibrations in my vocal cords mixing with the adrenaline coursing through me felt liberating--no, intoxicating.

And the eyes. Those freakish, golden snake-eyes that reflected off Twilight's frightened gaze couldn't possibly have been my eyes... could they? From my perspective, I didn't sense any changes, except... except maybe a slight magnification of what I was directly looking at. It was kinda like a literal case of tunnel vision. Also, that tunnel had a weak, golden hue to it, with everything in my sight reciprocating the tint. And the way that they looked... When you mix whatever I was feeling to how I appeared, it was, for lack of a better word, scary. Scratch that, it was downright terrifying, especially considering humans can't do that unless we're wearing special lenses, like on Halloween or something. A question echoes in my mind, this one being in my voice now.

What happened to me? The whole question of my existence in this world came up once again. Did I die? How would my parents react if I did? What about the dream from last night? Being in this world certainly felt real, and looking through the portal in my dream made me think that that was the dream. But then the voice came along, saying: That world is gone... If that was the case, maybe I did die. My parents... Loosing your daughter and your son before your own time came... that must be hell for them. I start to feel sorry. Then my thoughts drifted back to the mirror. The cracks, the multitude of eyes looking at me through all of the isolated shards on the wall... just what the hell was it?

Those eyes looked... they looked like mine did just now. I begin to get irritated, not knowing what to do. Christ, what the fuck is happening to me?

The sound of a door bursting open resonated throughout the house, accompanied by the huffing and puffing of a creature who just ran up the lengthy stairs in a great hurry. I don't turn to who it could be. I'm still swimming in my thoughts, though I can sense what was going on around me.

"Michael?" Asks a worried, southern voice through pumping breaths. I still don't turn around. Galloping hooves make their way in front of me, entering my peripheral vision but failing to gain my undivided attention. The figure standing before me is orange and continues to take deep breaths.

"Michael? Y-You alright, sugarcube?" I don't answer her, knowing who it was. I just keep staring, trying to block her out. I'm doing the exact same thing I did after my little sister passed, the same thing Applejack did following her grandmother passed. But my numb psyche won't let me realize that. I take a deep breath, not as a response to the concerned mare, just because I felt like it.

The orange pony starts up the stairs, stopping when she gets right in front of my gaze, but I stare right through her. Applejack raises a hoof and pokes my shoulder, but fails to get a response of any kind out of me.

"Michael?" This is a new voice, coming from the door leading to the basement. Next comes the shuffling of several hooves entering the living room. I stay still. "Michael, say something. Anything!" Twilight's voice shouted, somewhat in pain, but mostly afraid.

"Twilight," says the regal voice of Celestia, "I believe Michael wishes for not to be yelled at after what he just went through down there, wouldn't you agree?"

The mare is silent for several seconds, considering what Celestia had said. "I... I suppose so..."

"I know what'll cheer him up!" Shouts the squeaky voice of none other than Pinkie Pie. Though, to me, it's just a continuous drone of popping balloons and kazoos. The orange blur in front of me is knocked aside by a pink one, bouncing while it did so. All I am able to perceive through my numbness is a jumble of bouncing and singing and a pink blob teleporting from one side of me to the other. It is stopped when the orange blur returns and shoves the pink blur away, shouting,

"Cansarnit, Pinkie! Can't'cha see that ain't werkin'?" The voice is met with more silence. "Listen, Ah'm real sorry ya' had t'go through the pain of seein' that again. None of us wanted fer that t'happen, right?" I have the vague assumption she is addressing that last part to Twilight.

"R-Right. Michael, I am so, so sorry that happened. You have to understand, it wasn't on purpose! I-I didn't know that my spell would, or even could go that far down into your memories. I designed it to be in your conscious control, but, I guess I should've done a better job of explaining it to you." Her voice is breaking. "I-I'm so sorry--"

"It's fine," I manage to say, stopping Twilight mid-sentence.

Somehow, I regained the control of my limbs, the physical numbness evaporating. Keeping my gaze fixed forward, my hand slides to my back pocket, to my wallet, for the photo. I bring it out, and my vision focuses on the image, and the image alone. There is silence in the room as I study the photo for the umpteenth time.

Our tenth birthday was spent at the beach. Clear, beautiful blue skies with a couple of seagulls in the background, either flying or trying to swipe some snack from the other beach-goers. The image showed Susie, with the same complexion and hair, except in a ponytail. She was also wearing a full-body bathing suit, relatively sand-free. I, on the other hand, in my slightly tanner skin and wearing green and blue swimming trunks, had had a bucket full of wet sand dumped on my head. She was smiling, giggling at her mischief, while I grumbled in annoyance, crossing my arms. We were fraternal twins, so of course we weren't exactly alike, in fact, we didn't have that many physical similarities. Later that day, I got her back, except with a cold bucket of ocean water which soaked her ponytail. She was really upset after that... as in not talking to me for two days upset.

After a while, I smile, the numbness draining away, leaving me with a swelling and aching heart. Personally, I'd go with the heart ache over numbness, any day. It'd at least let me know I'm still alive, and capable of feeling, so I could live my life for both Susie and me. I owe her that much.

I look up at Applejack, actually look up at her, not stare past her, holding my smile. She return the expression, though half as heartedly as I did.

"Feelin' better?" Applejack asks.

I think for a moment, then nod.

She seems relieved, and sighs, "Glad t'hear it, sorta." I place the photo in its rightful place and put away the wallet. I finally look to the rest of the ponies in the room. Twilight has a crestfallen look on her face, Spike standing right behind her. Celestia is standing off the the side, again, something I notice she tends to do a lot. Fluttershy dug her head into her wing, though kept one eye fixed on me. Rainbow Dash is flying above them, staring at me with a look of contempt, for some reason. Rarity seems the least bit affected, casually standing next the the wooden pedestal with a plain look on her features. Pinkie is to my right on her rear from being shoved off by Applejack.

I focus on Twilight, getting up and stepping off the bottom step, approaching the unicorn. She avoids my eyes. Spike keeps his distance, but looks guarded. He's probably a little mad for me yelling at his sister like I did. I can't blame him. If someone yelled at Susie like that, they'd need a new set of teeth, and probably a neck brace.

I get down on in knee and place a  hand on her shoulder. "Don't sweat it, Twilight. I know you didn't do it on purpose." I smile warmly at her, trying to reassure her that I really am not angry with her. She looks up at me finally, wiping the wetness in her eyes away, and Twilight smiles then, too.

"I-I'm sorry for interrupting, but, um," Fluttershy stammers, coming out of her wing caccoon, "I was just wondering, um, that girl, your sister, sh-she sounded like--"

"Me," Twilight finishes. "You're right, Fluttershy, she did sound strangely like me."

"Yeah," I answer, "I noticed it when you found me in that forest."

"You could hear what I was saying?" Twilight asks with a raised eyebrow.

"A little, yeah. And believe me, it was weird, hearing my dead sister's voice coming out of talking horse."

Some of the ponies in the room begin to laugh, but a new voice enters the room, instantaneously grabbing everyone's attention.

"Hmm, yes, that is quite hilarious, isn't it?" It's the some voice from my dream, the same one that came from my throat a few minutes ago, deep, foreboding, and metallic.

Everybody starts looking for the source of the voice.

"I'm over here," the voice continues, and I realize it was emanating from the wall below the staircase. I swing my gaze at the wall, but the only thing on the side of the stairs is my shadow.

Wait a minute, I think quietly, immediately noticing that something was definitely wrong. Shadow? It's only a quarter before one, how can I have a shadow this long?

"Where are you?" Celestia's voice ringed. "Show yourself."

The voice chuckles a steely chuckle, as if it were amused by the princess' orders. I start to feel a ball in the pit of my stomach at the voice's casualness. I can tell the others in the room reciprocate the feeling, each of them taking up a guarded stance at the wall. It was as if the holder of the voice could do whatever the hell it wanted, but only chose to humor the order when it replies,

"As you wish, your majesty..."

On the shadow of my head, two red dragon-slit eyes that pierced your soul if you looked at them directly suddenly open. The ponies gasp; Fluttershy faints, evident from the light sigh and the thump that followed; I manage to keep my composure, somehow, though worms are working their way into my nerves. I look down at my feet, catching movement in my peripheral vision once again. The part of my unnatural shadow that clung to my being via my feet literally detaches from me, slithering back towards the red eyes on the side of the stairs, shortening in length. All of our eyes follow it. When the slithering section meets the border of the stairs and floor, it looks like a perfect silhouette me was standing against the wood. Then, something freaky happens, like out of a horror movie freaky. With this strange figure's eyes still fixated on me, the entire shadow seems to peel off the side of the stairs, like peeling off scotch tape from a wall. The feet are the first to come off, stepping onto the floor in front of them. As it continues, the peeled-off portions became three-dimensional. This time, we all back up, except for Fluttershy, who still lay passed out, hooves pointing straight up into the air with stars dancing above her head. The temperature must've dropped about twenty degrees in the room, and the light dimmed through the windows. This new atmosphere is like that of a haunted house.

When the figure becomes fully three-dimensional, it... looked like me. Excluding the eyes, of course, but the shadowy being in front of us shares my appearance, same clothes and everything, even the scars on my face and arms are identical. But there is another major difference separating us; its entire body -- skin, hair, clothes -- is a dark-hued parody of mine. My normally white sneakers are gray, my jeans almost perfectly black, and my red tee just a darker, blood-red version of itself. It's skin is a light gray. Other than that, our heights are equivalent. The eyes, though, the eyes pulled all of that away from you, leaving you with only them. It's like staring Death in the eyes. It smiles, revealing its pearly whites, which are all sharpened to a point. They, at first glance, appear a little too big to fit in its mouth, yet when it closed its lips, there wasn't any protrusions.

This doppelgänger of me swings its arms in the air, streching, while exhausting "Man, it feels good to be out!" He smiles a devilish smile as he does so, his teeth flashing menacingly like knives hanging on the kitchen wall, seemingly oblivious to all our wariness towards this strange new creature in Twilight's library. His piercing gaze suddenly shoots at me. "Sorry I had to put you through that, big boy, but I was getting bored inside your head," he says, addressing me. "Oh wait, no I'm not." My doppelgänger sneers at his own correction. His voice was exactly the same as before. My blood runs cold like liquid nitrogen. I stood stunned, not knowing what to say. My eyes were able to glance down at my feet, but they find no shadow whatsoever.

Is this thing really my shadow?

"Ooooooooo! Michael has a new twin!" Pinkie Pie exclaims unconcernedly, jumping in between me and the shadow me. He regards the bouncing pink pony with a condescending look, smirking whilst tilting his head, resting it on a fist. "That is the most amazing thing, ever! Now you won't be all sad about Susie anymore, Michael, and you can have all sorts of fun with this new twin." That last sentence, I'll be honest, stung a bit. Pinkie shifts back to the doppelgänger, smiling a smile that stretched ear-to-ear, eyes sparkling in blue stars. "What's your name? Is it Michael, too? That would be so confusing, wouldn't it? Because if someone called you two while you were together, you'd both be like 'What?' and that would be so hilarious, I could just--!"

"PINKIE!" Everyone else shouts. The mare shrink back into silence, scurrying behind the fainted Fluttershy to hide from the annoyed glares she is receiving. The shadow me only laughs with schadenfreude.

Rainbow Dash flies over to my side.

"Whaddya' mean 'Sorry about that', huh?" She growls, bringing her forehooves up like she's preparing to box my shadow clone. "Who are you, anyway?" He shoots his terrifying gaze at Dash, who, I can tell, quickly regrets trying to act tough in the face of this unknown being by hiding behind me. The clone chuckles again, amused by Rainbow's hollow bravery.

I look at him sternly and ball my fist, trying to put on a brave demeanor. "Answer the question."

Oddly enough, the clone only shrugs, and answers, "Very well, then. That spell that was cast on you down in the basement, remember that?" He asks me. I nod. "Well, when that irritating-as-hell purple light began looking for your memories, I saw that as the perfect opportunity to break you." He says that with as much casualness as you'd get from a possibly paranormal being. "I placed some of your more... treasured memories in that beam that shot out from you. When those final few images started to play, your psyche began to crack, and I managed to slither my way out of your subconscious, entering this world. Though you held me back a little when you accidentally used your body's true eyes when you yelled at Twilight here." He waves a hand at the lavender mare, and she shivers at the movement. "I must admit," he continues, returning to me, "I'm quite impressed that you got the hang of revealing your true nature so quickly, albeit not voluntarily. " He strokes his bare chin thoughtfully.

"What do you mean, 'my body's true eyes'?" I ask. "These, are my eyes?" I point to them in a "duh" manner.

The doppelgänger snorts. "Those? Those aren't your eyes. In fact, that's not even your real body."

"What?"

"That's not your real body," he answers apathetically. "Your real body is back in that other world. I look down at myself, inspecting my being, trying to figure out just what the hell this guy is talking about. "Yes, it looks like your body, the skin and hair and eyes, and all... but it's not your real body."

Now I'm really freaking out. "So what, I'm in someone else's body then?" The clone me nods tersely. I spread my hands out in a "What the fuck?" manner.

"Trust me," he continues, leaning on the staircase, "as much as I'd like to say, I just can't, not yet, at least."

Celestia steps in. "Excuse me, but if you would be so kind as to tell us who, and what, you are, that would most appreciated." The clone turns his head groggily and raises an dark eyebrow at the princess, as if thinking Really? Although his devil-red eyes had moved onto her, the princess remains unfazed. My doppelgänger finally answers, with another devilish grin,

"What am I?" He turns back to me, staying in place, but still managing to creep the hell out of me. "I am the product of another world's magic, or rather, another realm, if you prefer, brought to life by--" He stops abruptly, glancing at Celestia. "Actually, you'll meet him soon enough." The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, goosebumps blanketing every inch of skin on my being. This guy, whatever he was, is bad news.

"Th-Then why do you look like me?" I stutter. My clone appears amused by it.

"I look like you 'cause you look good," he answers with a smirk, keeping his gaze fixed on me.

"Huh?" I ask with a surprised eyebrow, hoping he doesn't mean what I think he--

The clone snickers, leaning further onto the stairs. "I'm just kiddin'. No, you're actually one of the ugliest creatures I've seen. I mean, look at you! You're almost completely bald." I glance down at myself self-consciously.

I'm not that hairless...

My clone brings his hand up and inspects the nails. "But I gotta admit, I am really diggin' these fingers." He flexes them around experimentally. "And these opposable thumbs... talk about rebellious. And I love me a little rebellion." He looks back at me.

Somehow, his gaze hypnotizes me every time he locked onto me; it made me stand still, paralyzed, as if I were facing a T-rex, and I had to stay still in order to avoid being seen. He stares intently at me, his eyes never blinking, which just makes it more unnerving. I can feel my hands were shaking, but I don't dare move them.

I finally work up the courage to ask, "What was in that dream? Was that you talking to me?"

The clone raises an eyebrow tiredly. "It was me. What of it?"

"What were you doing inside my head to begin with? And just what the hell did I see in that portal?"

"Ugh... questions, questions, questions, enough dilly-dallying with pointless questions," my clone says testily. "It doesn't matter what I was doing in your head, and it doesn't matter what you saw, because like I said, you are disconnected from that world. Permanently." Removing his gaze away from mine, he reaches an arm out to the steps. I feel slightly relieved, I don't know how much longer I could've gone on with him staring at me like that, but his answer did nothing to quell my growing disquietude. "You have a job to do, Michael, a job that hasn't had a filled position in millennia. And beginning today, you'll get a glimpse of what that job is, right here, in this happy-go-lucky pony town." He grabs the crimson tome that lay on the steps. He holds it in front of his face, his dragonesque eyes scanning the surface top to bottom.

"Do you know this book, Celestia?" Shadow me asks her, holding up the book for the princess to clearly see. Celestia looks at the chronicle, but no sign of familiarity or remembrance makes itself evident on her royal pony face.

"No, I don't," she answers finally, shaking her head.

My doppelgänger purses his lips. "Can't say I'm surprised, since the pony who sent it to this library in the first place never finished it."

"And," Twilight rings in, "just how would this pony you speak of have sent it here? I'm pretty sure I would've remembered somepony delivering a red book with a dragon on the front to my library in the past three years."

"More pointless questions," my clone quietly exhales to the ceiling, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Let's just say he... he has his ways."

"And just who is this pony?" Celestia asks.

"Your brother."

Stunned silence is all that meets that comment. All eyes turn to the equally surprised princess, her eyes wide with incomprehension.

"B-Brother?" She stammers, as if the word "brother" was a long forgotten vocabulary word to her. Then, realization dawns on her face.

"What was his name, again?" He taps the side of his jaw in mock contemplation. "Hmm... Oh yeah, Ouranos Black." Keeping his head pointed upwards, shadow me glances at Celestia one more time, grinning somewhat maliciously. The princess' head hangs down low, staring at the wooden floor, eyes tearing up. Twilight approaches the white mare cautiously, as if getting close too quickly would make the taller pony shatter like glass.

"Princess...?" Twilight whispers. Celestia continues to stare, several salty droplets falling off the bottom curve of her eye.

"The princess--" Rainbow Dash speaks from behind me.

"--has a brother?" Rarity completes.

Celestia only chokes out, "Ou... Ouranos...? M-My..."

My clone flips through the red book. "More like, 'had' a brother," he says, his attention on the flipping pages in front of him. "Like, around three thousand years ago, give or take a few centuries?" He's... appropriately apathetic to the emotional pony, something that suits him perfectly. "Ever since he ceased to live among the living, he's distinguished himself as a pony without family. I don't see why you're crying about it, though. After all, you did practically kill him."

Celestia's head snaps up at statement, outrage evident in her eyes and voice. "I did not kill my brother!"

Her voice cracks at the outburst, all of the regality and control she had maintained up until this point gone. Everyone jumps back from the sudden hostility, Twilight the most visibly shaken up. The princess stares down the doppelgänger with intense hatred, taking deep, harsh breaths through her nostrils, as if she hopes he'd spontaneously combust where he stands. He demeanor keeps unfazed from the shout and her glaring.

"Oh, that's right. You and your sister shut him out of your lives when you signed the contracts with the celestial bodies, casting him out forever. That's much better, don't you think?"

Celestia couldn't hold it back anymore. Breaking down where she stood in the room, she collapses on the floor; guilty, muffled sniffling can be heard. All the ponies are silent, flabbergasted, watching their monarch have an emotional breakdown. Twilight, recovering from her shock, hurries to comfort her mentor, affectionately stroking the multi-colored mane and nuzzling her cheek.

Rarity stands up to the dark creature in the room, glaring him down. "How dare you?! Making the princess lose her composure in front of her loyal subjects, utterly and completely humiliating her!" Twilight shoots daggers at the alabaster unicorn. "What? It's not like I'm wrong, right?" The purple mare rolls her eyes in an "I give up" manner, and returns to trying to calm down the weeping monarch.

Unbelievable, I think, but I didn't know whether it was from Rarity's inconsiderate comment, or my doppelgänger's malice.

Shadow me scratches the back of his head, apparently bored by the drama ensuing. "Alright, this is getting too touchy-feely for me," he murmurs. He turns to me. "Look, I'm not here to bring up anymore bad memories than I already have, I'm just here to give you a warning and to prepare you." He tosses me the book. I snatch it out of the air before it could hit the ground. "Keep that book, it act like an instruction manual for you. Plus, you said you love history. It'll make for a good read for when you're bored. Not that you'll be having a lot of reading time for the foreseeable, come to think of it..." His form begins to literally melt, like he were a chocolate statue that was left in the sun for too long. "Also, try to practice using your true nature more often. It'll save your life..." And with that, my doppelgänger sinks back into the ground, and the resulting dark blob swiftly slides under me. I jump up surprised, thinking he was going to do something to me, like attack me, but upon seeing my regular, non-talking shadow return, I relax. The room lightens up, as well, both in temperature and light. It becomes warm and sunny, like it was earlier, almost like nothing had changed.

My mind however, was reeling. What. The fuck. Was that?

The library is continually filled by Celestia's quieting sobs. The ponies and Spike had surrounded her at this point, helping to attempt to calm the princess. I walk up behind them, holding the book at my side. Celestia looks even more exhausted than she was when she first came to the library, her slightly leaky eyes red around the rims, her head resting on her forehooves on the floor. Twilight lay right next to her, watching over her beloved teacher. I was told that Twilight and Celestia were close, but I didn't realize until now that they practically viewed each other like mother-and-daughter.

"P-Princess?" Fluttershy asks, who had finally recovered when the clone vanished back into the shadows. Celestia looks up at. "Um, what did... whatever that thing was, mean when it said y-your brother? I didn't know you had a brother."

"Actually, I don't think anypony knows you had a brother," Pinkie Pie adds.

Celestia raises her head, eyes closed, and takes a deep breath before saying,

"I think it's time to uncover a little of the past." Celestia sweeps her gaze around everyone as she speaks, "My sister and I haven't always been alicorns. We were born a little over three thousand years ago. I was just a unicorn, Luna was a pegasus.  Our eldest brother, Ouranos, was also a unicorn. When my sister and I stood up to Discord and overthrew his reign of terror, the sun and the moon needed guidance in the aftermath, since Discord's chaos had damaged even the most fundamental parts of reality, including the celestial bodies, leaving them confused as to how to rise and set themselves. They, along with all of the ponies in Equestria, turned to us to guide them to peace and harmony. Luna and I agreed to be the regents of the moon and sun, respectively, becoming alicorns, as well as the immortal rulers of Equestra."

She pauses to let all of that sink in. My mind is trying to keep up.

So, when a pony has a horn and wings, they're called alicorns. That much I can grasp.

"And, although you probably think that all alicorns are immortal, I'm afraid only Princess Luna and I are so. This is because as the sun and moon must be immortal, so must my sister and I. All other alicorns in Equestria, and around the world, are born as only a very slight genetical probability. So, Twilight, this means your sister-in-law will be able to grow old and die with her husband, like any other pony."

The unicorn nods.

"But..." She hesitates as she goes on to the next part. "But the knowledge of our older brother, Ouranos Black, has faded through time, something that... that was inevitable, I suppose."

"Princess, is... is what that thing said true? Did you shut your brother out of your life when you and Luna became rulers?"

Celestia bites her lower lip before answering. "It is not something I am particularly proud of, Twilight, nor is it something I prefer to remember, either. I... I would very much appreciate it if we could leave this for another time."

Twilight nods once, then smiles. "Of course, Your Highness."

"Thank you," the monarch says gratefully, getting back up on four hooves.

"Well, now that we got all the "depressing past" stuff out of the way, you girls know what we should do after all of this not-feeling-good and crying and shadows coming to life?" Pinkie Pie calls. She jumps into the air, probably to answer her own question, like she usually does, I've noticed.

Mother of God, please don't say...

"A part--!" But she cuts herself off. Falling to the ground, Pinkie's body begins convulsing, rapidly shaking up and down like a phone on vibrate. It's like a bomb or an earthquake had gone off in her insides. She proceeds to shake violently for ten seconds, until which she blasts off into the air like a rocket, falling to the ground with the sound of a deflating balloon coming from another dimension who's entrance shall remain hidden. Everyone's eyes follow her as Pinkie continues with this full-body meltdown, floating downward like a dead balloon. Upon somehow landing on all four hooves neatly, Pinkie's eyes become wide with intense fear, staring off into nothingness, not saying a single word.

Well, that definitely isn't normal. Or good.

"Pinkie?" Rainbow Dash asks carefully. "Was that... another one of your doozy shakes?"

The pink pony nods slowly.

"Well, what's gonna happen, sugarcube?" asks Applejack, concern making itself evident in her posture and tone of voice. "Tell us."

Pinkie Pie's gaze ever so slowly angles upwards, to the ceiling. "Trouble," she whispers, her voice constricted with intense fear. Everyone is silent.

"Can somebody mind explaining to me what just happened?" I asked, wanting answers. "Did Pinkie just have a seizure?"

Rarity trots up to me and answers, "Well, you see, dear, sometimes, Pinkie Pie gets certain feelings in different parts of her body. And if you've lived in Ponyville long enough, you learn to listen to Pinkie whenever she gets these sensations. She calls them her 'Pinkie Sense'. For instance, when her tail twitches, that means that something will fall out of the sky and will more than likely land on top of your head. Do you understand so far?" I nod, though my tried brain was still trying to process how something could possibly work like that. "And, don't try to figure out how the Pinkie Sense works, darling. Twilight here already tried that, but eventually gave up, nearly costing her her life in the process." Rarity casts her gaze towards the other unicorn. Twilight nods once in confirmation, her ears flopping down sheepishly.

"But whenever Pinkie's entire body shakes like it just did," Applejack adds, "then that means somethin' fierce strange 'n unexpected's gonna happen." The orange farm pony looks concededly at Pinkie, her voice turning shaky. "'N judgin' from the way Pinkie's starin' up at the ceiling like that, it don' bode too well fer any of us."

I blink. "Okay then..." I turned to Pinkie, her gaze still stuck on the ceiling. "So, what exactly is going to happen now, Pinkie?"

I am answered by a shrill scream coming from outside, followed by another, and topped off by a chorus of earth-shaking roars that cut across the world and made us all flinch and bundle into ourselves. I can't tell how long it lasts for, but it was too long for enjoyment, that's for sure.

"What in the name of--?" Twilight starts when the roars fade, but is immediately cut off by Celestia.

"NO!" She cuts across the room and busts open the front door, charging outside to see what in the hell caused that shriek.

We all follow in pursuit. Outside, we stop just behind the princess, who was casting a terrified gaze to the northern sky. We look in the same direction, and terror quickly fills my body, shutting off all voluntary functions.

"A-A-A-Are th-th-th-those...?" Fluttershy squeaks, managing to slip it by her paralysis.

Celestia never takes her eyes off the scene in front of her. "Dragons..."

Part VII: Magmus

Part VI: True Nature

Part VI: True Nature

The oncoming horde of dragons is enough to leave the nine of us stock-still, staring frighteningly at it. But the ponies in the town... not so much. Fear made itself known to the hearts and minds of all of these creatures as they run in meaningless and confusing circles. Some have the sense to hide in their homes, slamming doors and shutting windows hastily,others gallop off behind buildings or into the distance, disappearing from sight.

Screaming, soaring, and angry, the dragons approach in a savage cloud of burning eyes, slashing claws, and large, flapping wings. What's weird is that they all look exactly alike. From where I'm standing, I can make out the characteristics that all of the dragons share, though it is difficult to differentiate because of the distance, which is maybe two miles, at best.

Their bodies must be over a hundred feet long, and they're covered with jet-black scales, glistening in the sun, their chests and underbellies layered with grayer scales, making an undulating motion as each beast draws closer. The wings share the jet-black color of the bodies, and a single wing looks like it can extend as far out as the height of Twilight's house, making the combined wingspan of a single dragon that much more intimidating. The spines poking out along their backs, elbows, and at the end of their wings are blood-red; the horns atop their heads and spikes that jutted out of the end of their thick, long tails were identical. At the ends of their dark heads, their jaws are wide open, revealing sharp, terrifying teeth that gleam white at every the tips, their dark-pink tongues licking their lips in a hungry manner that makes me shudder. A few of the beasts blast waves or focused beams of black fire at the landscape below them as they fly, begging more fear. As they get closer to the town, I can, somehow, make out the eyes of one of the monstrosities. Its pupils, along with the rest's, are dark-red, the sclera a neon green with an odd, purple mist pouring out of the corners, and they had one obvious goal: total destruction.

My mind traces back to the book that I still hold. In it, Ouranos had several vague descriptions of dragons, that most were all unique in their coloration, and that only on extremely rare occasions did two dragons have the exact same color scheme. But these monotonous dragons that are flying right at us, they are like one big contradiction that said "Fuck your book, and fuck you. Here we are, all the same, bitch."

"P-P-Princess!" Rainbow Dash screams with a shaky, sandy voice. In it was an unhidden fear.

Celestia, after a moment of silence, shakes her head feverishly and turns her head back to us. "All of you, get back inside the library," she declares with a voice that wouldn't accept "no" for an answer. She looks back at the oncoming horde, which approached nearer and nearer unchecked. "I'll try and lead the dragons away from Ponyville. Hopefully, I can lead them back into the sky until I can get Luna to prepare the Royal Army." She specifies the next instruction to the lavender unicorn standing right next to her. "Twilight, as soon as you all are inside, I want you to put up a forcefield to protect yourselves, just in case."

Twilight, stepping up to her mentor, answers, "I'm sorry, Princess, but I'm not going to leave you to those--"

"Twilight Sparkle!" Celestia shouts back in powerful authority, cutting above the shriek that originated from the oncoming brood. The one the alicorn addressed instantly silences herself. "Now is not the time for arguing. Do not disobey your princess! Get back inside, NOW! All of you!"

I'm a bit surprised the princess would pull rank like that. For some reason, it doesn't really seem to suit her. But, without any further insistence, seven of us dashed back to the library. I look back over my shoulder as I jog, but I stop in my tracks when I see that Twilight is still hesitant.

This time, Celestia speaks not in angry authority, but with calm compassion.

"Don't worry about me, my dear student," Celestia winks at her. "I won't let those dragons get anywhere near me to take a swipe at this pony." With that, she takes off like a fighter-jet towards the brood. I'm stunned at the alicorn's speed, my jaw dropping comically. Evidently, size doesn't matter when it comes to speed, especially since Rainbow Dash claimed to be the fastest flyer in Equestria. And if that were true, Celestia could give her a run for her money. I glanc back at Twilight, who remains still as stone, watching her princess charge into the face of danger.

"Twilight!" I call, my voice echoing throughout the streets. She finally turns to me. "C'mon! Get back inside!" She nods, takes one last look at the shrinking form of Celesta, and gallops to the library. I join her as she passes me.

Once inside, and taking a few seconds to recover from our sprint, Twilight closes her eyes and an expression of intense focus carves its way onto her face. Her horn glows fiercely, several sparks blinking out from the tip, and within a few seconds, the light outside melts into a more pinkish-purple hue. I walk up to the window by the door and see a very large, purple dome envelope the entire oak home. I am, once again, impressed.

"You okay, Twi?" Applejack asks, standing next to the kneeling lavender mare, who must've been reeling from the effects of the spell she just cast. She extends a hoof to Twilight, and she accepts it gratefully, rising to all four hooves, then rubbing her temple.

"Thanks, AJ, I'm fine, just not really used to casting a force field that size," Twilight says, giving the orange mare an appreciative glance.

"Gah!" Rainbow Dash exhausts aggressively. "We shouldn't be hiding from those lousy dragons like a bunch of foals!" She points a hoof at the wall, presumably at the dragons flying on the other side. "We should be fighting them with Princess Celestia!" With the dragons no longer in view, Dash resumes her air of "bravery", though now it only seems more like brash foolhardiness. Still, I couldn't blame her for being scared out there; who wouldn't be?

Rarity stomps her hoof. "I agree! As the Elements of Harmony, it is our job to protect our home from threats like that! Why, just the thought of letting the princess go off on her own is absolutely blasphemous!"

Blasphemous?

Fluttreshy was making an effort to keep her composure, but fails, caving onto herself on the ground, her forehooves and wings attempting to cover her entire being, as if that would protect her from being burned alive of eaten by the dragons.

She whimpers slightly in fright. "I-I-I'm r-r-really s-s-s-sorry, R-R-R-Rainbow Dash, b-b-b-but... ARE YOU CRAZY?!"

The cyan pegasus replies, "If standing up for your home and your princess is crazy, then yes! I am most definitely crazy! Just call me... um... oh! Rainbow 'Crazy Dare-Devil' Dash!"

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? You're willing to go out their and battle all of those dragons?" Rainbow nods with stubbornness.

"You bet your two legs I'm willing!"

I jerk a thumb to the door. "Because while we were all out there, watching that cloud of dragons get closer and closer, you were shaking like a tree branch in a windstorm." The pegasus grumbles quietly to herself before retorting,

"I-I was shaking because it was cold outside!"

"It's one o'clock in the afternoon and, like, seventy-five degrees outside."

Applejack sighs and rolls her eyes. "All o'y'all, quit yer yappin'! Rainbow Dash, Rarity, y'all know better th'n t'disobey an order from th'princess herself." She trots up to the cyan mare and places a hoof on her shoulder. Dash, with her wings spread out like they were ready for take-off, cools off at the gesture. "'Sides, do you honestly think we c'n take on that whole horde o'angry dragons? If we were t'go 'n try 'n help the princess, we'd mostly jus' get 'n'er way, or worse."

Rainbow Dash looks down in defeat after a moment. "Yeah... I guess so..."

Applejack then turns to Rarity. "And Ah'm well aware that we're the Elements of Harmony, Rarity, but if th'princess thought that th'Elements would be any kind'a help, don't'cha think she would'a told us t'use 'em?"

The alabaster mare is silent for a moment, then sighs in defeat. "Oh, I suppose you right, Applejack." She kicks a cloud of dust into the air.

"Applejack is right," Twilight chimes in, seemingly fully recovered from casting the force field. "I know Celestia is more than capable of driving away those dragons." The others appear to relax at the statement, and honestly, so do I All this time, I had managed to keep the empty feeling in the pit of my stomach from controlling my actions.

"Um, guys?" Pinkie Pie shouts from Twilight's bedroom, which she mysteriously got into without anyone seeing. "You might wanna see this!"

We all obey. Charging up the staircase and through the bedroom door, I see Pinkie standing transfixed at the window at the other end of the room. She doesn't turn around to greet us, like something turned her into stone as she watched whatever was happening in the outside world. The others quickly trot to stand on either side of her, trying to see through the window. Spike climbs onto Rarity's back, I crouch down behind them all to get a better view past the low opening. It, conveniently, faces the direction of the murderous cloud of dragons.

Our attention is directed to a glowing orb of light that is flying directly at the outraged black horde. Fear's ice-cold fingers grips my intestines.

"I-Is that Celestia?" Fluttershy asks to no one in particular.

"It must be," replies Twilight. "I've seen her do that on occasions when we had a private lesson."

We all stand silent for a while, waiting for something to happen.

Everything had a purple tint through the force field Twilight created. The glowing orb races on, charging at the dragons without any signs of hesitation. The dragons don't falter, either. Actually, they seem to become more enraged at the sight of this new unidentified flying object in the sky. It's like watching a black cat versus a mouse, the cat running at the mouse, except the mouse is running back at the cat. When the orb that was the princess reaches within several hundred feet of the brood, its glow intensifies ten-fold. It's almost painful to look at, even from the distance we're at. The shine is reminiscent of a second sun, except it's way too close to the ground. I almost have to cover my eyes just to be able to clearly see what is going to happen next. When the orb nearly collides with the lead-dragon, just above the Everfree Forest, where Twilight said she first found me, the orb grows in size and light ten-fold once more. This time, I have to cover my eyes, and so do the others. I hear Spike gasp as he falls off Rarity's back, landing with a light thud and an "OOF!"

After several seconds, the orange light that is seeping through the skin of my fingers dissipates slightly. I uncover my view, and see that the light didn't disappear completely, but ascends into the sky, casting shadows that stretch down from below the stunned dragon brood, as well as on the forest floor that stretched the shadows of thick trees for several dozen feet. My central vision holds only a dull green blur that was captured during the brief milliseconds the orb's extraordinary rays hit my retina. After blinking several times, I make out some of the ponies in front of me rubbing theirs eyes through the blurriness, as well. Eventually, we look back at the scene in the sky in the distance. The heavenly light is now hovering about five hundred feet above the stalled dragons, who were also attempting to clear their vision, rubbing red, irritated eyes with giant fisted claws. The light shines like a beacon, flickering in order to get the amassed beasts' attention.

A small spark of hope flared in me.

Maybe the dragons will try to chase whatever caused that light, away from us, I think desperately. Maybe Ponyville and all of its resident won't meet the same fate as the other towns Celesta mentioned.

"It worked!" Rainbow Dash exclaims, her wings fluttering slightly.

"She did it!" Rarity includes.

"Hooray!" Pinkie gleefully adds, throwing her hooves up.

"Yay!" Fluttershy softly calls.

"Thank goodness," Twilight sighs, bringing her head down in relief.

"Hey," I say to her. "I thought you said you were confident in her. Why do you sound so relieved?" I ask, calling her bluff.

She brings her head back up and raises an eyebrow. "I can still feel afraid, can't I?" She turns her head back around and grows silent. "Oh no..."

I look up and see the cause of her alarm. Those fingers that had let go of me had returned with an even stronger grip on my whole body.

"What's wrong, Twi?" Applejack asks quizzically.

Twilight hesitates when she answers, fear creeping into her voice, "Th-Th-Th-The dragons... They're..."

She didn't need to complete that sentence. As the rest look back at the horde of titans, they gasp when they finally see the dragons continuing to fly directly for the town, not at all impeded by Celestia's so-called distraction. In fact, they appear even angrier than before, of that were at all possible, which I hope to God wasn't.

We couldn't do anything but watch as they got closer, until finally, the first few of them reach the town limits, and they don't hesitate to start unleashing their dark fury upon everything below them, setting buildings and trees ablaze with black fires. Since Twilight's house was along the border of Ponyvillle, several of the dragons body-slam into the purple shield. The impacts cause substantial shockwaves that rustle the entirety of the library, and made all of as jump back from the window.

"EEEEEEEEEE!" Fluttershy screams meekly, proceeding to bullet under Twilight's bed.

The monstrosities that crashed into the force field roar and claw and bite at it furiously, others blasting it with black fire beams, and a few others continued to body-slam it, creating more shockwaves and instigating more terror, but ultimately fail to penetrate through the powerful wall, which didn't help their mood at all. I didn't think anything could hold these demons off, let alone a thin-looking force field as the one outside. I have to hand it to Twilight, she can make a sturdy force field.

I can see, through the dragons right in front of us, the majority of the dragons are flying past and overhead, presumably to attack the rest of the town. My arms begin to quiver slightly. Twilight suddenly yelps in pain, and brings her forehooves up to her bowed head.

"What's wrong?" I ask concernedly.

"It's the dragons," she grunts through a strained voice. "Them attacking the force field like that is making it a lot harder to maintain it." Her head raises to get a good look at the black titans that are trying to breach the purple wall. "I-I'm not sure how much longer I can hold it if they keep that up."

Applejack places a caring hoof on her friends back. "Don't worry, Twilight, you can do this. We all believe in ya'." The others, excluding Fluttershy, who remains shivering underneath the bed, gather around the struggling unicorn, watching with a nurturing eyes. Twilight looks appreciatively back at each of them. After a moment, her headache appears to subside. For now, at least.

But the dragons out there are not so merciful. I walk back to the window and observe them. They continue to attack the impregnable wall, despite their lack of progress. These are evidently very stubborn creatures; something else the book had mentioned.

Bringing the crimson chronicle to my face from my side, I note my shattered reflection on the cover's golden dragon outline. I remember what my shadow doppelgänger said about this thing. "Keep that book, it act like an instruction manual for you," is what he had said, but I have no idea what he meant by it. "Also, try to practice using your true nature more often. It'll save your life..." True nature? Was he talking about those eyes that had appeared briefly in place of mine? What could my "true nature" possibly have anything to do with our situation, or this book?

Out of nowhere, pain explodes in my head like a nuke. I drop the book abruptly, shutting my eyes and pressing my palms to my head, collapsing on my knees.

"GGAAHH!" I painfully yell. The pain was indescribable, but it feels as though a spiked-ball is expanding outward from the center of my brain.

"Michael?" I can hear Twilight ask. "What's wrong?"

I can barely make out a comprehensible syllable. "M-My... h-head... NN--! AAGGHH!" I throw my head back and scream at the top of my lungs, the pain was so immense. It's like the spiked ball just grew to a thousand degrees. If that were so, how the fuck am I still alive? The golden hue returns as I glare at the ceiling, and I can only conclude that those draconic eyes had returned. I then start to thrash my head around, trying to make the pain go away instinctively. The ponies back away at my thrashes.

"W-Whats going now?!" Fluttershy cries out.

"Michael's freakin' out!" Rainbow Dash shouts back.

"Make it stop! Someone please, MAKE IT STOP!" I scream. My pulse races with fear. It wasn't enough being threatened by an entire horde of ferocious dragons, no, now my brain feels like it's about to go up like the fucking Hiroshima bomb.

Rex mo fechk.

"Who said that?!" I shout, the mysterious voice coming out of nowhere. "Make it go away!"

"Nopony said anything," Pinkie calls through my pained screams.

"Michael... Your eyes!" Twilight exclaims.

Rex mo fechk.

My heart nearly explodes from my chest as it goes on relentlessly. The continued roars outside and the occasional shockwaves from body-slams don't help, either. A new type of pain is emerging, only this time on my back. They feel as though they're resonating in the center and lower back, as if something were trying to rip free from my skin. But I can barely focus on that, because I feel like I'm about to die.

"Um, M-Michael? Your eyes... they're are changing again!" Spike shouts.

My eyes inexplicably dart forward, at the mirror in Twilight's room, and I see what he meant. I stagger forward, nearly collapsing several times, but I reach the mirror eventually, placing a hand on the edge to hold myself back to get a good look.

My eyes aren't the golden, dragon-like eyes I thought they were like earlier. These eyes are much more terrifying. Growing wider every second, my pupils are still slitted, but my irises are now crimson-red, and my sclera are neon-green, and thin, purple mists leak from the corners. They're like those dragons' eyes. My vision pulsed, but that's from the merciless pounding in my head, coupled with the ceaseless pain now resonating throughout my entire body. I have no idea how I'm still alive.

I can see the reflections of the ponies behind me, watching me fearfully.

Rex mo fechk.

I lean my face into my reflection, staring myself in the eyes. "What... What does that mean?"

The King... A voice in my head speaks.

The pain skyrockets in intensity. How am I even conscious still?

...has returned.

My thoughts are cut of by several screams ponies and roars from the winged demons in the distance, followed by several explosions. All of our heads turn in their direction, Fluttershy's poking out from the side of the bed.

"Spike, you stay here," Twilight orders Spike.

"No problem!" Affirmed the little drake.

"C-Can I st-stay he-he-here, t-t-t-too?" Fluttershy's head added.

"Me three?" Added Pinkie Pie, who was shaking where she sat on the floor.

"Yeah, sure, Flutters," Rainbow Dash replies. "Just leave all of the hero work to us!"

Rarity turns to me, and a look of concern, and slight fear, rises on her features. "Michael, dear, I do believe it would be best for you to remain here, as well."

I slowly turn my head towards the alabaster mare and glare. "Do I look like I'm going anywhere--NNGGHH!" I clutch my head, and collapse in front of the mirror.

"Er, no, I suppose not."

"Uh, y'all?" Applejack speaks up. "What exactly is the plan?"

Nobody speaks up at first.

"Those dragons outside are giving me a hard enough time as it is," Twilight states tiredly. "I don't think there's much I can do besides try and keep that shield up. That means everypony has to stay inside. And yes, that includes you too, Rainbow."

"Aww..." Rainbow whines, though through the searing pain, I catch a hint of relief mixed in.

I bring my head up to my reflection, my hand squeezing the mirror's wooden border. The color has left my face. In fact, it looks completely white. Porcelain-white, actually. When--how did that happen? My scars seem to vanish, as well. I notice a particular sheen to my skin. I am interrupted when an even worse pain erupts on two spots just above my forehead. Something is definitely trying to rip my skin apart from the inside-out. Tears escape my eyes.

My muscles, bones, lungs, sinew, and joints feel as though they're on fire in seconds... Not to mention a very weird feeling around my loins.

What... WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME?!

THE KING HAS RETURNED!

"APPLEJACK! SOMEPONY! ANYPONY! HELP ME!"

My blood suddenly runs at a temperature of absolute-zero, the pain vanishing as I turn my head suddenly swings to my left, through the front door. I know that voice. And so did Applejack.

"APPLE BLOOM!" Applejack calls back in a terrified voice. She gallops in an orange blur down the steps and out the front door faster than Celestia took off earlier.

"WAIT! Applejack!" Rainbow Dash shouts, flying in pursuit of the distressed pony.

Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie, chase after them. I, on the other hand -- er, claw, rather, noticing that when I bring my hand up to my face and find that the tips of my fingers are now clawed, am much slower to respond, through no fault of my own. The pain may have been suppressed when I first heard that scream, but my limbs barely feel like responding. I struggle to my feet and stagger drunkenly after them, clutching my side. Pain shoots up my legs with every step, igniting resistance in my joints, but I continue on. My vision is blurry, a pounding continues to rack my head, and my spine now feels as though melted iron is being poured on it. Tiny spikes of heat are transmitting down along my spine to the small of my back. I bring a hand back up to my forehead as I stumble through the bottom floor of the library and feel something wet... as well as something new. Something hard, and sticking out of my skull. I feel something warm trailing down the sides of my forehead, as well as trickling down my spine. I first think it's sweat, but reason that it is too thick for that. A rusty scent fills the air, and I conclude that blood is trickling down my body. I push all that aside, though, fearing the worst after hearing that scream.

Upon reaching the door, I decide to simply lean against the doorframe. I look up to see what the hell is going on. Applejack is pressing into the purple shield on her forehooves, screaming and swinging her head back and forth, looking for the source of her sister's cries. I am a little preoccupied with everything in front of her, however.

And what I see outside is an absolute nightmare.

The dragons ceased their vain attempts to penetrate the force field, but Ponyville is now the brunt of the slaughter. All of the buildings in view are either consumed by black fires, or completely crumbled in heaps of toasted lumber and melted glass. I look up through the paralyzing pain that holds me still, and spot a swirling vortex of the dark, winged monsters circling the sky above the town, blocking out the blue sky and sun, giving the entire world the resemblance of a solar eclipse casting its ominous shadow. Dear God, there must be thousands of them. The rest are making quick work of the buildings below, as well as the townsponies, whose shrieks and pleas for help go unanswered. I nearly vomit in my mouth from everything, plus the burning stench and sulfur that polluted the air and somehow managed to get though Twilight's force field. Galloping and endlessly screaming through the streets are ponies whose bodies, manes, tails, even eyeballs are ignited in black flame, killing them slowly. As they run around, the black flames trail closely behind, like comet tails. Some of them are so engulfed in flames, they drop and slide across the ground from sprinting so desperately, suffered agonizing ends when they come to a stop. Their charred bodies spread their poisonous stench all around them, making the whole scene more horrifying. If that were even possible.

Why the hell was there anyone even outside? Are these ponies as stupid as they were colorful?!

But that's only the half of it. All around, the dragons swoop down out of nowhere and snatch several of the ponies, either plucking them like cherries off a tree and drawing them into the sky to suffer horrors unknown, or quickly biting parts of their bodies off, with what remained of the ponies galloped blindly until they, too, collapse while the dragons enjoyed their snacks. My question to what the dragons do with the ponies they fish is answered when several bodies fall from the vortex and splatter onto the ground in sickening crunches and gushing crimson blood all around their corpses. Blood floods the ground everywhere, the scorched, bitten-off, and splattered corpses littering the surrounding area in a scene of pure gore.

This is hell.

I hear Pinkie Pie and Rarity shriek and gallop past me back into the library, refusing to stand and watch the horror any longer. I can't blame them. Twilight stands still, gazing across the burned and bloodied landscape in front of her that used to be her somewhat-peaceful home. I lean off the doorframe and take several steps forward, ignoring the obvious pleas from my body to stay still. Rainbow Dash is shaking uncontrollably on the ground, utterly scared out of her wits, her large ruby eyes as big as dinner plates. From what I can tell, Rainbow isn't watching anything in particular, probably soaking it all in. Whatever intention she had of holding back Applejack left her mind, and all that was left is self-preservation.

"Apple Bloom! Where are you?!" Applejack screams through the purple force field, her voice scared and strained.

"Applejack! Lemme in! Lemme in!" The little filly's scream comes from the left, and Applejack and I see the terrified form of Apple Bloom sprinting across the blood-coated grounds, past the corpses of burned ponies. She is galloping as fast as her short hooves could move, covering ground at a break-neck pace. She has tears in her eyes, I can see, and she's galloping straight for us. I'm sure if she could get through the dome shield. From what I can see, she doesn't appear hurt in any way. I silently thank God for that.

"Hold on, lil' sis!" Applejack calls back. She turned to the unmoving form of Twilight Sparkle. "Twi, open up the barrier!" The lavender mare doesn't make any indication that she heard what Applejack said. The cowpony rears up and places her hooves on the unicorn's shoulders, shaking her violently. "TWILIGHT! OPEN THE BUCKING FORCE FIELD!"

This manages to get the mare to snap out of her catatonic state. "Ri--" But before can finish, another dragon slams into the purple barrier, scaring the living daylights out of everyone in it. This one seems even more determined to get through this wall no matter what, its claws scraping across its surface, its fists pounding earthquaking punches at it, its maw blasting black fire at it, enveloping that entire hemisphere of the dome.

"SIS!" Apple Bloom screams again. Applejack recovers from the shock and looks back at her wailing sister. Quickly remembering what she was doing, she yells to Twilight again,

"Open it!"

But the purple unicorn shakes her head swiftly, her eyes glued to the black titan trying to get inside her force field.

"I-I... I-I can't!" Twilight cries.

The orange cowpony looks stunned and horrified. "Whaddya' mean ya' can't open it?!"

"If I release this force field, then we all die!" She points a shaky hoof at the relentless beast. "That thing will kill us all if I let go of the shield!"

"That's mah sister out there, Twilight! I ain't gonna leave her t'die while we cower in yer dang force field!"

Twilight seems to be on the verge of tears. "Applejack, please don't make me--"

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

All of our heads snap towards the cry form the little filly, who now turned and is sprinting in another direction as a dragon began its swooping descent to get her.

"NO! APPLE BLOOM!" Applejack shrieks, tears streaming down her face.

Just before the demon can reach Apple Bloom, however, the dragon's whole body is slammed into the ground faster than any of us could follow. I can make out hearing a *swoop*, then a *pow*, followed by a quick *snap*, and finally a *smack*. Our attention is drawn to this new spectacle, and after the dust that was kicked up settles, Celestia is planted squarely in the center of the dragon's back. From what I heard, the sickening *snap* had the power to quite possibly paralyze this dragon. It evidently did, since the dragon lay unmoving. Celestia has a look of pure wrath on her royal features, yet, hidden in those purple eyes of hers, is a sense of failure and pain.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaims, a look of hope returning to her face. The monarch looks over at her student with a face full of shame.

"I... I'm so sorry, my little ponies," Celestia weeps, rivers leaving her eyes. "I failed..."

I almost say something when my lungs feel as though the collapsed in my chest. I fall to my knees as a spray of blood flies from my mouth onto the ground, followed by a series of hacks to regain my breath.

"Princ--" begins the lavender mare, but is interrupted as more dragons attack the force field, driving away her attention and causing more struggle as she battle to maintain the protective wall.

"Celestia!" Applejack cries. "Please, get mah sister outta here!" She points an orange hoof at the filly, who is now panting where she stands when the dragon that had been chasing her was halted. The alicorn's gaze follows the hoof and nods her head, taking off to reach the poor filly.

But she doesn't get far. Almost as quickly as Celestia had dropped that previous dragon, another one body-slams the unaware mare from above, causing a substantial earthquake. Celestia's form disappears under the vengeance-seeking dragon. That had to hurt.

"NO!" Twilight screams while still trying to keep the merciless beasts outside her shield.

RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

My head shoots up at the ungodly chorus, and more dragons begin descending, and I know where they're headed. My gaze swiftly darts down to the exhausted form of Apple Bloom. The yellow pony must be about two hundred feet away. She doesn't look like she has the strength to run anymore.

Applejack runs back over to one side of the force field, to the part that was right in front of Apple Bloom.

"RUN, APPLE BLOOM! RUUUN!" She screams, but to no avail. Apple Bloom looks way too scared and exhausted to move. She just crouches low on the ground, shaking with her hooves covering her eyes, seemingly excepting her fate. Applejack continues to try and convince her younger sister, but it doesn't help, until finally, the orange mare breaks down in tears. The black beasts from above get closer to the exposed pony on the outside. They'd probably take her in a few seconds, judging from their speed. The ones pounding away at the force field don't yield, and Twilight is still preoccupied with holding them off to save the rest of our skins.

I make to stand up, but end up just falling on all fours, pain, and anger, filling me. I feel angry because I'm absolutely useless. What do I do? What can I do? I don't even know what's happening to my own body. My fingers/claws clench at the blood-soaked dirt beneath me and I grind my teeth.

What do I do?

Resq ha.

The cowpony weeps, "Apple Bloom..."

What do I do?

Resq ha.

"No..."

WHAT DO I DO?!

SAVE HER!

"Not my sister too..."

That's the last straw.

The pain vanishing, my body moves on its own. I sprint towards the purple wall, and instead if slamming into it and breaking my nose, I pass right through it, entering the carnage on the other side.

"M-Michael?"

I don't turn around to answer. I continue to sprint towards the scared figure of Apple Bloom. I'm sprinting faster than I ever thought possible. It's almost like someone else had taken control over my body, someone more athletic than me. My vision shifts, and it is now a stable golden parody. But that's an afterthought; right now, I have to save Apple Bloom. I have no idea how, since getting back inside the force field might not be as easy as getting out. But that, I can worry about later.

The dragons are descending faster and faster. It's a race against time, who will reach the filly first? Me, or the dragons? I am going to make sure it would be me.

Somehow, I miraculously cover the distance to Apple Bloom, my heart pumping but my breathing calm and even, like I was used to sprinting that type of distance like I was used to brushing my teeth.

"Apple Bloom," I call, my voice now deeper and metallic, but not threateningly so, like it was the first time I spoke with it. Although, it almost feels as if someone else had spoken it, not me.

The small pony lifts her head, and her big, tear-stained amber eyes find mine, and slight fear creeps into her.

"Wha--Michael?" She whimpers. "What're you--"

She is interrupted as six black dragons land on the ground, surrounding the both of us. Apple Bloom returns to cowering in her hooves. I, somehow, am not so afraid. For some reason, I know, I don't know how, but I know these dragons couldn't hurt me. The half-dozen beasts that surround us are snarling, licking their leathery lips, and growling in attempts to intimidate us, to get us to scream for our live. I'm not about to give them that satisfaction. I still have no idea where this new-found confidence had come from, nor why it suddenly chose to come up now. But that hardly matters at this point. What concerns me is if I can keep it up.

Whoever's controlling me, or helping me, or whatever, keep doing that!

"APPLE BLOOM! MICHAEL! NO!" I hear Applejack yell towards us.

Then, all of the dragons begin to growl with the same frequency, and I can only imagine what they were planning. As the first few tendrils of black flame escape from each of the dragons' maws, my body automatically reacts, dropping and covering the small form of Apple Bloom as the black fires engulfed us both.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

I can feel my clothes disintegrate into nothing. I'm prepared for the pain. I'm prepared to suffer the dragons' wrath. But... there is no pain. At all. Instead, the flames pass over Apple Bloom and me... and over something else. The only difference is the slight increase in the temperature. My heart is pumping from the adrenaline in my veins, but I hold still over the filly, my torso over her screaming whole body like a turtle shell, my arms and legs locked. My eyes are clenched shut instinctively.

I can sense the fires subside after several minutes of endless inferno. I hear the dragons screech and shriek in... is that confusion?

I slowly stand to my feet, holding Apple Bloom in my arms. She isn't that small, but she doesn't feel too heavy,  either, which would've surprised me, had it not been for the looks I'm receiving from the dragons. The looks on their faces seem... almost frightened.

Something I note almost instantly is that I feel slightly taller. There is something that's catching the wind on my back that makes it a little hard to stand still, but otherwise doesn't bother me too much. I notice something else: when I exhale, there is a slight animalistic sound to it. I look each and every dragon in the eye, and they reciprocate with growing confusion and fear. Whatever happened to me, it's helping to keep the black monsters at bay.

I look down at Apple Bloom in my grasp, and she is looking back at me with the same puzzlement. Looking down on her, I noticed my body is completely different.

My clothes had been incinerated, I can guess that much, but my skin had morphed into pure white scales. I bring my hand to my face and find it wasn't a human hand any longer. It was a complete, dracon-like claw. I follow the rest of my white-scaled arm up to my shoulder, noting all of the muscles that had formed in this new body of mine. I look down to my feet, and saw that they're clawed, as well. My limbs had grown an unbelievable amount of muscle, it was no wonder carrying Apple Bloom feels like I'm just holding a big bread basket.

I turn my head to the left, and I see two, shining-white wings extend almost six feet out. I look to my right and see the same thing. When I look at each of them, they flap several times, almost as if they are recognizing the fact I am observing them. I find that I can move them just as easily as I can move my arms or legs. These wings are what must've protected us from the black inferno. They didn't feel or feel burned or scorched or... anything at all. It's amazing. It's unreal. I feel...

Powerful.

One of the dragons roar, grabbing my attention back to our little predicament. The town is still burning, ponies are still being eaten and burned themselves, Applejack is probably completely broken down, thinking that her sister had been burned alive. I get angry. Very angry. I'm not going to let these fucking overgrown newts hurt anyone else. I gently place the yellow filly on the ground next me.

"Cover your ears," I tell her, and she obeys without question.

Something is boiling in my stomach, something growing. I let it do so. It travels up into my throat, and I know exactly what I have to do in order to get these things as far away from here as possible. My throat growls, and I show my teeth to the dragons. I wonder momentarily if my teeth had become pointed and sharp, as well. I spread my legs, like I'm preparing to dash the hundred-meters in the Olympics, staring down the monstrosities in front of me. When I'm ready, every muscle in my body tenses, and, spreading my arms out to either side, I unleash a sky-shattering roar at all of the dragons. It is a roar that put all of the brood's previous roars to shame. It pierces the hearts and minds of all of the dragons that had come to wreak havoc on the town. In their fear at this new creature who could roar louder than all of them, they're smart enough to return to the sky in haste, abandoning their mission for destruction. After swirling around in that dark vortex of theirs for a moment, they disperse in different directions, letting the sunlight and blue sky return to Ponyville.

Or what remains of it.

Part VIII: Getting Answers

Part VII: Magmus

AUTHOR'S NOTE: THE TEXT IN RED AND BEYOND SIGNIFIES THE PARTS OF THIS CHAPTER I HAVE YET TO REWRITE. I ADVISE YOU TO NOT READ PAST THE RED TEXT IN ORDER FOR THERE TO NOT BE ANY CONFUSION DURING YOUR READING EXPERIENCE. THANK YOU.

Part VII: Magmus

There aren't many sounds after my omnipotent roar fades into the background of the world, save for the several fires that continue to rage throughout the destroyed Ponyville. Not a single soul moves for what seems like hours, but in actuality is only minutes. Time is funny like that. My chest heaves to regain all the breath I'd lost, my throat slightly sore. I can hardly believe what had happen in the past... five minutes? ten minutes? half-hour? Time feels muddled to me for a while. From what I could understand and compute, I scared away an entire flock of hungry, merciless dragons.

Coming back to reality, I look down and find Apple Bloom trembling at my feet, slightly quaking with her hooves covering her ears and her eyes shut tightly. I gently nudge my now-clawed foot against her, and she hesitantly peeks her eyes open. She looks around for a moment, taking in the scenery. I can't even imagine what must be going through this poor filly's head as she catches glimpses of the decaying corpses of ponies and burning remains of the what is left of the pony village. Apparently not wanting to pay any more attention to it than necessary, her gaze turns up to me. Her gaze at me isn't one of fear, surprisingly (which would have been appropriate since I did mysteriously transform into a creature that could scare away thousands of dragons with a single roar), but one of gratitude. She stands up on four, wobbly hooves, and I get a better idea of her physical well-being.

Her coat has smears of smoke hear and there, as well as some blood on the bottom of her hooves. However, since she isn't showing any obvious signs of blood-loss such as fatigue or paleness, I conclude it wasn't her own. Her apple-red mane is disheveled and also stained with soot, and her bow that she had worn yesterday isn't sitting on her head either. For the most part, though, she appears to be okay. And that's all I can ask for.

Apple Bloom smiles weakly at me, her lively, amber eyes beaming as she says, "Th-Thanks a bunch, Michael."

I smile lopsidedly in reply, and I wonder what that looked like, since my face transformed too. At first, I didn't really think about what I look like. I just sort of accept it. And hey, who knows? Maybe I'll revert back into a human after some time passes. Now, however, there's something else more prominent to me.

"What the hell were you doing out here?" I ask.

The filly bites her lower lip, then answers, "Ah-Ah was over at Sweetie Belle's this mornin', tryin' t'convince her t'let me help her git her cutie mark..." She trails off, and her eyes drop. "But she still wouldn' let me. S-So when I left her house, that's when those things came." Her amber eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. "Oh mah gosh! Sweetie Belle! Ah-Ah gotta--"

"Apple Bloom?" I look over my shoulder, and the purple dome that had been protecting Twilight's home earlier had almost completely dissipated, sinking into the ground on all side. Applejack, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash, who, for whatever reason, are still sticking around, staring wide-eyed in my direction. Then, Applejack dashes off, her stetson flying back off her head as she races to her sister. "Apple Bloom!"

Apple Bloom, eyes watering with joy and momentarily forgetting about her friend, blasts off to reunite with her elder sibling, crying, "Applejack!"

The overjoyed ponies gallop and collide into each other's embraces, letting their sobs be heard across the graveyard of Ponyville. A little flame of contentment warms my core at the loving sight, siblings reunited safely.

I bring my head up and point my face to the sun, my eyes closing to soak up its cleansing rays, smiling all the while. I can feel my wings spread out to either side of me, also wanting to embrace the golden light. Then, I feel several muscles in my lower back twitch, then undulate outward to a new set of muscles that came along with the wings in a matching set. Opening my eyes to the sudden sensation of newly developed muscles, I try and turn my head as far around as I can to get a better look behind me. And I can see, despite my far-sightedness, extending from the base of my elongated spine is a massive, bleach white-skinned tail. Not only that, but I notice along my spinal column several small, golden spines sticking out, similar to Spike's green spines, angled downward aerodynamically. Getting as good an estimation as possible from the awkward angle I'm stuck in, the new limb is about maybe five feet in length, and it is thick, a discernible feature as I flex it experimentally. Amazingly enough, it's no harder to control than the wings, almost as if I had wings and a tail my whole life. I flex the tail upwards over my shoulder to examine the tip. The gold spines run along the top of my tail, as well, growing smaller and smaller as they reach the tip. The tip itself is capped by a golden extension with a very sharp point, like a lance, reflecting the sun's rays in a brilliant shimmer.

Releasing the appendage, I continue to test and study the body I now possess. My body is entirely cloaked in white scales, although it feels more like I'm merely wearing a suit, because whenever I bend an arm or lift up a leg, the overlaying scales shift as if they aren't attached to my muscles at all. Examining the claws I now adorn, the once-blunt tips of my fingers and my not-so-trimmed fingernails merged easily into the newer, sharper ends. My forearms, biceps, triceps, and shoulder muscles, I note, are bulked up quite noticeably, however, not to the point where any movement is restricted in due part. My pectorals ballooned out a distinguishable amount and my shoulder-width broadened, making me look like one of those amateur body-builders back home. My lungs, I find, took deeper intakes of air to compensate for this sudden change to my anatomy and physiology. I wonder it my heart beat faster or slower in correspondence, but I don't notice anything different about that. Using my tongue as a probe, I explore the inside of my mouth, and all of my teeth became sharpened to a point, like shark teeth. My tongue itself feels longer, so I stick it out passed my lips to eye level. It isn't forked like a snake's, just a bit more finely-tipped. My four wings are, I feel by shifting my shoulders up and down, based just above the center of my back. They feel quite powerful, too, enough so to feel as though flying with them is very possible.

I'm going to have to try that out soon.

I look back at the duet of sobbing sisters and see that Applejack is looking right at me. Her puffy-red, emerald eyes meet my golden, dragon-slit ones. With Apple Bloom's weeping face smothering itself into the orange mare's shoulder and her hooves wrapped around her neck tightly in a hold that seemed like she wouldn't ever let go, the orange pony says with a thin, squeaky voice,

"Thank you."

I nod, smiling warmly.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight cries, galloping to the still-form of her mentor where one of the dragons belly-flopped her several dozen yards right in front of me. I walk towards the pair, AJ and AB staying where they are, and enter a slight depression in the ground where the dragon's torso touchdown. Celestia lay right in the center. Twilight is frantically scanning the larger white pony for any signs of life, her eyes wide with fear and leaking tears. When I reach them, Celestia's body, limbs splayed out in every odd direction, has several protrusions, which are, I figure, most likely her ribs, sticking out of her skin and fur all along her upper torso, a golden liquid that must've been her blood escaping through. Her eyes are closed, and she doesn't seem to be breathing. The crown she had worn is smashed to smithereens a little ways away from her head. The scent of honey rises in the air from the liquid, and it mixes with the remnants of sulfur and rusty blood.

"Your Majesty! Wake up! Please! Celestia!" Twilight screams. Tears make their way down her cheeks. Rainbow Dash comes up from behind her, trying to calm the distressed unicorn.

"Twilight, yelling isn't going to help. Calm down," She says, strangely in such a calm tone as if all the past atrocities didn't occur at all.

Twilight, visibly terrified from the possible death of her teacher, breaks down in the cyan mare's embrace, Rainbow stroking her dark-purple mane soothingly. I look at Celestia, and nothing happens for a while except the continued bleeding from her various ghastly injuries.

All of a sudden, an intense white light accompanied by the sound of rushing wind explodes out of the nowhere, blinding everyone around.

"Gah!" I hear Rainbow Dash grunt. I went to bring my arms up, but my wings automatically whip around my front and easily block the light in a criss-crossing "X" formation. That is a handy perk, I note. But even then, the thinner flesh is highlighted, and I can see the all the blood vessels flowing all across their span. Despite the situation, I can't help but marvel at these magnificent structures.

After about twenty seconds, the light dissipates, and my wings return to their neutral position. What I see astounds me, as Princess Celestia lays on the ground, uninjured, without so much as a scratch on her repaired white coat. The golden tiara returned to its rightful place just behind her magnificent horn. Not only that, but the fires that were raging across the rooftops of Ponyville vanish, saving what could be salvaged. Her head rests on her fore hooves, her purple eyes opening like a new-born baby's.

"P-Princess!" Twilight exclaims, hopping from a stupefied Rainbow Dash and throwing her forehooves around the princess' neck. "You're alive!"

Celestia takes a moment to register what just happened, then smiles and rubs her head against Twilight's. "My student... Thank goodness..."

"I... I-I thought that you... th-that you had..." Twilight's voice nearly breaks again as she continues to hold her mentor's neck lovingly.

"Shh, shh," Celestia coos, "fret not, my little pony. I'm still here."

"Welcome back to the land of the living," I casually say to the monarch.

Celestia chuckles, "Thank you--" She stops when she looks at me, surprise growing in her eyes. "... you would be?"

"It's me," I reply, as if the answer were so obvious. "Michael." This only surprises her more, her eyebrows disappearing into her ethereal mane. Twilight let's go of her hold, allowing Celestia to stand up, keeping her gaze on me. I notice our heights are now equivalent. After an uncomfortable silence, the monarch says,

"This is... new." She and the equally surprised Twilight scan over my body, taking in the new details and probably comparing it to the body they first saw me in.

I look down at myself also. "Yeah. You can say that again."

After a pregnant pause, Rainbow Dash asks, "Can all humans turn into dragons?" It takes several seconds for that question to register.

"Um, n-no. At least, not in our reality." I awkwardly scratch my forehead, not knowing what the hell else to say.

"Interesting. Tell me," Celestia says, glancing around to the ruins of Ponyville, "what caused the dragon horde to flee? And..." Her eyes darted back to me. "Why are you now a dragon?"

"Well..." I glanced down at my body, "I can't really answer that second question, so, your guess is as good as mine. As for why the dragons left---"

"Michael totally scared those things off, and saved Ponyville!" Rainbow Dash interrupts. "And Apple Bloom!" At the comment about Apple Bloom, the princess swivels her head around to the two sisters, who are now looking this way. Applejack has a look of relief and contentment on her face while Apple Bloom's eyes glimmered in gratitude towards me.

"He scared them--"

"Save it, I don't know how either. I just transformed into this," I gesture to my new body, "roared really loud, and away they flew." I say that with the straightest face I can manage.

"I see," Celestia continues. "Well then, Michael, I sincerely thank you for protecting one of my faithful subjects, and for saving this town." She bows her head. "I am in your debt."

I'm stupefied. She, a princess, was thanking me? At one point or another, I just decide to stop questioning some of the random occurrences in this world and go with whatever comes my way.

I clear my throat. "Um, y-your welcome."

"Twilight?!" Rarity's voice suddenly calls from across the field. "Darling, what's happening out there?"

All of our heads swing to the open doorway of the library.

"Stay inside, girls!" Twilight shouted back, but it was too late.

Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike had already made their way outside, and the looks on their faces once they see the nightmarish scene make it seem as though they're regretting coming out. All of their eyes are as wide as dinner plates, incomprehension and terror evident on their whole beings. The light-yellow pegasus faints instantly, again, but none of the ponies or drake bother to catch her.

"Wha--? How--? Wh--?" Is all that comes out of Pinkie, and her mane and tail deflate again.

"What in the name of... H-How in Equestria could...?!" The white unicorn is shaking where she stands, her gigantic, sapphire eyes sweeping across the carnage, taking in all of the burnt bodies, fallen buildings, and blood that saturated the majority of the soil.

Spike, for his part, remains motionless and ghostly quiet. He looks shell-shocked, frankly.

Celestia and I share another glance, then she announces,

"I believe it would be best for all of us to continue this conversation inside." Receiving no argument, we began our way to the library, but a deep, hollow moan made stopped us in our tracks. Turning around, laying motionless several yards away, was the dragon whose back was snapped by Celestia. It was breathing, that much I could tell, and its wings tried to flap, but only elicited more groans of pain from the handicapped beast.

"Everypony get back!" Called the princess. She extended her wings outward protectively, and the four ponies around us sought sanctum behind her. The monarch's glowering gaze was fixated on the dark beast. It didn't pay her any mind, clawing at the ground with a massive limb, like it was trying to crawl away. The spine was twisted awkwardly, I could tell, so that must've been why the tail or hind legs weren't moving at all. After a while, the dragon conceded, accepting its fate by giving one last exasperated heave of breath, its wings falling at its sides.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the thing. Sure it nearly snatched away Apple Bloom, but, something was off about it. This dragon wasn't normal, at least not by Ouranos' book's description about dragons. Or maybe I haven't reached that chapter yet. Realizing what I was thinking about, I looked around for the crimson chronicle that I had when I first came outside, but when I moved just the slightest millimeter to go looking for it, a voice said,

"Help...me..."

"Who said that?" I looked around, but Celestia and the others were giving me odd looks.

"Ah-Ah didn't say nothin'," Apple Bloom stated.

"Me neither," followed Rainbow Dash.

"Nopony said anything, Michael," Twilight said.

"No, I definitely heard someone say--"

"Help me...please..."

"There it is again," I remarked, "someone keeps saying, 'Help me'." I looked at the ponies in front of me, but they all wore looks of confusion, though Celestia had one of skepticism. Then the dragon moaned louder than before, and while it moaned, I heard that voice pleaded once again,

"Help me...!"

Realization dawned on me, and my head slowly swiveled to the handicapped monster. The others followed my gaze, and surprise is what was worn on all of their features.

"Surely, you jest?" The solar pony remarked, giving me a look that redundantly said: Are you serious? Ignoring her, I made my way cautiously towards the fallen creature.

"Uh, Michael, Ah don't think that's such a good idea," Applejack called. But I continually approached the dragon. It didn't seem to notice me until I was about ten yards away, and even then, the look in its eye when it saw me didn't contain any anger or hunger or fear; or any interest for that matter. I came up right below the left eye, an the dragon's crimson-irised pupil watched me, transfixed now that I was this close. It was laying on its belly. The head itself was staggeringly high, probably about twenty, thirty feet total. Its nostrils vibrated with every labored exhale it made, and a low hum gurgled in the animal's long neck.

"Please...help me..." I realized that voice was in my head, but it wasn't one of my thoughts. That's when it came to me. This dragon, somehow, was communicating through my head. Was this another ability granted by this draconian body? In which case, I thought that was awesome, having the ability to communicate with dragons telepathically. But these thoughts went on in the bowels of my mind, and my main attention was focused on what I was supposed to do for this suffering beast. Thankfully, my body went automatic again, and this time, the red eye looming over me widened with apprehension. I managed to stop my hand, and glanced back at the dragons view. I wondered if it heard the massive roar I made, and saw how the rest of the dragons reacted.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you," I assured, and it visibly seemed to understand what I said. I had no idea why I was trying to nurture a gigantic, black titan of a monster, but it felt right. Almost as if...I was supposed to. I looked back at the quintet of ponies, and they were gawking incredulously at what I was doing.

My right hand flattened against the dragon's left cheek, and I could feel the dragon's essence. Suddenly, a jolt shot through my arm and entered through the scaly face, making the both of us flinch. I tried to pull my hand away, but found that it felt like it was glued to the black surface. The dragon, for his part, breathed quicker, and I looked up and saw, in the dagger-shaped pupil, an orb of golden light expanding until it encompassed the entire eyeball. Light shone outward, and form where my hand made contact with the beast, the scales began to turn scarlet. The new color accelerated across the dragon's whole body, and several things happened at once. First, the dragon appeared to shrink, but only slightly so. Second, the deformed injury to its spine readjusted itself with a repulsive *snap, crackle, pop*. Third, my vision blurred until I saw nothing but black.

"I must thank you for bringing me back to sanity."

"What?"

"Now how did you get inside my mind?"

"I..I'm not..."

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I don't...what the hell is this place?"

"I just said it was my mind."

"Oh yeah. Am I talking to a dragon?"

"Yes. You didn't answer my question."

"What? Oh, right, um, my name is Michael."

"Mai-kal?"

"No, 'Michael'."

"That is what I just...wait..."

"What is it?"

"..."

"You still there?"

"...Ah, I see now..."

"See what?"

"I know what you are."

"What do you mean? I'm human."

"That body does not appear to be human, if you ask me. You look more like one of us."

"My body? Oh yeah, that's right, my body changed...Why is my memory so bad?"

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

"What did you just call me?"

"Time to go back. I am called Magmus, by the way."

"Magmus, huh? Alright then, let's go."

I staggered backward and fell on my tail, prompting a shot of lightning from the cramped and twisted muscles. The heels of my claws pressed against my eyes, my head pounded right behind the eyeballs, like something's yanking on the tendons that kept them in their sockets. I heard a shout from somewhere behind me, but it was instatntly cut off.

"Micha--!" I think it was Rainbow Dash's voice. I could feel the earth in front of me shake, and after taking a moment to recover from that bizarre method of communication, I opened them up to see the changed dragon in front of me.

From where I sat, this transformed, now red-and-gold-coated dragon, stood up at roughly just a few feet shorter than his darker counterpart. The majority of his scales were a rich scarlet, with only his chest, belly, and the front flesh of his wings coated with dark-yellow. Leading from he back of his head to about halfway down his neck and out of his elbows, an extensive set of salmon spines protruded. His wingspan stayed about the same. His eyes, instead of the mad crimson, were more of a soft gold, but where the whites should've been, a lighter shade of the majestic color stood out from the darker variation present in the irises. And those eyes were looking at me, then at the ponies behind me, then back to me. His gaze wasn't threatening or dangerous, but almost confused, even harmless. Any pain he must've been feeling from that nasty injury to his spine was apparently gone.

I heard wings flap, and the next thing I knew, Celestia had flown up to the dragon's face.

"I am Celestia, Regent of the Sun and Co-Ruler of Equestria," she told him matter-of-fact-ly.

"I know who you are, pony princess," the dragon responded, his voice ten-times deeper and ten-times as metallic as mine, "and for a ruler, you do not do a very good job of protecting your country. I am Magmus, and I did not appreciate you breaking my spine."

Ouch.

The four ponies that remained behind now galloped and halted on either side of me, along with Rarity and Pinkie Pie and Spike, apparently over their initial shock, and looked straight up at the confrontation. I didn't see Fluttershy; poor thing must've still been out cold. Celestia grew visibly irritated by the remark the dragon just passed. Taking a deep breath, she continued,

"May I ask why you and your fellow dragons have been terrorizing the ponies of this land, Magmus?" At this, the dragon didn't seem very sure to answer. But, he replied,

"Well, that is...complicated, to say the least." Celestia wasn't satisfied with that answer. He continued, "Very, well. You see, at first, what happened to me and the other dragons felt instinctual. As if we were supposed to transform into those dark, heartless abominations and destroy everything we saw. Our conscious minds shut off, and only the primal functions and necessities took over. Not only that, but all the minds of all the dragons currently alive in the world were linked, which is how I know that dragons in other parts of the globe were searching too. However, at the same time, we we searching for something. We do not know -- I do not know -- what exactly, but the dragons here in Equestria, as well as everywhere else in the world, searched every sign of civilization until we found what we were looking for. As I said before, we knew not consciously what was the object of our endeavors...until a day ago." The scarlet beast glanced at me, then back at Celestia. She noticed this, and her curiosity and suspicion grew, I could tell. "All of the dragons began to converge on this town, because he," a red claw was pointed at me, "appeared in this world." Everyone's eyes shot at me. I felt heat rise to my face. They're staring again...

"And not only that," Magmus continued, "but the dragons from across the globe are still heading straight for this town. Or, more specifically, they are headed for him."

My mind was racing a million miles-per-hour from what this guy just said. I brought those monstrosities here? That couldn't have been true...could it? Something slammed on the ground in front of me, bringing me back to earth. Celetsia was glaring at me.

"So, you are responsible for this atrocity!" She yelled with a tone that said her suspicions were confirmed.

My blood ran cold at her accusation. "What? Of course not! Why would I want to do any of this?!" I yelled back, gesturing to the surrounding atrocity the monarch was referring to. My wings flared involuntarily, and she seemed to take that as a sign of hostility, because her long, white horn sparked at the end, and she aimed it at my head.

"All of you, get out of the way!" She commanded to the ponies surrounding me. "I don't want to accidentally hit any of you."

Twilight looked horrified at her mentor's sudden change in demeanor. "Princess Celestia, you can't--!"

"Wait!" Bellowed Magmus, his giant claw slamming in-between Celestia and me, effectively preventing her from blasting my head off. The six ponies and drake flew backwards at the thunderous karate-chop at the ground. "You misunderstand. I did not mean that he purposely summoned the dragons here, only that his physical presence is enough to draw them."

"How do you know that?" I heard Rainbow Dash ask him. His golden eyes shifted to her.

"Well, I--wait..." His salmon brows furrowed. "I remember you."

"Huh?" Rainbow croaked. Magmus' head bent down over Celestia and me to get a better look at the light-blue pegasus. The ponies surrounding her backed off, offering him a better view and leaving her to his mercy. After a tense several seconds, his eyes glowed with a dawning memory.

"Ah, yes, now I remember. You are the pony who kicked me on the snout all those years ago, up on that mountain." He pointed to a far off spire that stabbed the sky, all the way on the horizon to the west. Rainbow Dash, along with the rest of us, turned to where he was directing, and Dash responded,

"Oh-Oh yeah! Yeah, you were the dragon that was sending clouds of smoke all across Equestria with your snoring." The same looks of realization sprouted on the rest of the ponies faces. "How've ya' been?" She asked awkwardly. "The nose feelin' better?"

Magmus rose his head back up, chuckling deeply. "Hehehe...yes, but it did not hurt that much, to be truthful."

"Oh really? Then why did you throw a temper tantrum when I did?"

At this, the scarlet dragon made a look of indignity. "I did not throw a temper tantrum! I was simply annoyed that you meddling ponies would not allow me to hibernate for the next decade, or so." Rainbow snickered playfully, like she and this dragon were old friends.

These guys know each other? I thought. What are the odds that Celestia broke this dragon's spine out of every dragon that was tearing up this place?

"Excuse me," interrupted Twilight, dusting herself off, "but you neglected to answer Rainbow Dash's question."

Magmus sighed, "Ah, yes, of course. To answer your question, pegasus, there are, more or less, two parts. One, I was under that very influence while I was trapped in that monstrous state. Secondly, I was told."

"By whom?" Inquired Celestia, seemingly forgetting she was about to kill me.

"By me." That voice. Again. Great. He's back. "Did anyone miss me?"

Our eyes turned to my feet, and a malevolent pair of red eyes accompanied by a matching grin of shark-teeth were beaming at me. My shadow detached from my being and slithered about ten feet away before shooting upwards in a fountain of black light that stood in the center of all of us. I couldn't see him forming, but I knew that he was materializing. When thirty seconds went by, the fountain disappeared. All that remained was another darker parody of my body, this time in dragon form. Everything that was white was now black, the golden spines now, ironically, white, but the eyes were exactly the same. And since this guy was almost a perfect clone of me, I studied my new head on him.

Where my human nose was, a snout protruded about six inches, large nostrils angled slightly outward. The jawline was adjusted to merge almost seamlessly into this new snout, so the lower-jaw was like a separate joint. The ears were replaced by another set of wide spines, though I still managed to hear no differently than any human. But probably the most significant distinction visibly present was the pair of backward-arching horns that extended just above the forehead. I estimated they were about a foot long each. He was -- I was -- for lack of a better word, intimidating. My doppelgänger was grinning madly at me, those hypnotic eyes seizing their hold on me once more, then darted to the ponies around, prompting a frightened reaction from them all.

"I'll take that as a 'Yes'." He snickered.

"What do you want now?" I asked, somewhat in angst.

The clone looked back at me with an expression of mock-hurt. "Why the hostility, Michael? What did I ever do to you?" I raised an eyebrow. His fake expression collapsed into a more suiting cruel-pleasure. "Oh yeah, I made you remember." He then started to laugh. Needless to say, I did not like this guy.

"I recognize your voice, creature," Magmus stated. "It was present when our minds melded. Who are you?"

My shadow clone payed him no heed. Instead, he was examining his new body, rotating shoulders, flexing and extending wings, swinging his tail back and forth.

"Ahem." The clone looked up, then he made an irritated grimace.

"Answer the question," added Celestia, "who are you? Do you even have a name?"

"I've already told you who -- and what -- I am," The dark me answered exasperatedly. "And no, I don't have a name, per se. I was really never given one. And don't ask 'Never given one by whom?'. You'll meet him soon enough, anyway." He found interest in his claws. "Actually, a few of you will be meeting him later today. Including you, Celestia." He glanced at her, then at Magmus. "As for you, big guy, I was the one to clarify a few things to you while your mind and Michael's were merged."

"Who will we be meeting?" The white alicorn pressed.

My clone grinned madly at the monarch again. "Spoilers. Can't tell you."

The clone took a deep breath of air. "Well! It's been fun, everyone, but, since Michael here has finally given me wings, I no longer have to stay here with you. When you have the time, be sure to make your way to Canterlot. Later!" And with that, the shadow doppelgänger of me blasted up into the air several hundred feet, causing a slight shockwave back on the ground that knocked some of us back on our asses, then shot off northwest towards a cluster of mountains. The rest of us were gawking at his incredible speed. If Celestia was fast, then this shadow clone could've left her in the dust without breaking a sweat.

"Where is he going?" Magmus asked to no one.

Celestia answered, "To Canterlot."

Part IX: The Realm

Part VIII: Getting Answers

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 VIII: Getting Answers

"Just what were you thinkin', bein' out here when them dragons came a-roarin' 'n flyin' 'n burnin'?" Applejack asked her sister, worry and exhaustion in her voice. Several minutes had passed since my shadow doppelgänger departed into the sky for the city Celestia called "Canterlot". I was standing off to the side, watching the path he took towards the mountain range in the distance, all of the conversing around just background mutterings to me.

"Well, Ah-Ah was leavin' from a visit t' see 'n talk t' Sweetie Belle, but--"

"SWEETIE BELLE!" An extravagant voice screamed, and I turned around to see a certain alabaster unicorn running off into the sort-of-fixed Ponyville, galloping as fast as her short, white legs could. After my clone flew away, Celestia used her magic to remove the bloodstains from the dirt ground around us, and made the burned and mauled corpses of ponies disappear from the scene to I don't know where.

"Rarity! Wait up!" Called Pinkie Pie, who galloped after the distressed white mare.

"H-Hold on, wait fer me!" Apple Bloom shouted, dashing away from her older sister's interrogation to see to her friend's well being. None of the other ponies bothered to join them, the rest of them trying to grasp the situation with a new pony.

This one was light brown with a gray mane and wore large glasses, and I think I heard Twilight call her "Mayor Mare", or something like that. The pony seemed fine, for the most part, excluding the shell-shocked veil she wore on her face. She came galloping toward us as soon as Celestia cleaned the town up, but she was reluctant --well, actually she refused -- to approach with Magmus still around. Thankfully, he managed to take a hint and flew off into the sky, but not before saying a few last things to me:

"That being, whoever he truly is, is perhaps one of the only two creatures on this world able to guide you for your task ahead. I realize he does seem a bit...deranged, but he is not evil, not in the slightest. I wish you good luck, Rex."

"Why do you keep calling me 'Rex'? And what do you mean 'one of the only two creatures on this world'? Who's the other?"

The scarlet wyrm smirked. "All in good time, Rex. Besides, your shadow duplicate asked me not to 'spoil the surprise' when our minds were one, whatever that means. Farewell, Rex, though I imagine we shall see each other again soon enough." He turned around to Fluttershy, who had recovered and, thankfully, was spared another sight of the carnage that existed moments before. The light-yellow pegasus recognized the dragon almost immediate when she came to meet the group who stood at the center of Ponyville, and, surprisingly, didn't faint this time. All that fainting couldn't have been good for her health. "And farewell to you, as well, pegasus." Magmus smiled warmly at her, and it didn't take much to see that they were, more or less, friends, or at least friendly towards each other. I knew Fluttershy was a friend to all animals, but dragons too? That was just weird, even for this world.

"Bye, Magmus," the pink-maned pegasus replied cheerfully. "I-It was nice seeing you again." And he flew off, his powerful wings beating the air, lifting him dozens of feet higher every second. It was pretty amazing, to say the least. I wondered where he was going...

Celestia, for her part, was standing away from the rest of the group. "I need a moment to think," she told us, and we obliged. From what I could tell, she hadn't moved an inch. I turned back to where I was originally staring.

"Are you sure...sure that it's safe to be around?" I heard the mayor ask, probably to Twilight, and I knew she was referring to me. "Isn't it a...a dragon, too? What if--?"

"I can assure you with one hundred percent certainty, Mayor, that Michael is not like one of those dragons that attacked Ponyville," Twilight replied.

"Please, Twilight, I'm sure everypony in town heard that terrifying roar that...creature produced. For Celestia's sake, it scared away those bigger, more ferocious dragons! I very much doubt something like that can be considered safe to be around."

Twilight huffed. "I think what you're forgetting to consider, Mayor, is that Michael, not 'that creature', saved Ponyville from being completely destroyed, as well as saved all of its residents from being burned or eaten or dropped out of the sky!" I appreciated that Twilight was trying to defend me, but then again, I couldn't help but feel as though the mayor was right. Whatever I did, that coupled with my appearance, was cause enough to question whether or not I was dangerous.

"Well then, how do you explain the irrefutable fact that he let one of those dragons go free, when he or Celestia could've very easily disposed of it? Did you forget, Miss Sparkle, that that dragon was one of the beasts that were destroying this town?! And it let it go, as if they were old friends! And who's to say that your friend wasn't the reason those dragons came?"

Twilight didn't answer her. I knew, and she knew, that that last question was, to an extent, true. According to what Magmus said, my presence in this place was enough to lure the dragons. If that were true, and for some reason, I knew it was true, then I had to get out of here. I didn't want to be the reason that innocent people--er, ponies were being killed for God knows whatever reason. If there was a way for that to be prevented, then I would do it. And I knew where to start.

"When you have the time, be sure to make your way to Canterlot." That's what my dark duplicate said. Canterlot. Magmus said that he would help me with this task I have ahead of me. I had no idea what this task could have been, or what it had to do with my "true nature",  or the dragons, so I was determined to get answers. I needed to get to Canterlot and find him. But he also said that we all should be in Canterlot for whatever that deranged version of me had in store.

"Are you planning on going to Canterlot?" Celestia snuck up on me, and her voice slightly startled me. I had no idea how deep in thought I was until she came by. She sat to my left.

"Do you read minds, now?" I asked sarcastically.

The white alicorn chuckled. "No, I just recognize that look on your face. You're determined to get whatever answers you need. And honestly? I'm a little curious as to what they could possibly be." Her gaze shifted from mine to the horizon, and I followed.

"I'm sorry for losing my temper like that," Celestia spoke up, "it's just that all that's happened in such a short amount of time, and I was exhausted and angry and eager to find somepony else to blame for something that I could've, and should've prevented." She turned her head to me, and a mask of shame rested on her royal features. "I truly am sorry."

"Don't be," I replied reassuringly. "I'd react the same way. Anyone would've if they were in your shoes, so to speak."

The princess shook her head. "Thank you for your courtesy, but my behavior was inexcusable. I'm a princess, I can't let my emotions rule my judgment. I thought for millennia that that was something I had learned to overcome. Evidently, I was simply holding it back until it exploded, something that experience should've taught me." Her eyes momentarily shifted away, as if spotting the bug she was previously searching for, then returned to Canterlot on the horizon.

After a silent few seconds, I said, "He's not evil, you know. Or, at least that's what Magmus told me."

"I can understand that. Though, he is a tad..."

"Insane?"

"That would be an appropriate description, I suppose."

Silence again.

"So, are we gonna be going there anytime soon?" I asked.

Celestia thought for a moment. "When things here in Ponyville are in order, then we will." She looked back to the other ponies, who were now, I could see, watching us anxiously. "We all will," she finished, letting that final part reach the others.

The mayor approached the princess anxiously, maintaining a generous distance between the tow of us at the same time. "Um, Your Highness, are you sure--?"

Celestia cut her off with an exasperated sigh. "Mayor, if you are going to ask whether or not Michael here can be trusted, save it. I can promis you that he is no direct harm to your town."

The mare obliged accordingly, retreating several steps.

"Very well then. In the meantime, I will go around town and see what I can do for the ponies." The Mayor gave me a baneful glance. "Maybe save whatever, and whoever, is left."

"I will send aid back here as soon as I return to Canterlot," Celestia told her.

"Thank you, that would be most appreciated, Your Highness." The gray-maned earth pony then diligently trotted off towards the town, where I could see ponies finally coming out and helping those with minor injuries and clearing out ruble from the downed buildings. I could hear some of the things that were being called throughout the small town; ponies calling for loved ones, their cries growing more and more desperate for every second they weren't answered, not wanting to accept the fact that their loved ones might've been burned alive or carried away in the sky only to be splattered on the ground in sickening noises that still make me queasy.

"Mommy? Mommy?! Where are you?"

"Lyra?! Lyra, where are you?! Please answer me! LYRA!"

"Somepony help me!"

It was unbearable to listen to. All of these innocent creatures...

"All of the dragons began to converge on this town, because he *appeared in this world."*

And it was my fault. My chest tightened, constricting the air I didn't deserve out of me. I forced my lungs to take in more breath to counteract my chest's attempt to punish me.

"I'm gonna go look for Rarity," Rainbow Dash announced. I had now idea how she was able to block out the cries. Or if she even was.

"I'll come with," Spike said.

"No need to, dears," rang the voice of the one and only Rarity. She wore a look of relief and content. Pinkie, with her now ballooned mane and tail, and surprisingly enough, Big Macintosh, without his black stetson, stood to one side of her, the former grinning excitedly, while three other fillies stood close by on the other. One was, of course, Apple Bloom. A second had a white coat and horn, and looked identical to Rarity. I noticed, for the first time since I appeared in this town, that this pony didn't have any type of image on her flank. The third was orange-coated, with a dark-purple mane and small wings. On her small flank was the angled wing I was recounted about last night, and I could guess who they were. The other two didn't seem to be hurt, either, aside from several soot marks on their coats. The three fillies never left each others' sides as they approached.

"I am glad to see your friends are safe, Apple Bloom," Celestia spoke.

"You can say that again, Your Majesty," Rarity replied, nuzzling Sweetie Belle affectionately on her cheek. The filly responded in kind.

"Big Mac!" Applejack cried, running to her older brother and embracing in each others' forehooves. "Thank goodness!"

"Easy there, AJ, I'm here fer now, but Ah won't be if ya' keep squeezin' me like that," the big red stallion managed to breath through his sister's embrace. She let go, although reluctantly.

"S-Sorry," she laughed half-heartedly. "Where were you, anyhow? Did them dragons get to--?"

"Nope," Big Mac interrupted. "Luckily, the farm was safe from them nasty-lookin' things while they were attacking the town, so the volunteers are unharmed, thankfully. But when Ah remembered that you 'n Apple Bloom were down here, Ah galloped as fast as Ah could t' make sure you two were alive 'n safe. When Ah passed by Rarity's, Ah heard this little filly cryin' inside, so Ah went in 'n found Sweetie Belle, safe 'n sound 'n cryin' 'er eyes out underneath a stage." He smiled warmly at his siblings, and the three of them embraced once more.

"And I couldn't have been more grateful when I reached the house and found Sweetie Belle untouched by those dreadful beasts," Rarity added, giving the red stallion a watery-eyed smile, and Big Mac nodded once in reply. She went back to nuzzling her sibling.

"Rainbow Dash!" Exclaimed the excited orange pegasus as she swiftly made her way to the chromatic-maned mare. She lived up to her special talent, because she was fast. Really fast for someone so small, and with such small wings. Scootaloo jumped up and wrapped her forehooves around Dash's neck tightly, her tiny wings beating rapidly. The light-blue pegasus pat a hoof on the filly's back. "You're okay!"

"'Course I'm okay, Scoots, but what about you?" Rainbow responded. "Did any of those dragons get close to you? Because of they did, I swear..."

"N-No, no, the dragons didn't get to my house, or Sweetie Belle's, thankfully." She cast her friend a meaningful glance. "We're all okay...for the most part." The filly suddenly looked downcast as her gaze swept across Ponyville. The filly probably took note of the continued wails sailing through Ponyville's streets.

"Well, you don't have to worry about those dragons coming back anytime soon," Dash lied, placing the orange pony on the ground from her excited hug. "Michael here made sure of that!" She threw a hoof at me, and the two new fillies were drawn to my strange appearance. I knew, and I think Rainbow Dash knew, that the danger of dragons returning wasn't completely gone, but I'm sure she told Scootaloo that to make her feel better. The others made no indication to correct her, so I could guess they were figuring the same thing.

"Woah," Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo whispered in unison as they approached me curiously. They didn't seem afraid, strangely. Actually, they didn't seem affected at all by the events that just transpired. Either that, or they were good actors.

Hey, maybe that's Sweetie Belle's special talent.

After several seconds of looking me over, the white unicorn filly asked, with a slight squeak in her tiny voice:

"Are you a real dragon?"

I was about to answer "No", but I was stumped. Was I a real dragon? I made a mental note to ask that to whoever was going to get me the answers I wanted, whether it was my shadow doppelgänger, or the "other creature" he and Magmus referenced.

"Sort of."

"Are you a teenage dragon? 'Cause you look like one," Spike asked out of nowhere.

I was, again, stumped at the question. I was eighteen at the time, and in my world, eighteen is considered to be a grown-up age. Although, you weren't really considered an adult until you turn twenty-one, so technically, I suppose I was a teenager. It was then that I noticed how ridiculous that system was. Are you an adult at eighteen or twenty-one, which is it? I also had no idea how dragon years worked, if there even was a distinction between dragon and human years, and since I didn't know how young dragons came to be considered adults, I answered:

"More or less." I think my tone of voice was making it quite clear I was getting tired of answering questions. I wanted to start asking them for once.

"Pinkie Pie," Fluttershy spoke, "are...are the Cakes alright? Oh, it would be simply awful if anything happened to them, especially to the foals."

The pink pony nodded vigorously. "The Cakes weren't here! Before I came over to Twilight's this morning, they left with the twins for a vacation up in Vanhoover for the holidays! Everything's okey-dokey-lokey!" Her face softened slightly. "Although, while we were coming back, I saw that Sugarcube Corner was...not so okey-dokey-lokey. I should probably send them a later telling them what's happened in the few hours they were gone." Then she giggled, "I hope they don't think it was my fault! I can see how they would think that, since they leave and some sort of chaos just happens to occur!" She started to laugh uncontrollably. "Oh boy, that would be hilarious if they--!"

"Everypony," Celestia called out. All of our eyes turned to her, Pinkie silenced. "I believe since we have made sure our loved one are unharmed and accounted for, we should be making our way towards Canterlot."

"Girls," Applejack said to the three fillies. They immediately turned to her. "The three of you stay here 'n help out whoever y'can around town. Got it?" They nodded in unison. The orange cowpony then turned to Big Macintosh. "Big brother, watch over 'em while we're gone, will ya'?"

The burly stallion nodded once gruffly. "Eeyup."

"I think you should go with them, Spike," Twilight told the little drake standing right next to her. He responded with a look of unease, his pupils shrinking only barely enough for my dragon-vision to perceive it.

"Uh...d-d-do I have t-t-to, Twi?"

The lavender mare cocked an eyebrow. "What's wrong, Spike?"

The drake didn't respond, instead, just looked around nervously, his big green eyes shrinking further. I knew what was bothering him. She was oblivious to what he was doing.

"Twilight," I said. She turned to me, brow still cocked. I nodded my head towards Spike. After several moments of studying the little dragon, realization hit Twilight.

Spike was shaking. Quivering with fear. He may have been a dragon, but he was a baby dragon. The things he saw when he first came outside and witnessed what that monstrous brood of dragons were doing to his home. Ponies he probably knew, some he may have even been friends with, being burned alive, suffering at the claws and jaws of those demonic titans. It was enough to traumatize any kid. I felt bad for the little guy. I wondered how Apple Bloom and her friends weren't reacting in the same way. They seemed to be around the same age, they all should be shaking with fear, shouldn't they? Yet here they were, ready to go around Ponyville and help the residents with whatever they can. I thought about the stories Twilight and Applejack talked about last night, then figured,

Nothing can hinder these three ponies...

"Oh, Spike, I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize how you were feeling." She pulled the dragon in for a tender hug. "Would you like to come with us if that'll make you feel better?"

The drake quickly nodded his head into her shoulder, his quaking calming down.

"C'mon, y'all!" Yelled Apple Bloom to her fellow group of four. "We gotta help out Ponyville!"

"Yeah!" Exclaimed her teammates, save for Big Mac. Then all three of them yelled as they ran towards Ponyville:

"CUTIE MARK CURSADERS CITY SAVERS!"

...Dear God...so...loud...Are...are my ears bleeding...?

"Oh boy..." Big Macintosh mumbled under his breath. He trotted unhurriedly after them.

"If everypony is ready?" Chimed in Celestia, annoyance creeping into her voice.

We all nodded, except Pinkie, who was digging a hoof into her ear, then called out, "What?"

"Good." Her majestic horn glowed a bright, blinding golden aura, and a second later, we all disappeared from Ponyville.

The next thing I knew as soon as the golden light dissipated, we were in a completely different room. The ceiling was high, and on both walls were glass windows with images of several colorful ponies, as well as other creatures. This place looked...well, worthy of royalty. On one end where large, golden doors that towered a ridiculous height, as if there was something in this new building we were in that actually needed doors that high. Celestia, Applejack, and the others were arranged around me in the exact same way we were standing in Ponyville. Then it hit me.

"Did we just teleport?"

Celestia chuckled. "Indeed. This is the throne room of Canterlot Castle."

Twilight shook her head, Spike sitting on her back. "The princess has the ability to teleport over vast distances, due to her higher magical reserves. It's...it's a little nauseating at first, teleporting such a long distance."

"Really?" I replied. "I feel just fine."

"Ugh," groaned Rainbow Dash, "lucky you...hrmph!" Her face turned a nasty green.

"Finally! There you are. I was getting bored."

My head slowly creeped around to the opposite end of the tremendous room, towards where another pair of doors, these more jeweled than golden, and there stood my shadow clone, arms crossed with a look of irritation on his dark dragon features, as if we were late for a party.

"How did you get in here?" Celestia asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Let's just say your security sucks." The monarch lowered her head, her gaze fixed on him. "Relax, I simply slipped in unnoticed through an open window. I didn't hurt any of your guards, or anything."

Applejack went to the front of the group. "Alright, pardner, we're all here. So what was it ya' wanted t'show us?"

The duplicate shook his head. "Nope. Not all of you are here. There's someone still missing."

"Who?" I asked.

My clone looked like he was about to answer when the doors behind us groaned open, and another voice spoke,

"Tia?"

All of our heads turned around, and a new pony came into view. I noticed this one was an alicorn, like Celestia, though much shorter, around Big Macintosh's height. Her coat, wings, and horn were dark-blue to indigo, with big, blue eyes. What really stood out about this one was her mane and tail. They, like Celestia's, were constantly undulating, like sails in the wind, and they were like the night sky, blanketed with thousands of little white dots that must've been stars. She entered the room, and made her way to Celestia.

"Princess Luna, you're here," Twilight spoke.

The darker alicorn nodded in acknowledgment to the lavender mare, then continued to the taller monarch. "Sister, what is going on? I received a letter on my nightstand, telling me to meet you here. Did you send it?"

"Nope, I did!" My doppelgänger shouted out, effectively gaining Luna's attention. "Perfect! Everyone's here! Now we can begin." He rubbed his palms together rapidly. "Oooooooh! I'm getting giddy!" He stopped. "But before that, you should probably fill her in on what's happened so far. Go on, I'll wait some more." He resumed his previous stance, except this time tapping his foot impatiently.

Oh yeah, definitely not evil. Just flat-out coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs.

Luna raised an eyebrow, then noticed me, surprise rising in her face, then turned back to her apparent sister, who, along with Twilight and some of the others, efficiently began to explain what had happened in past thirty-six hours. She seemed to be taking it well until they reached the part of the dragons attacking Ponyville, and my subsequent transformation from a human to...whatever this body can be called.

"Mother of Equestria, that's horrible! Those vile dragons! I simply knew they were all evil, heartless monsters!" Her blue eyes filled with outrage. Then she froze, and turned to look at Spike, who had hidden himself into Twilight's mane. "No offense, Spike," she said apologetically.

"Ahem!"

Our gazes shot to my clone. "Are we ready?"

Looking to each other for confirmation, Celestia responded, "It would appear so, yes."

"Good. Now, if you all would come a little closer, please. Don't be shy, I won't bite." He snickered on that last part. We all, reluctantly, obeyed. This clone may not have been evil, but he was crazy enough to provoke caution from all of us. "There, stop." We stopped.

My shadow doppelgänger tilted his head up and shouted, "HEY! We're ready over here!"

For a while, nothing happened. We looked at each other, confused. I stood at one end of a little half circle we created, Twilight, Celestia, and Luna in the center, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie on the opposite end. Rainbow, who stood between Luna and Pinkie, spoke,

"Who are you talking to?"

"Give it a minute," he answered quickly. "He likes to make an entrance."

"Who?" Rainbow pressed.

"I said wait!"

After several more awkward seconds of waiting for this mystery host, a crackling lightning bolt erupted from the floor in front of us. Everyone jumped back at the unexpected spectacle.

"Ah, there he is," my shadow said casually.

More lightning filled the room, its thunderous counterpart accompanying it eagerly. My wings formed their X-shaped light-sheild again. I couldn't make it out clearly, but I managed to distinguish a figure rising from the carpeted floor through what was probably an inter-dimensional portal. I looked over to the ponies on my left, and they were either cringing away from the show, or braving it. To my right, my clone didn't appear to be fazed by the flashing light or pounding thunder. He remained still, arms crossed, wings tucked, eyes bored, even though he claimed to be feeling "giddy" minutes before.

After a good minute, the lightning and thunder vanished, bouncing throughout the massive throne room until they echoed out of existence. That must've been heard from miles away. We all returned to look where they once were, and in their place stood a hooded figure. The hood and robe this new pony wore were pure white in contrast to the pure-black coat that made itself evident on the hooves that stood below it. A very large, jet-black horn, approximately the same length as Celestia's, extended past the border of the hood, which covered most of this newcomer's face, obscuring the eyes from view with its substantially wide-spread shade. The powerful barrel chest on this pony was covered with thick, silver fur, indicating this this was a stallion before us. In total, he was a little shorter than Celestia, though significantly taller than Luna or Big Macintosh.

"Three thousand years of humility, and you choose now to be a showoff?" The shadow me expressed unimpressively. The new figure didn't answer. Then, the horn glowed with a gray aura, and so did the hood. The hood dropped to reveal this pony's face. The eyes opened up to reveal steely-silver irised spheres. They were hard, and directed towards Celestia and Luna, as if, even when they were closed, they knew exactly where the two princesses were standing.

The two aforementioned alicorns caught their breaths, making everyone turn to them. On both of their faces was a look of horror and shame. They stared back at the stallion, not muttering a single word, pupils only millimeters in radius. In fact, from where I was standing, I think Luna was shaking a bit.

"Princess Celestia? Princess Luna? Are you two alright?" Rarity asked asked from where she stood between Twilight and Applejack to my left. They didn't respond.

"What's wrong, Celestia?" My dark doppelgänger asked condescendingly. He then stated to laugh maniacally. "You look like you've seen a ghost!" The stallion remained quiet and motionless while my clone grabbed at his sides. Celestia stood in shock, a motionless state that must've meant she was seeing something absolutely terrifying to her and Luna. But so far as I could tell, the dark-coated stallion wasn't doing anything except standing there, keeping his own steely gaze fixated on the white and dark-blue monarchs.

Twilight, unable to contain her anxiety, turned back to the ominous stallion and called out, "Just who are you?"

His steel-silver eyes slowly swiveled towards her, and Twilight initiated the same frightened state the princesses were in, except now, the two of them seemingly relaxed as the unicorn's eyes left them. Until he returned to his original staring point, and the alicorns resumed their staring contest.

Then, the black stallion opened his mouth, seemingly to answer, when all that came out was a hacking laughter as his face contorted to that of a prankster's that echoed throughout the room. He collapsed onto the ground, laughing outrageously, pounding on the floor with a hoof, his face no longer cold and menacing, but mischievous and playful. My clone joined in, laughing harder on the ground.

Needless to say, we were all confused.

The stallion, after a while, ceased his episode on his back, his forehooves covering his tear-stained face. Then he finally said,

"Centuries of practicing that in front of a mirror, gone! Wasted!" And he continued laughing. Remarkably, his voice was like that of a person in their twenties, even though he evidently claimed to be "centuries" old.

"I don't even know how you managed to hold out that long!" My clone stated through laughing spasms. "Ow, my sides!"

All of a sudden, Pinkie Pie joined in the merry scene, falling on the ground next the stallion and falling into her own fit of laughter.

"What are--hehehehe...what are you laughing at?" He asked her.

"I don't know! It's just funny!" She replied, and grabbing her ribcage as she did.

All of the tension in the room had left already. Now, it was just the continued droning of laughter, until after five minutes, they ceased as well. The stallion stood up, rubbing the last of the tears from the coat on his face. Pinkie retuned to where she stood next to a very bewildered Fluttershy.

"I'm sorr--hehe...I'm sorry about that," the unicorn murmured, "it's just that I was hoping I could finish that the way I'd planned during the last few centuries." He looked around the semicircle, noting our shocked, wide-eyed expressions.

"I'm Ouranos Black, Celestia's and Luna's older brother. Nice to meet you all."

"Brother?" The Elements of Harmony and Spike breathed in unison.

"You're Ouranos?" I asked through my baffled state. He looked over at me, assessing my appearance before replying,

"Sure am. And you must be Michael, correct?" I nodded. "Do you realize how long I've waited for the heir to appear? Over three thousand years! And that's nothing compared to what the world has waited for. I'd say that'd come close to...maybe...ten thousand years?"

"Fifteen," my clone added, who had recovered and resumed his crossed-arm stance.

Ouranos incredulously turned his head around, his voice echoing as he shouted, "Fifteen thousand?!" The clone nodded. "Wow," he turned back to me, "you are really, really late! But, what can you do? I don't control everything in this reality. A lot of things, granted, but not everything."

The rest of the ponies were silent, still shocked to Ouranos' theatrical appearance. No one made a sound. He looked around again, and his brow furrowed.

What did he mean by "heir"?

"What?" He asked to thin air. "Haven't you ever seen the immortal spirit of a pony before?"

"Obviously not," the duplicate said, losing interest of what was -- or rather, wasn't -- happening in front of him and took interest in the ceiling and walls. Smirking at the sarcastic reply, Ouranos turned to look back at Celestia and Luna, who were probably turned to stone on their insides, because they haven't moved or said a single syllable since he arrived.

"Celly. Lulu. It's good to see you both again." He smiled warmly, his eyes glazed over with moisture.

"Is...is it truly you?" Luna whimpered, tears forming in her revived eyes. He nodded once. His silver eyes became more inviting, not rock-hard cold as they once were. The next thing I knew, an indigo blur slammed into Ouranos' torso, sending him flying backs several yards. My dark clone had to dart up into the air to avoid being tackled as well as they landed on Ouranos' back. Luna's sobs could be heard bouncing down the throne room and back. Her forehooves were wrapped unrelentingly around the black stallion's neck, and he reciprocated, although his longer hooves reached around her smaller body more easily. Luna made some incomprehensible noises while Ouranos continued to holder, calmly whispering,

"Shh, it's okay, don't cry, Lulu, I'm here."

"Three millennia..." Celestia muttered as she slowly stepped towards the reunion. "And here you are, again..." Her voice was hollow and weak, but still held some regality. My dragon eyes followed her, and so did my clones', who landed right behind me, sniffling.

"I promised myself I wasn't going to cry, but...BWAHAHAHAHAHA!" The next thing I knew, he was shaking and squeezing me violently, a waterfall of black water blasting out of his eyes in a cartoonish-fashion. From across the room, I could make out Pinkie Pie doing the same thing, although most of what I could see was just blurry madness. Suddenly, he stopped and stepped to my side. "Oh, by the way, you dropped this." He smacked a book into my chest, and I grabbed it. It was the crimson book I had earlier, but had completely forgotten about it.

"When did--?"

"You dropped it when the dragons attacked and you went to save that filly. Luckily, I managed to catch and bring back into my home dimension while you were too focused on being a hero." His scaly brows furrowed and he frowned, making his dragonesque face quite intimidating as he scolded me. "Do you have any idea how lucky you were when your body transformed right before being toasted? Real fuckin' lucky, let me tell you."

I flipped through the book. It was in the same condition as I remember it, crimson on the cover with a black bar wrapping around the bottom edge, the golden outline of a comet-tailed dragon on display right on the cover, and pretty thick.

"I see you found my book," chimed in Ouranos. I looked over to where he was reconciling with his sisters. They two of them were crying, but smiling now, seemingly forgiven of their past sins by their older brother. "How is it, if you don't mind me asking? I've been dying to get a third opinion, since the last three thousand years I've only had him read it, and he's read it countless times."

"Well, I know how I feel about it: incomplete." My clone replied.

"Rub it in my face some more, why don't you..." Ouranos pouted.

Twilight suddenly burst out: "Will somepony please explain what the hay is going on here?!"

We all looked over, shocked, at the lavender mare, who was panting heavily as if she were holding that in for a while.

Ouranos chuckled. "Hehehe, of course, but, let's go somewhere more relaxing, shall we? I have a feeling we," he looked at me as he said it, "have a lot to discuss."

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Exclaimed my doppelgänger excitedly. "I'm gonna get to give you guys the grand tour of our home!"

"Huh?" We all said in unison. But before a straightforward  answer could be given, Ouranos' horn glowed gray again, soon filling the whole room with light.

And then darkness.

Prologue

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."